Editorial - MSCA at 30: From individual to collective progress
This year marks a truly significant milestone in the history of the Marie Curie Alumni Association (MCAA). Our community would not exist without the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) programme, which has now been supporting researchers for 30 years. Three decades of fostering mobility, excellence, and opportunity, transforming countless careers and lives along the way.
MSCA as a life changing experience
Eleni Ilkou, Polat Goktas, and Kannan Govindaraj share their personal journeys as MSCA fellows. The stories resonate deeply with the experiences many of us carry. I hope that, as you read, you will recognise fragments of your own path and feel, once again, the strength of belonging to this remarkable community.
Eleni describes her doctoral peers as a family. Through this journey, she not only contributed to research but also became part of the global MCAA community, gaining continued access to training, opportunities, and a lifelong professional network.
Polat portrays his fellowship as far more than project funding, a true turning point that shapes a researcher’s trajectory. Through a strong focus on impact, the experience becomes an intellectual reset, fostering responsible and purposeful research design, while learning to communicate it across audiences.
The global spirit of the MSCA strongly resonated with Kannan. His fellowship took him from Europe to Harvard, where he strengthened his research skills, broadened his perspective, and grew into a confident, independent researcher with a real-world impact.
The MSCA is just the beginning
Receiving an MSCA grant is competitive, prestigious, and intellectually demanding, but its value does not end when the funding period closes. Through the MCAA, that achievement becomes the beginning of a life-long journey within a living, dynamic community of researchers and professionals from all disciplines, sectors, and career stages. United not only by scientific ambition but also by the shared experience of crossing borders, adapting to new environments, and growing through challenges.
The MCAA transforms this shared background into ongoing opportunity: training events, webinars, conferences, mentorship programmes, career development, acquisition of new skills, etc. The MSCA is the foundation for continued growth, impact, and meaningful engagement with global challenges. Each edition of IRRADIUM reflects this energy, and the diversity of topics and the expanding global reach of our activities is highlighted in the traditional “A year in review” article.
The foundation built through the MCAA is also a collective voice for the future of the scientific environment. Having navigated mobility, interdisciplinarity, career uncertainty, and growth across borders and sectors, the MCAA community speaks not as observers but as evidence of what sustained investment in people can achieve. From this lived reality, the MCAA articulates a united position: that excellence-driven, bottom-up programmes like the MSCA must remain a core pillar of scientific excellence, ensuring that Europe continues to build its strength on talent, opportunity, and human potential.
Transforming the future
Looking ahead, we shall be confident that the strength of this community will continue to translate into meaningful impact for science, for society, and for future generations of researchers. The connections built through the MSCA and sustained within the MCAA do more than support individual careers; they create a resilient, collaborative network capable of addressing global challenges with creativity and responsibility.
Welcome to IRRADIUM 2026.
Enjoy the read!
