Following a very well received joint pilot matchmaking event in 2022, the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture (DG EAC) and the Joint Research Centre (JRC) are organising the second edition of the Science-policy matchmaking event, which will take place on 20 June 2023.

They will be supported by the European Executive Research Agency (REA).

Just like the pilot, the second event will aim to bring researchers and policymakers together to discuss the opportunities that the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) provide for researchers to spend a short secondment or placement at a public administration body.

The event is suited for

• potential applicants for MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships looking for a secondment/placement host, as well as for potential project coordinators in the MSCA consortia looking for hosting partners in the public sector
• current MSCA fellows considering career opportunities in public administrations
• policy organisations interested to host researchers for a short stay (science, technology and innovation organisations, national, regional governments, science diplomacy organisations, international bodies, local councils, parliaments, etc.)

This year’s calls for Doctoral Networks and Postdoctoral Fellowships are already open (closing respectively in November and September 2023) while COFUND and Staff Exchanges will open in early October this year.

The event will be an excellent opportunity to have a discussion on knowledge needs in the public sector and the available scientific expertise to match those needs.

Last year’s event saw concrete exchanges between policymakers and researchers on future cooperation and hopes are the same for this year. The second event will additionally provide information on available channels and tools for matchmaking between researchers and hosts beyond academia.