Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)​

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) are part of the 'Excellence' Pillar within Horizon 2020. They operate on a completely bottom-up basis, with no pre-defined priority areas. The MSCA have an emphasis on international and inter-sectoral mobility, and also have a strong focus on careers and skills development for researchers. Some of the schemes within the MSCA are aimed at individual researchers; others are aimed at institutions. There are four main strands of funding:

Innovative Training Networks (ITNs) are the main strand of funding available to support Early Stage Researchers (doctoral researchers). The ITN scheme supports joint training and or doctoral programmes implemented by partnerships of universities, research institutions, research infrastructures, businesses, SME and other socio-economic actors. There are three different strands to apply for: European Training Networks (ETN); European Industrial Doctorates (EID) and European Joint Doctorates (EJD). 

Individual Fellowships (IF) are aimed at individual fellows who already have a doctorate or equivalent experience, Individual Fellowships aim to help experienced researchers to advance their careers and gain new skills through advanced training, international mobility, and optional intersectoral secondments. European Fellowships are held in Member States and are open to researchers either coming to Europe or moving within Europe. Global Fellowships are based on a secondment to a third country and a compulsory 12 month return phase in a Europe host organisation. 

Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE) supports projects which promote international and/or inter-sectoral collaboration through staff exchanges and the sharing of knowledge and best practice. The scheme involves organisations from the academic and non-academic sectors, organisations based in Europe (EU Member States and Associated Countries) and outside of Europe (third countries).  

Co-funding of regional, national and international programmes (COFUND) co-fund new or existing regional, national or international programmes to open up international, inter-sectoral and interdisciplinary research training. Co-funding is available for post-doctoral fellowship programmes and for doctoral training programmes.