Marie
SkłodowskaCurie actions
- evolving to
address new
challenges
Alessandra Luchetti
European Commission
DG Education and Culture
ENGRes 2014 Italian EU
Presidency Conference
Trento, 18 November 2014
Date: in 12 pts
Outline
! Background
! 2007-13 achievements and Italian participation
! The Marie Skłodowska-Curie
actions (MSCA) in Horizon 2020
! Responding to policy commitments
! Results of the first calls for proposals
! Possible future perspectives
Education
and Culture
MSCA - BACKGROUND
Education
and Culture
MCA in FP7 2007-13 - Achievements
~ 50 000 researchers financed in FP7 MCA, of over 140 nationalities,
24% from outside Europe (Member States or Associated Countries)
Over 11 000 projects funded (€ 4.75 billion funding
in total)
> 85 countries with 22 200 participations
of various host organisations
> Nearly 11% of participants are from
the private sector, 21% in Initial Training
Networks (ITN)
All scientific areas covered:
bottom-up approach
38% of MCA fellows are women
(women represent 33% of EU researchers)
Education
and Culture
MCA in FP7 2007-13 – Italy
Marie Curie Actions
(2007-2014)
Initial Training Networks
Industry-Academia
Partnerships and
Pathways
Co-funding of regional,
national and international
programmes
Intra-European
Fellowships
Career Integration Grants
International Incoming
Fellowships
International Outgoing
Fellowships
International Research
Staff Exchange Scheme
Researchers' Night
Total
383
Budget (€
million)
awarded to
Italian
organisations
140.1
108
36.5
75
507
556
19
21.2
19
464
241
147
27.7
147
613
147
137
10.785
131
233
131
43
8
42
35
42
78
18.5
78
125
78
Number of
organisation
participations
Number of
Projects
Italian
researchers
Researchers
going to
Italian
organisations
267
1207
534
234
13.7
191
228
1377
4.1
280.6
52
1002
Education
and Culture
1729
(6915
Months)
N/A
4913
1247
(4987 Months)
N/A
2976
MCA in FP7 2007-13 –
Fellow nationalities (top 10)
3500
Excludes IRSES
3000
2500
2000
COFUND
IOF
IIF
IIFR
CIG
IEF
IAPP
ITN
1500
1000
500
0
IT
ES
DE
FR
EL
UK
IN
PL
CN
AT
MCA in FP7 2007-13 –
Funding by country (top 10)
MSCA – HORIZON 2020 APPROACH
Education
and Culture
Horizon 2020
Education
and Culture
MSCA Objective
Ensure the optimum development and dynamic
use of Europe’s intellectual capital in order to
generate new skills, knowledge and innovation
Budget 2014-2020: EUR 6 162 million
EUR 745 million in 2015 for all calls together
Education
and Culture
Education
and Culture
MSCA – key features
!  Open to all domains of research and innovation from basic
research up to market take-up and innovation services
!  Entirely bottom-up
!  Participation of non-academic sector strongly encouraged,
especially industry and SMEs
!  Mobility as the key requirement - funding on condition
participants move from one country to another
!  Promotion of attractive working and employment conditions
!  Particular attention to gender balance
!  EU contribution based on unit costs calculated on the basis
of the researcher-months Education
and Culture
MSCA – responding to ERA
commitments
!  Reinforcing the Principles for
Innovative Doctoral Training
!  Attracting new people into the
research profession
! 
Increase in programme budget share for
ITN – from 40% to 50%
! 
Transferable skills are stronger in ITN
award criteria than before (fewer subcriteria now)
! 
! 
!  Addressing societal challenges
! 
Doctoral programmes now supported in
COFUND
!  Knowledge exchange
! 
Applicants to all MSCA are now required
to plan public outreach activities
IF now encourage secondments to the
non-academic sector where this increases
impact
Education
and Culture
In FP7 around half of projects related to
challenges (despite bottom-up approach)
! 
! 
! 
! 
! 
Health
Energy shortages
Climate change
Food/water
Ageing population
MSCA – CALLS 2014-2015
Education
and Culture
ITN
Deadline 09/04/2014 CLOSED
02/09/2014-13/01/2015 OPEN!
EUR 405.18 million
EUR 370.00 million
IF
Deadline 11/09/2014 CLOSED
12/03/2015-10/09/2015
EUR 204.50 million
EUR 215.00 million
RISE
Deadline 24/04/2014 CLOSED
06/01/2015-28/04/2015
EUR 70.00 million
EUR 80.00 million
COFUND
Deadline 02/10/2014 CLOSED
14/04/2015-01/10/2015
EUR 80.00 million
EUR 80.00 million
NIGHT
Deadline 04/03/2014 CLOSED
EUR 8.00 million
Education
and Culture
Innovative Training Networks (ITN)
Objective
! 
stimulate excellence and structure research within doctoral
programmes
train a new generation of creative, entrepreneurial and innovative earlystage researchers
Scope
! 
European
Training
Networks
(ETN)
Expected Impact
European
Industrial
Doctorates
(EID)
European
Joint
Doctorates
(EJD)
!  enhance researchers' employability and provide them with new career
perspectives
!  promote quality in research training across Europe
Education
and Culture
Over 40% of the
beneficiaries and
partners will be
from
the nonITN
2014:
academic sector,
including over 600
companies
Submitted & A-list proposals
766
participations
from Italy
proposed
selection
Success rate:
(eligible)
10.4%
69 were
successful
Success rate:
9%
Education
and Culture
Objective
! 
Research and Innovation
Staff Exchange (RISE)
promote international and inter-sector collaboration through research
and innovation staff exchanges
Scope
! 
International and inter-sector transfer of knowledge and sharing of ideas
! 
Common research and innovation project
! 
Within Europe: only inter-sector secondments
! 
No secondments between institutions located outside Europe or within the
same MS/AC
Expected Impact
! 
strengthen the interaction between organisations in the academic and
non-academic sectors, and between Europe and third countries
Education
and Culture
203$
submissions$
126
participations
from Italy
proposed
Non-Academic Non Academic
participants
participants
437 " 187
30%
Non-academic
organisations
make up around
30% of those
successful -over
100 of these
participants are
SMEs
84#
A%List#
Success rate:
(eligible)
42%
56 were
successful
Success rate:
44.4%
Education
and Culture
Academic
participants
70%
Academic
participants
1026 " 438
Objective
Individual Fellowships (IF)
! 
enhance the creative and innovative potential of experienced researchers
! 
acquire new knowledge, work on research projects in a European context
or outside Europe, resume a career or return to Europe
Scope
! 
Individual, trans-national fellowships awarded to the best or most
promising researchers
! 
European Fellowships or Global Fellowships
! 
Career Restart Panel and Reintegration Panel
Expected Impact
!  release the full potential of researchers in both the academic and nonacademic sectors
Education
and Culture
Italian host organisations
submitting to IF 2014 call
All proposals
European
Fellowships
Standard
5334
360
Career Restart
425
26
Reintegration
466
32
Global Fellowships
1047
135
TOTAL
7472
553
COFUND
Objective
!  stimulate regional, national or international programmes to foster
excellence in researchers' training, mobility and career
development
Scope
!  international, intersectoral and interdisciplinary research training, as
well as transnational and cross-sector mobility of researchers, in line
with Charter & Code and with EU principles for Innovative Doctoral
Training
!  opportunities for researchers from all countries
!  open and transparent selection and recruitment
Expected Impact
!  exploit synergies between EU actions and those at regional,
national, and international level
!  leverage funding and combat fragmentation
!  enhance working / employment conditions of researchers
Education
and Culture
COFUND 2014 - proposals
Doctoral programmes
1
1
2
3
3
3
4
5
5
6
7
10
50
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
2
2
3
4
4
7
7
12
2
53
Fellowship programmes
!  Budget available: 30 million
!  Budget requested: 107 million
Finland
Malta
Luxembourg
Austria
Poland
Sweden
Germany
Italy
Netherlands
United Kingdom
Spain
France
Total
Austria
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Israel
!  Budget available: 50
million
Netherlands
!  Budget requested:Portugal
166 million
Sweden
Belgium
Poland
Austria
1
Switzerland
Czech Republic
1
Ireland
Denmark
1
Germany
Estonia
1
United Kingdom
Israel
1
France
Netherlands
1
Italy
Portugal
1
Spain
Sweden
1
IEIO
Belgium
2
Total
Poland
2
Switzerland
Education Ireland
and Culture
2
3
MSCA – POSSIBLE FUTURE
PERSPECTIVES
Education
and Culture
Input from MSCA Advisory Group
!  Maintain leading role of MSCA as flagship programme for researchers'
training; MSCA have impact at structural level – such as on gender balance - as
well as on each participating researcher
!  MSCA should be a globally-recognised model of good practice BUT
relatively low awareness of achievements and importance of MSCA, in
particular among general public
!  MSCA to continue funding calls and activities designed to increase participation
of non-academic partners, including SMEs
!  Over 40% of the organisations successful in the first ITN call are non-academic
!  Over 100 SMEs successful in first RISE call
!  New forms of mobility (e.g "virtual") are emerging " challenge of meeting
a variety of needs while maintaining excellence and quality
Education
and Culture
Science 2.0
! 
July-September 2014: the Commission conducted a public consultation
on Science 2.0. (please note: Science 2.0 ® is a registered trademark in the US of ION Publications LLC)
! 
Ongoing evolution in the way of doing and organising research,
especially due to digital technologies
! 
For example: large-scale, remote collaboration of scientists with the
use of internet-based tools
! 
Validation of the consultation findings at stakeholder meetings is
underway, before policy conclusions will be drawn (mid to late 2015?)
! 
Many responses/position papers recommend skills and training for
Science 2.0 at all levels
! 
Issue for the assessment and progression of research careers?
Education
and Culture
Useful links
Education
and Culture
Contacting the Commission
[email protected]
Education
and Culture