The fourth call under Horizon Europe of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions-funded COFUND scheme closed on 26 September 2024. The European Research Executive Agency (REA) received 81 proposals.
Through this call, the European Union will fund around 30 projects and up to 1,000 researchers with an indicative budget of €104.8 million. This represents an increase of 8.5% compared to the last call.
In comparison, 106 proposals were submitted in 2023 and 27 were eventually selected for funding, comprising 12 doctoral training programmes and 15 postdoctoral fellowship programmes.
This year’s submitted proposals are distributed as follows
Skip chart(Proposals by type of programme – )
Proposals by type of programme
Pie chart with 2 slices.View as data table, Proposals by type of programmeProposals by type of programmeDoctoral programmesDoctoral programmesPostdoctoral programmesPostdoctoral programmesDoctoral programmesPostdoctoral programmes
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A chart illustrating the type of project proposals received. The Commission has received 81 project proposals, of which 40 are for doctoral programmes, whilst 41 are for postdoctoral programmes.
Under this round, organisations based in 20 countries submitted proposals.
Skip chart(Proposals by country of the coordinating organisation and type – )
Proposals by country of the coordinating organisation and type
Bar chart with 2 data series.View as data table, Proposals by country of the coordinating organisation and type
The chart has 1 X axis displaying categories.
The chart has 1 Y axis displaying Values. Data ranges from 0 to 19.ValuesProposals by country of the coordinating organisation and type7788332244221111112211002222001111111100121255443311223333221111220000110000000011Doctoral programmesPostdoctoral programmesFranceSpainGermanyCzechiaItalyAustriaBelgiumFinlandPolandThe NetherlandsIrelandSlovakiaSwedenUnited KingdomCroatiaEstoniaHungaryLatviaLuxembourgSlovenia05101520
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A bar chart showing the type of project proposals received by country of the coordinating organisation. The top countries are France with 19 proposals, Spain with 13, Germany with 7, Czechia and Italy with 5 each, and Austria, Belgium and Poland with 4 each.
Selected projects can include several partners from the EU and worldwide, which will recruit, employ and train researchers.
Funding for excellent doctoral training and postdoctoral fellowship programmes
Under this call, the European Commission will fund training and postdoctoral fellowship programmes.
- COFUND Doctoral Programmes offer doctoral candidates research training activities to develop and broaden their skills and competences, allowing them to obtain a doctoral degree.
- COFUND Postdoctoral Programmes fund individual advanced research training and career development fellowships for postdoctoral researchers.
COFUND allows organisations to attract international talent, increase their research and innovation capacity and contribute to their local, regional and/or national socio-economic ecosystem by training talented researchers.
The EU co-funds a significant part of the programme cost, which organisations need to top up with their own resources.
These schemes spread MSCA best practice by promoting high standards for selection and recruitment as well as excellent working and employment conditions.
They promote sustainable research training and international, interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral mobility to
- engage researchers and innovators in academia and beyond
- provide them with new knowledge, skills, career development perspectives and employability
- allow them to enlarge their networks and carry out cutting-edge, collaborative research
- boost their creativity and entrepreneurship
Seal of Excellence
The European Commission will also award Seal of Excellence certificates to applicants who applied to the MSCA COFUND call in 2024 but whose proposals cannot be funded due to budgetary constraints.
This label recognises the value of these high-quality proposals and helps organisations secure funding from other sources.