The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions provide an excellent opportunity for commercial and civil society organisations of all sizes to source funding to support their research and/or innovation interests and activities. The participation of these “non-academic” organisations is strongly encouraged in all Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, with a view to fostering innovation in all its forms via cross-sectoral knowledge exchange and to help researchers to identify career opportunities outside of the traditional academic career path. The Actions can also be an excellent entry point for non-academic organisations to access the wide range of European framework funding opportunities suitable for them.
Organisations can participate in MSCA calls in a variety of ways as:
- Associated Partner (organisations participate in a network without recruiting a researcher e.g. through the provision of training, hosting secondments or co-supervising a doctoral student)
- Beneficiary (organisations receive funding to directly recruit, host, supervise and train a researcher)
- Coordinator (organisations are the lead beneficiary, coordinating proposal preparation and successful implementation of the network, and recruiting a researcher)
It is also possible for non-academic organisations to host a researcher (beneficiary) as part of the MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships or offer a secondment or non-academic placement.
Participating in a MSCA offers a host of benefits to organisations including the opportunity to:
- Access fully funded talented researcher(s) for up to three years to work on a research project aligned to your organisation’s priorities
- Strengthen your organisation’s research and innovation capacity
- Collaborate in global networks
- Participate in a project related to your organisation’s needs
- Receive EU funding
- Achieve sustainable knowledge transfer
- Create new international and intersectoral collaborations
- Enhance global visibility
To find out more about any of these Actions, please click on the buttons below.
- Doctoral Networks (DN)
Training the next generation of innovative and creative researchers - Staff Exchanges (SE)
Exchanging knowledge with top-class academic research groups - Postdoctoral Fellowships (PF)
Attracting top-class researchers to your organisation
What is the level of funding?
- Depending on the Action, the budgets available range in size from €100,000 to €5 million for a 3 to 4 year programme. A typical amount allocated to a non-academic participant is around €85,000 per annum, depending on their level of involvement.
- 100% funding is provided to cover, for example, salaries, research and training costs, travel costs, and the costs of managing participation in the Action.
- Non-academic participants do not have to provide any formal match or co-funding. An in-kind contribution in terms of e.g. personnel time, materials, access to equipment or resources may be necessary.
What research areas are funded?
- All areas of research are covered by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, including STEM subjects and the social sciences, humanities and economic sciences.
- All funding in Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions is bottom-up; there are no thematic calls or priority areas that are supported.
What support is on offer?
The Irish Marie Skłodowska-Curie Office can support industry, CSO’s and other non-academic organisations in the following ways:
- Information – join our LinkedIn Group ‘Marie Skłodowska-Curie Office Ireland’ or follow us on Twitter to receive updates about the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions.
- Advice – consulting on whether your concept (project, partners and aims) is suitable for the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions.
- Proposal Review – advising on revisions that will improve the chance of a proposal being selected for funding.
If you have any questions relating to MSCA please email ‘mariecurie@iua.ie’ and we would be happy to set up a consultation with you and discuss your organisations needs and MSCA funding opportunities.