Success rates for Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions are set to dip below 10% this year
Photo credits: MSCA / European Union
The competition for Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) grants is already fierce, but this year it is even more competitive, with postdoctoral researchers around the world submitting a record 17,058 proposals.
As a result, the success rate for the EU’s prestigious postdoctoral fellowships is set to dip below 10% for the first time.
The increase in applications is likely because the EU has been encouraging researchers from around the world to come and work in Europe in response to science funding cuts and a crackdown on immigration in the US. The MSCA has been advertised far and wide as one of the targeted Choose Europe funds for talent. But we cannot know for sure, because the EU does not reveal the nationality of MSCA applicants.
MSCA success rates have never been high. In Horizon 2020, when the fellowships were called “individual” rather than postdoctoral,…
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