Marie Curie actions now open
In case you don’t know, the call for the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions is currently open. The aim of this program is to “Ensure the optimum development and dynamic use of Europe’s intellectual capital in order to generate new skills, knowledge and information”. I briefly describe here the main points of the program in case you are interested.
Recall that this is an European program framed within the Horizon 2020. The fact that it is European-wide has two main consequences: it is very succulent in terms of both economical and scientific prestige, but it is also means it’s extremely competitive.
Parts of the program
The program can be broken down into four different subprograms, Innovative Training Networks, (ITN), Individual Fellowship (IF), Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE) and Co-Funding of Regions, National and International Programmes (COFUND). In total, this year the program will invest 1600 M€ in European science, so it’s a fairly important amount of money.
Focussing on the IF subprogram, it can be subdivided into European Fellowship (EF) and Global Fellowship (GF). The first one is aimed at the mobility within Europe, and is limited to two years, whereas the second one includes a 12- to 24-month stay in non member state and 12 more back in the EU, therefore a GF runs during up to three years. Finally, within the IF you can find four panels: Standard (ST), Reintegration (RI), Career Restart (CAR) and Society and Enterprise (SE). In total, the IF subprogram is projected to be funded with 215 M€ (compare it with the 26 M€ that fund the Juan de la Cierva program or the 20 M€ of the Spanish program for young researchers). I describe here in some more detail the MSCA-IF-EF-ST panel, which is the one I’m applying to in this call.
European Standard Fellowship
The keys of this panel are:
- The deadline is 14/09/2016, so if you plan to apply, you should start preparing the proposal NOW!
- Experienced researcher: you must hold a PhD and have been doing research for at least 4 years in the moment of the deadline.
- Mobility: you MUST apply for going to a country where you have not been working within the last three years. However, it allows you to come back to your home country after a postdoc stay (which is exactly my case). The funding covers up to two years, and also grants a secondment of up to six months.
Note how these features render the program a perfect opportunity if you are currently looking for funding for a postdoctoral position abroad.
Evaluation
Writing a Marie Curie project is not easy, and I would say it takes at least one month of full-time work to came up with project having significant chances of being funded. Fortunately the European Commission provides a template that I strongly encourage you to use. Actually, they provide a full guide that is absolutely mandatory to read before starting to write.
The core of the project has to be written with a limit of just 10 pages (in my opinion this limit is one of the toughest aspect of the preparation of the proposal) and is divided into three parts: Excellence (50% of the mark), Impact (30% of the mark) and Implementation (20% of the mark). I refer you again to the guide for applicants for a more detailed explanations, but in a nutshell: Excellence is where you show how your project is timely and innovative, but also how you and your supervisor have the adequate skills to realistically achieve the proposed tasks; Impact is where you explain how the project is going to be revolutionary not only for the science, but also in your training; Implementation is where you explain precisely how you are going to achieve the objectives and detail the timeline.
And now some numbers from the 2015 call, so you have an idea how competitive this program is. Last year there were 8380 submissions, from which only 1163 got funded, which means a success rate below 14%. This pie chart summarises the result separately for Standard, Career restart, Reintegration and Global:
Finally, it’s worth to note that there are 8 different topics (they call it panels) where your proposal has to be framed (you have to specify which panel you are targeting in the submission). The cutoff notes differ every year and among panels, so if you work in a multidisciplinary area you may have the opportunity to target a panel where chances are slightly higher. The figure below lists them for the 2014 and 2015 calls. As you can see, the latest year the competence was stronger than the former, and as far as I know this year is not going to be any better…
Well, finally recall that this is a very brief summary, most likely full of inaccuracies. Please follow the links if you need a more precise and comprehensive reference. And of course do not hesitate to leave a comment if you have any doubt. Although I’m not an expert, I have applied to this program earlier, and thus my experience might be of some help in your problem.
Good look with the writing!
Tags: aeroextremes
Categories: Funding
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