The Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions have not only got a new name - to reflect the famous scientist’s Polish roots - but also a 30 per cent boost from €4.7 billion under Framework Programme Seven to more than €6 billion for the next seven years in Horizon 2020 to support research and mobility of researchers.
“In the next seven years we will be able to fund a total of 65,000 researchers, who will make a vital contribution to science and innovation in Europe,” said European Commissioner for Education Androulla Vassiliou.
The first calls, launched yesterday (December 11) are targeted at research organisations, universities, companies and non-governmental organisations. Total spending in 2014 will be €800 million.
“We’re a bottom-up programme, we fund any field of research, depending on demand,” said Paul Harris, Policy Officer, Training and Mobility of Researchers, DG Education and Culture.
Research excellence is a key criterion, but the quality of the training programme and human resources policy is also important for evaluation, said Harris.
Developing the skill-set
Innovative Training Networks (ITNs), aimed at early-stage researchers without a PhD, will have the largest share of the budget, awarding more than €400 million in 2014 to provide these young researchers with experience outside academia to encourage innovation, entrepreneurship and employability.
“We are very much known as the mobility programme,” said Harris. “The minimum for any involvement in our programme is transnational mobility – researchers moving from one country to another – but researchers often also move sector in their fellowship, from academic to the non-academic sector and vice versa.”
This principle is reflected in the three different types of ITNs, all of which aim to train early-stage researchers: European Training Networks, which involve at least three partners in three different countries; European Industrial Doctorates, which will receive €25.5 million and involve at least one company and one research institution; and European Joint Doctorates, which will receive €30 million and include consortia of at least three institutions in three different countries.
€240.5 million will be spent on individual fellowships in 2014, to support experienced researchers in the diversification of their skills and competences.
International Cooperation
€70 million will be spent in 2014 on staff exchanges across sector and transnationally, as part of the Research and Innovation Staff Exchange programme (RISE), while another €80 million will go to co-funding regional, national and international programmes that promote research mobility.
Better interaction and exchange of good practices between National Contact Points for the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions will also be supported with €1.5 million, with the aim of raising the general standard of support to applicants.
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