MSCA Widening Fellowships call 2018 and 2019

The Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions (MSCA) aim to boost jobs, growth and investment by equipping researchers with the new knowledge, skills and international and inter-sectorial experience. The actions are based on the principle of mobility (international and inter-sectorial) without limitations on nationality of researcher. There is obvious  gap across Europe related to mobility of researchers and discrepancies between European countries in their ability to attract such competitive funding. In order to address this gap, European Commission expects that participation in the Widening Fellowships will provide an additional opportunity to researchers of any nationality to work on research and innovation in Widening countries.

The Widening Fellowships applications to the call for Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions Individual Fellowships (MSCA-IF), where the host organisation is located in an eligible widening country, will be automatically resubmitted to this call in case their proposal fails to reach an adequate place in the ranking to be funded in the regular MSCA-IF call. Applicants who do not wish to be considered for this funding opportunity may opt out during the application stage.

The proposals submitted under the Widening Fellowships must fulfil all the admissibility and eligibility conditions of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions Individual Fellowships and pass all the thresholds for that call.The award criteria, scoring and threshold for Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions apply to eligible proposals. Proposals will be ranked according to the MSCA-IF call scores and evaluation procedure and will retain scores and comments included in the Evaluation Summary Report (ESR) of the MSCA-IF call. The MSCA-IF model grant agreement and the unit costs applicable to MSCA-IF will also apply to the Widening Fellowships.

It is expected that the Widening Fellowships will to lead to:

• - Enhanced cooperation and stronger networks including/with widening countries.
• - Boosting of R&I capacity among participating organisations.
• - Increase in international, interdisciplinary and intersectoral mobility of researchers in Widening countries.

The proposal must have obtained a score of 70% or above in the call for Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships, within the types of action CAR – Career Restart panel, RI – Reintegration panel, SE - Society and Enterprise panel or Standard EF but failed to reach an adequate place in the ranking to be funded under that call.The beneficiary must be established in a Member State or Associated Country that is ranked below 70% of the EU27 average of the composite indicator on Research Excellence[[The detailed scores of the composite indicator can be found in p. 5 (Excellence in S&T 2010) of the "Research and Innovation Performance in EU Member States and Associated Countries 2013" at http://ec.europa.eu/research/innovation-union/pdf/state-of-the-union/2012/innovation_union_progress_at_country_level_2013.pdf]].

Based on the above threshold, applicant organisations from the following Member States and Associated Countries (subject to valid association agreements of third countries with Horizon 2020) will be eligible to submit proposals (the "low R&I performing" or "Widening" countries):

Member States: Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.

Associated Countries: Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Faroe Islands, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia, Tunisia, Turkey and Ukraine.

MSCA-IF-2018
Publishing date: 12.4.2018.
Deadline for application: 12.9.2018. 17h Brussels time
Further information:
http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/opportunities/h2020/topics/wf-01-2018.html

MSCA-IF-2019
Publishing date: 11.4.2019.
Deadline for application: 11.9.2019. 17h Brussels time
Further information:
http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/opportunities/h2020/topics/wf-02-2019.html
 

We are pointing your attention to the "Partner Search" facility at the call pages, where you may find potential partners for co-operation or to introduce the interest of your institution to host a fellow under above-mentioned conditions.

Do not hesitate to ask for assistance and further clarifications from the MSCA NCP in your country.

Good luck with the application!!!