Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) is a fellowship program granted created by the European Union/European Commission to foster the career development and further training of researchers at all career stages. The Polish and naturalized-French Marie Skłodowska Curie, who is the namesake of MSCA was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. She was further the first person and the only woman to win twice the Nobel Prize in two different sciences (physics and chemistry). The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions aim at encouraging transnational, intersectoral and interdisciplinary mobility, and to promote interdisciplinary research and international collaborations. A goal of the MSCA is to equip the researcher with the necessary skills and international experience for a successful career in the public or the private sector.

The MSCA is currently financed through and belongs to the first pillar "Excellent Science" of the eighth Framework Program for Research and Technological Development (called Horizon 2020), with a total of over €6 billion devoted to the program. By March 2017, over 100,000 researchers had been supported by MSCA.

MCSA are grouped into the following schemes:

• Research Networks (ITN)
• Individual Fellowships (IF)
• Research and Innovation Staff Exchanges (RISE)
• Co-funding of regional, national and international programs involving mobility (COFUND)
• European Researchers' Night (NIGHT).

MSCA fellowships are among Europe’s most competitive and prestigious awards and aims at supporting the most promising scientists - as well as helping to attract the best foreign researchers to work in the EU. Support is given to experienced researchers, i.e. in possession of a PhD or with at least 4 years of research experience to enhance the mobility of the researcher abroad through European Fellowships within the EU Member States and Associated Countries (of two years) and Global Fellowships outside of Europe (of three years). The grant usually covers salary, research costs and overheads for the host institution. Individual researchers submit proposals for funding together with their host organization and are judged on their research quality, career prospects, and the support offered by the host.