Session abstracts

Plenary session 2

Shaping research autonomy: Architecting the future of Horizon Europe

Negotiations for the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) and the legislative succession of Horizon Europe (2028–2034) define the scientific trajectory of the next decade. This strategic plenary evaluates the evolving programme architecture in light of the landmark Heitor, Draghi, and Letta reports, which collectively establish the rationale for an ambitious €220 billion budget to secure Europe's global standing. The session examines significant amendments introduced in recent European Parliament draft reports to ensure the next framework remains a standalone, autonomous instrument. These proposals specifically aim to protect research governance from subordination to industrial manufacturing objectives within the proposed European Competitiveness Fund (ECF), asserting that scientific priorities must remain independent of short-term political steering. Incorporating perspectives from the European Commission and Member States, the discussion analyses the structural requirements for a simplified, trust-based funding model designed to empower the research community. Central to this deconstruction is the future of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA); the panel addresses the legislative necessity of a dedicated work programme and evaluates the risks of top-down thematic directionality to ensure that bottom-up excellence remains the primary driver of European innovation.

Parallel session slot 1

The MCAA roadmap for research assessment reform

While the global momentum for reforming research assessment has reached a critical mass through initiatives like CoARA and DORA, a significant implementation gap remains at the level of individual researchers. For early-career researchers (ECRs) in particular, the transition towards qualitative evaluation is often marked by a lack of institutional coordination and a misalignment between high-level policy and career progression reality. This inward-focused session presents key insights of the 2025 MCAA Survey on Research Assessment, highlighting the specific systemic barriers and challenges identified across the MCAA community.

Mental health in academia: risks and strategies to take into account

Mental health is increasingly recognised as a key dimension of research careers, yet many risks remain overlooked, from precarity and isolation to burnout, hyperproductivity, and toxic workplace cultures. This session will explore the main mental health challenges affecting researchers and discuss practical, structural, and community-based strategies that institutions, supervisors, and researchers themselves can take into account to foster healthier and more sustainable academic environments.

Precarious returns: Research careers in emerging and under-resourced contexts

This session addresses precarious returns, structural inequalities, and career precarity among researcher returnees (former MSCA fellows) in emerging and under-resourced research contexts, particularly in the Western Balkans and the Global South. It highlights barriers to stable careers within and beyond academia, precarious working conditions, and broader social inequalities, especially in the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS). It also examines non-voluntary return, cross-sector reintegration challenges, and potential pathways toward more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable research careers and broader professional trajectories.

Advancing citizen science in Europe: From collaboration to sustainable research futures

This panel brings together European Citizen Science (ECS) Project partners (MCAA, UPCité/LPI, SfC) to reflect on advancing citizen science through collaboration, capacity building, and inclusive practice. It will highlight key outputs, including NR4CS, training resources, and the ECS Academy, while exploring future directions such as competency frameworks, science communication, and links to CoARA and COALESCE. The session will discuss how to embed citizen science sustainably in research systems and support researchers in engaging with society.

Parallel session slot 2

Freedom of scientific research: Protecting autonomy, integrity and safety in a changing world

Freedom of scientific research is a fundamental principle of the European Union, enshrined in Article 13 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights. It concerns researchers’ ability to define questions, methods, collaborations and dissemination pathways without undue political, economic or institutional interference. This session explores how that freedom is exercised in practice, the pressures it faces today, and the safeguards needed to protect researcher autonomy, integrity and safety.

Human-centred Open Science: Reimagining Open Science for societal engagement

Open Science promises transparency, accessibility and collaboration, but does it actually serve the needs of society, citizens and researchers? This session explores putting people at the centre, specifically how communities participate in knowledge creation on their own terms. It examines the MCAA’s advocacy for rights retention and open infrastructures in supporting a research ecosystem where knowledge is a shared public good. By shifting toward non-commercial, collaborative models and citizen science, the session identifies pathways for science to become truly inclusive and responsive.

The new lingua franca of science: Beyond English, beyond words

Science communication is evolving beyond a single dominant language and beyond static text-based formats. While English has long served as the lingua franca of research, emerging technologies are fundamentally reshaping how knowledge is created, shared, and understood across borders.

This session explores the emergence of a new, multilayered language of science—one that integrates AI-driven multilingual translation, computational methods and code, and visual and interactive media for broader accessibility. Research is no longer simply read; it is visualised, executed, and experienced through formats that transcend linguistic and disciplinary barriers.

Simultaneously, conversational AI is transforming science communication from a one-way broadcast into interactive dialogue. Researchers can now create AI interfaces that allow audiences to query findings, receive personalised explanations tailored to their level of expertise, and engage with research in real time—all potentially in their native language.

These developments open unprecedented possibilities for inclusion, collaboration, and global reach. Yet they also raise critical questions:

The session brings together experts to:

MSCA funded networks: From European to global talent

Over the last 30 years, MSCA-funded Training Networks have evolved from predominantly European recruitment processes into truly global talent magnets. Drawing on more than a decade of coordination experience, this panel session examines how applicant patterns have shifted, bringing cultural enrichment, global networks, and diverse mindsets, but also new challenges: assessing international candidates, navigating visa and mobility rules, and coordinating calls across time zones.

In an increasingly complex geopolitical landscape, the session will also address the growing tension between the aspiration for open, merit-based recruitment and the realities of research security. Certain geopolitical contexts create additional scrutiny around applicants from specific regions, requiring consortia and host institutions to develop nuanced strategies that balance openness with due diligence. The panel will explore how coordinators and institutions can maintain inclusive recruitment practices while meeting evolving compliance and security requirements.

A further challenge lies in the assessment of candidate excellence beyond familiar European frameworks. Coordinators often lack the institutional knowledge to evaluate qualifications from non-European higher education systems, where grading scales, degree structures, and markers of academic merit differ fundamentally from the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) and the Bologna framework. The session will discuss practical approaches to designing fair, competency-based selection criteria that can recognise talent regardless of its origin.

A panel of project managers, coordinators, fellows, and EU programme officers will share lessons learned and practical recommendations for inclusive, effective, and security-aware recruitment in the next generation of MSCA Doctoral Networks.

Parallel session slot 3

Research careers within and beyond the ERA Act: Delivering the Fifth Freedom

Europe’s ambition to build a stronger and more integrated Research Area (ERA) increasingly rests on the idea of a fifth freedom: the free movement of researchers, knowledge, and innovation across borders, sectors, and institutions. Yet this ambition can only succeed if research careers themselves are sustainable, attractive, and genuinely portable. Across Europe, researchers still face fragmented career structures, precarious contracts, uneven social protection, mobility and visa barriers, weak recognition of qualifications and skills, and limited interoperability between academic and non-academic career paths. Research careers are therefore not a peripheral issue, but central to making the fifth freedom real.

This session will explore how Europe can move from policy ambition to practical implementation. It will discuss how current initiatives, chiefly the ERA Act, can create the framework conditions for researchers to move without losing rights, build careers across sectors, and contribute to an open and competitive knowledge system. The session will address persistent structural gaps in employment conditions, career progression, portability of rights, and balanced talent circulation, while also asking what political commitment, institutional change, and investment are still needed within and beyond the Act itself.

The institutional and territorial impact of the MSCA

While the MSCA are widely recognised for shaping individual research careers, their broader institutional and territorial impact remains insufficiently articulated. Across Europe, universities face persistent challenges in attracting, retaining, and reintegrating talent, often lacking coordinated strategies to fully leverage MSCA investments within their organisational and regional contexts, and to strengthen Europe’s competitiveness in attracting and retaining global talent.

This session will examine how the MSCA can act as a strategic instrument for strengthening universities and talent ecosystems, bringing together institutional, policy, alumni, and governance perspectives. It will explore systemic barriers, highlight emerging practices, and identify pathways to enhance the long-term institutional and territorial impact of the MSCA across Europe.

From lab to market: The commercialisation journey with the EU Inc. initiative

MSCA researchers often struggle with the "where" of innovation: where to start, where to find support, and how to bridge the gap between a complex idea and commercial reality. This session provides a strategic roadmap from "idea to ideal," specifically highlighting the EU Inc. initiative as a transformative solution. By offering 48-hour registration, zero minimum capital, and a "once-only" digital interface for tax and VAT, EU Inc. removes the bureaucratic weight that stifles deep tech. We explore how its pan-European employee stock options and simplified investment rules empower researchers to attract talent and scale across the Single Market without the traditional friction of 27 different legal systems.

Care, confidence, and careers: Supporting inclusive research pathways

This session explores how caregiving responsibilities, well-being, and supportive research environments shape researchers’ confidence and career progression. It will look at the realities many researchers face while navigating international mobility, parenting and other family caregiving responsibilities across diverse family structures, and the broader pressures of academic life. In this context, the discussion will consider how institutions and programmes can better support researchers in balancing mobility, family responsibilities in their broadest sense, and professional development.

The session will move across three interconnected dimensions. First, it will reflect on care, including parenting and family caregiving during international mobility, institutional policies that support researchers with family responsibilities, and the importance of well-being and mental health in academic careers. It will then turn to confidence, addressing issues such as imposter syndrome among early-career researchers, the confidence gaps that can affect women and underrepresented groups in academia, and the role of mentoring and peer networks in building a sense of belonging. Finally, the session will explore careers, focusing on inclusive funding schemes and career pathways after fellowships or career breaks, inclusive recruitment and career progression processes, including leadership opportunities, and how research institutions can retain diverse talent, while recognising different life circumstances and career trajectories.

Parallel session slot 4

Empowering researcher networks as strategic actors in science diplomacy

The global research ecosystem currently operates within a paradox: while the professional lives and mobility of researchers are the first to be disrupted by geopolitical fractures, their representative networks are often the last to be consulted in formal diplomatic loops. In the wake of the 2026 Council Recommendations on Science Diplomacy, a critical challenge persists: transitioning non-state actors from “passive shock absorbers” of state-level decisions to strategic participants in the policy-making process.

This session moves beyond the theoretical to examine the practical “plumbing” of science diplomacy. It investigates how professional researcher networks can proactively inform political agendas, translate community-driven evidence into policy-ready insights, and preserve a stable space for collaboration during periods of significant geopolitical rupture—such as shifting transatlantic dynamics or regional conflicts. By analysing the strategic agency of organisations like the MCAA, the discussion provides a roadmap for leveraging the collective voice of the research community. The goal is to ensure that value-based international collaboration is treated not as a diplomatic luxury, but as a foundational prerequisite for informed foreign policy.

Ethics in the MSCA context: Culture, supervision, integrity

This session will explore research ethics and integrity in the MSCA through the lens of research culture. It will address ethical supervision and power relations in international settings, integrity in cross-border collaboration, and institutional responsibility for fair and accountable research environments. Moving beyond compliance, it will examine how MSCA can foster ethical cultures that support independence, fairness, and trust, and identify practical improvements at supervisory, institutional, and programme levels in diverse international research contexts.

Navigating scientific mobility abroad: integration challenges

While international mobility - core for the MSCA framework - offers significant professional development opportunities, it implies under-addressed challenges. Researchers moving abroad frequently face complex administrative procedures, including securing accommodation, navigating local residency requirements, healthcare systems, banking, and taxation. These are further complicated by limited institutional guidance, language barriers, and local regulations not tailored to international researchers. The session aims to spark discussion on existing initiatives and emerging strategies meant to facilitate practical settlement during scientific mobility.

Green innovation pathways and career development in research

This session explores how sustainability can shape research careers and drive green innovation across academia and industry. From doctoral training to senior leadership, speakers will discuss how researchers can embed sustainability into research design, lab and data practices, mobility, funding strategies, and institutional culture. Building on the MSCA Green Charter, the session will highlight practical tools, career opportunities, and innovation pathways that connect environmental responsibility with research excellence, societal impact, and future funding competitiveness.

Parallel session slot 5

Doctoral training, skills and research careers

Doctoral education and researcher training should be placed more firmly at the heart of Europe’s competitiveness, resilience, and innovation agenda. This session will explore how doctoral programmes can better develop and recognise researchers’ scientific, transferable, digital, entrepreneurial, and intersectoral skills. It will discuss structured training, career readiness, and the contribution of the MSCA to connecting education, skills, mobility, and research careers across Europe.

Sustainable research careers: Frameworks for the future

The European research landscape is facing a critical transition from temporary, precarious contracts to sustainable career models. This session will explore the systemic evolution of Researcher Career Frameworks through the lens of crucial European projects and initiatives (SECURE, SECURE2, CCA) and the ResearchCOMP competence framework. By examining future tenure track designs and the necessary mindset shifts for early-career researchers, the discussion bridges the gap between regional implementation and European Strategic goals. The narrative focuses on empowering researchers with transferable skills and stable structures to thrive in a diverse, intersectoral labour market.

Responsible AI in global research careers: From principles to practice

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly embedded in research workflows, yet guidance on responsible AI use remains fragmented across countries, institutions, and disciplines. For globally mobile researchers, such as MSCA alumni working in international collaborations, this creates uncertainty around issues such as authorship, disclosure of AI use, data governance, and accountability. This session explores how researchers can translate emerging AI governance frameworks into practical research practices across borders and identifies key gaps in current guidance.

Career development through leadership, impact, and cultural change

This session explores how leadership, societal impact, and cultural change are becoming central to career development across sectors. In a context shaped by artificial intelligence, global mobility, and shifting institutional and social expectations, career sustainability increasingly relies on the capacity to lead with purpose, engage across cultures, and translate expertise into meaningful impact. Moving beyond a narrow focus on technical skills, the session will explore how leadership, communication, adaptability, and cultural awareness can support more resilient, inclusive, and socially relevant professional pathways across academia, industry, policy, and entrepreneurship.

Satellite events

Several satellite events will be organised as part of the MCAA Annual Conference 2026 on Wednesday 22 April, Friday 24 April, and Saturday 25 April. Complement your conference experience by signing up for one or more of these events!

Registration for the satellite events happens through the same Whova platform as the overall conference registration. When registering for the Annual Conference, choose the satellite events you wish to attend from the list.

Read the satellite event descriptions below for more information.

The future of the MSCA

Date: 22 April 2026 | Time: 12:30–15:30 | Mode: Onsite

​​The aim of this session is to reflect on the future of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) under the next Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (FP10, 2028–2034). The European Commission is interested in receiving feedback from the alumni community on the future of the programme, its overall architecture and the key features of the actions, with a particular focus on postdoctoral opportunities. The discussion will be organised in a world café format, allowing participants to share their reflections on the MSCA and how the programme should be structured in FP10 to deliver on its ambitions to support researchers and their organisations.

PEP-CV workshop: How to develop a narrative CV

Date: 22 April 2026 | Time: 13:00–15:30 | Mode: Onsite

This interactive workshop is designed for researchers looking to understand and develop narrative CVs by effectively communicating their skills, experiences, and impact. As narrative CVs become increasingly important in research assessment and career progression, the session will introduce the CAR (Context–Action–Result) approach, guiding participants to move beyond listing achievements toward structured, evidence-based storytelling. Through practical exercises and peer exchange, attendees will reflect on their experiences, identify relevant evidence, and initiate drafting their own CVs, while building confidence in this format. Please note that this session will require separate registration and is limited to 25–30 participants, as it follows a closed, interactive workshop format to ensure meaningful engagement. More details to follow soon.

2nd Ibero-American Chapters’ meeting

Date: 24 April 2026 | Time: 17:30–19:00 | Mode: Onsite

The meeting, organised by the MCAA Andean-Caribbean, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Spain-Portugal Chapters, includes a presentation of each Chapter, examples of relationships with institutions, definition of common objectives, discussion of possible new joint events and networking.

Combating uncertainty in research through movement and dance

Date: 24 April 2026 | Time: 17:30–19:00 | Mode: Onsite

This practical workshop focuses on movement and dance as tools for managing uncertainty in research, from job security to navigating the unknown as part of the research process. Participants will have the opportunity to explore their own power and confidence through intuitive dancing, synchronised movement, and improvisation.

Mastering essential grant writing skills: The interactive GRANTED Workshop

Date: 25 April 2026 | Time: 9:00–13:00 | Mode: Onsite

The event, organised by the MCAA Communication Working Group, will focus on transversal skill development, specifically targeting early-stage researchers entering the grant-writing or entrepreneurship landscape. The workshop will familiarise participants with the requirements and demands of these critical career activities through an innovative gaming format. Participants will play the GRANTED game, which simulates real-world grant writing scenarios and helps build the skeletal framework of a grant application. The workshop will be led by Rajiv Vaid Basaiawmoit, full-time professor at Aarhus University and creator of the GRANTED Game.

MSCA-GLOPOL Policy Impact Day Summit: Bridging Research and Global Policy

Date: 25 April 2026 | Time: 9:00–13:00 | Mode: Onsite and online

The MSCA Global Cooperation: Policy Enhancement and Strategic Promotion (MSCA-GLOPOL) project aims to foster international collaboration within the MSCA across 26 targeted geographies worldwide. The objectives of this satellite event are to:

• Identify policy gaps and review the status quo of bilateral and bi-regional research and innovation (R&I) cooperation, identifying where current participation lags behind joint priorities.
• Strengthen synergies between MSCA opportunities and broader EU initiatives, such as the African Union (AU)–European Union (EU) Innovation Agenda, the EU’s Global Gateway strategy, and regional R&I roadmaps.
• Foster dialogue between researchers, policymakers, and industry actors to address participation barriers such as administrative complexity and low awareness.

See event agenda