Horizon Europe is the European Union (EU) funding programme for the period 2021 – 2027, which targets the sectors of research and innovation. The programme’s budget is around € 95.5 billion, of which € 5.4 billion is from NextGenerationEU to stimulate recovery and strengthen the EU’s resilience in the future, and € 4.5 billion is additional aid.

MSCA COFUND co-finances new or existing doctoral programmes and postdoctoral fellowship schemes with the aim of spreading the best practices of the MSCA including international, inter-sectoral and interdisciplinary research training, as well as international and cross-sectoral mobility of researchers at all stages of their career.

The following exceptions and additional conditions apply:

• Eligible costs must take the form of unit contributions, as stipulated in Decision of 11 March 2021 authorising the use of lump sum contributions and unit contributions for Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions under the Horizon Europe Programme.
• When associated partners are involved, the beneficiary is encouraged to sign a partnership agreement with them to regulate the internal relationship between all participating organisations. The partnership agreement(s) must comply with the grant agreement.
• The beneficiary may provide financial support to third parties. The support to third parties can only be provided in the form of grants, based on the MSCA unit contributions.

Grants awarded under this topic may be linked to actions funded under the Cohesion policy funds.

• The beneficiary must ensure full access — on a royalty-free basis — for the recruited researchers to background and results needed for their activities under the action.
• The following deliverables will have to be submitted for grants awarded under this topic:
  • mid-term meeting organised between the participants and the granting authority;
  • mobility declaration submitted within 20 days of the start of the research training activities, for each researcher, and updated (if needed) via the Funding & Tenders Portal Continuous Reporting tool;
  • career development plan: a document describing how the individual Career Development Plans have been established (listing also the researchers for whom such plans have been put in place), submitted towards the end of the project;
  • evaluation questionnaire completed by each recruited researcher and submitted at the end of the research training activity; a follow-up questionnaire submitted two years later;
  • data management plan submitted at mid-term and an update towards the end of the project if needed;
  • plan for the dissemination and exploitation of results, including communication activities submitted at mid-term and an update towards the end of the project.

• Research, Technological Development and Innovation

• International Organisations
• Researchers/Research Centers/Institutions

Given the specific nature of MSCA COFUND, the following exceptions and additional eligibility criteria apply. This section also contains eligibility conditions, which apply during action implementation but cannot be verified at proposal stage.

Participating organisations:

• Applications must be submitted by a single entity established in an EU Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country.
• Affiliated entities are not allowed to participate as they cannot claim costs in MSCA COFUND.
• The conditions for financial support to third parties defined in General Annex B do not apply.
• International organisations with headquarters in an EU Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country will be deemed to be established in this Member State or Associated Country.
• The beneficiary will be responsible for the availability of the necessary complementary funds to implement the proposal.
• In each COFUND action, a minimum of three researchers must be recruited. COFUND proposals foreseeing research training for fewer than three researchers will be deemed ineligible.
• Implementing partners must be established in one of the countries eligible for funding listed in the General Annexes.

Recruited researchers:

• Recruited researchers can be of any nationality (see also specific condition for COFUND Postdoctoral Programmes below) and must comply with the following mobility rule: they must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country of the recruiting beneficiary or implementing partner for more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before the deadline of the co-funded programme’s call.
• For International European Research Organisations’ (IERO), ‘international organisations’ or entities created under Union law, the researchers must not have spent more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before the deadline of the co-funded programme’s call, in the same appointing organisation.
• Compulsory national service, short stays such as holidays and time spent as part of a procedure for obtaining refugee status under the Geneva Convention164 are not taken into account.
• Supported researchers must be either doctoral candidates or postdoctoral researchers, depending on the action:
  • For COFUND Doctoral Programmes, researchers must be doctoral candidates, i.e. not already in possession of a doctoral degree at the deadline of the co-funded programme’s call. Researchers must be enrolled in a doctoral programme leading to the award of a doctoral degree in at least one EU Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country.
  • For COFUND Postdoctoral Programmes, researchers must be in possession of a doctoral degree at the deadline of the co-funded programme’s call. Researchers who have successfully defended their doctoral thesis but who have not yet formally been awarded the doctoral degree will also be considered as postdoctoral researchers and will be considered eligible to apply. The successful defence must be unconditional (no further requirements/corrections that need to be addressed) and take place before the call deadline. Supporting documentation may be requested.
  • For COFUND Postdoctoral Programmes: researchers must be nationals or long-term residents of an EU Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country, in case the main part of the research training activities is carried out in a country other than an EU Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country.
• Limitations regarding the researchers’ origin and destination should be avoided. Researchers who are already permanently employed by the organisation hosting them cannot be funded by COFUND.

Research and Innovation Foundation
29a Andrea Michalakopoulou, 1075 Nicosia,
P.B. 23422, 1683 Nicosia
Telephone: +357 22205000
Fax: +357 22205001
Email: support@research.org.cy
Website: https://www.research.org.cy/en/

Contact Persons:
Dr. Angelos Dantos
Scientific Officer
Email: antantos@research.org.cy

Dr. Ioannis Theodorou
Scientific Officer
Email: itheodorou@research.org.cy

Myrto Anastasiadou
Scientific Officer
Email: manastassiadou@research.org.cy

MSCA Contact:

https://marie-sklodowska-curie-actions.ec.europa.eu/contact

• Funding&Tenders
• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Work Programme 2023-2025, page 58