€80 million EU co-funding call opens for research programmes

A call for research programme proposals competing for a total of €80 million in EU co-funding is open. The Marie Skłodowska-Curie co-funding scheme COFUND, financed under Horizon 2020, financially supports regional, national and international programmes for research training and career development, to encourage the mobility of researchers both across borders and across sectors of activity. Organisations funding or managing such programmes can apply by 2 October 2014.

The call H2020-MSCA-COFUND-2014 targets organisations in EU or Horizon 2020 associated countries starting new or continuing existing multi-annual doctoral programmes or fellowship programmes. These programmes support international and interdisciplinary research training, as well as mobility of researchers between countries and sectors. They may run at regional, national or international level.

What are the requirements?

Proposals can be submitted either for doctoral programmes or for fellowship programmes. Doctoral programmes address the development and broadening of the research competencies of early-stage researchers. Fellowship programmes fund individual research training and career development for experienced researchers.

Researchers supported by the applicant organisations may be of any nationality and at all stages of their career. They receive fellowships on the condition that they move from one country to another to broaden or deepen their competences. The recruitment/fellowship period is at least three months.

The programmes supported by the COFUND scheme target individual fellows; research teams cannot be funded.

How to apply?

The Call H2020-MSCA-COFUND-2014 is open until 2 October 2014 at 17.00 Brussels time.

Applicants submit their proposal electronically, following the link on the Participant Portal.

How will the funding be awarded?

Evaluation of the proposals is expected to start in November-December 2014, with the results announced in February-March 2015. The successful candidates are expected to receive the funding in June 2015.

Evaluators of project proposals are drawn from the European Commission's independent expert database. The Commission is looking to expand the database through a call for experts covering a very broad range of fields. If you fit the expert profile rather than that of an applicant, and would like to be considered as a proposal evaluator, sign up in the Participant Portal.

More about Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions

The Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions fund mobility of researchers across borders and sectors, to ensure excellent and innovative research training as well as attractive career and knowledge-exchange opportunities. The funding is open to all domains. In total, €817.40 million will be granted to support the H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellows in 2014.