Data Corner: MSCA seal of excellence holders are awaiting up to €2B in funding

03 Jun 2025 | News

UK, Spain and France top the ranking for highly rated projects that fail to get Horizon funding, but none step in to help

Photo credits: artjazz / BigStock

Holders of Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) seals of excellence have projects worth €2 billion seeking support form alternative funders. But none of the top three awardee countries are running national schemes to help holders access funding.

So far, the European Commission has awarded the seal to 10,811 applicants, assuring alternative funders that their proposals were evaluated to the highest standards and are worthy of their time. They simply failed to secure Horizon funding due to budget constraints. 

Some Horizon countries have set up dedicated programmes and even automated systems that allow seal awardees to access national or institutional funding. But while some get lucky, most projects that receive the seal of excellence don’t find funding elsewhere.

The three top countries in terms of the number of MSCA seal of excellence holders are currently the UK…