Abstract

The Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) are among the most attractive yet most competitive funding schemes of Horizon Europe. In order to lower the entry barrier for researchers and RMAs to obtain MSCA grants, the MSCA National Contact Points (NCPs) develop within the EU project MSCA-NET (2022-2026, 2 Mill. €) a set of tools for applicants and supporters, e.g. writing guides for the different actions or an FAQ Blog. Attendees to this session will learn about the toolbox, where to find it, how and when to use it.

‘Am I eligble to apply for a MSCA fellowship?’ ‘Is Switzerland allowed to be part of my MSCA Doctoral network?’ ‘Can you help me find successful examples of an application for Cofund?’ ‘Can I do a virtual secondment because the pandemic restricts traveling?’
How can you make your life and the one of your researchers easier when you are approached with specific questions on the Postdoctoral Fellowships, Doctoral Networks or any of the other Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)? MSCA are geared largely towards mobile, pre- and postdoctoral researchers and we know that mobile and early stage career researchers are even more affected by the pandemic than established researchers. RMAs often are in need of efficient, globally accessible, fast and free support tools to ensure smooth grant preparation and implementation.
This presentation will showcase the documents, tools and services provided by the MSCA National Contact Points (NCPs): Based on years of experience and in dialogue with researchers, the EC, research managers and REA, they develop useful tools and services for your daily work and help researchers write competitive MSCA grants and implement them efficiently. You will better know where to find what you need and who to contact in case the deadline approaches but the guide for applicants remains hard to understand.
The tools are developed in the frame of MSCA-NET, the MSCA National Contact Point’s EU funded network. The project will run from approximately March 2022 to February 2025, has an overall budget of 2 million € and will be coordinated by Euresearch, the Swiss association for research and innovation.
The presentation explains with examples and hands-on interactive elements what kind of tool and services can be used in which stage of grant preparation and implementation, showcasing an online self-assessment game. Attendees will be guided to tools they need: Overviews or factsheets, in-depth writing guides, short policy briefs, an implementation kit or an FAQ blog which complements the EC’s documents from a practical point of view. The tools are presented in a user-friendly and easily accessible way and free of use for all interested users.
After the session, participants are invited to give their feedback to further improve the NCPs services and will be pointed towards their respective NCPs. It is the aim of MSCA-Net to establish a further dialogue with the RMAs, for example within a specific ‘synergies’ task of MSCA-NET under the lead of the Maltese Council for Science and Technology. This presentation serves as kick-start for formal and informal further networking to ensure that NCPs and RMAs can best serve the scientific community together.
The speaker, Dr. Juliane Sauer, is part of the Swiss MSCA NCP and project coordination team. She has more than a decade of experience supporting the scientific community with regards to the MSCA, both as grant writer, project coordinator and manager.