Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions boost research talent and support Europe’s competitiveness despite insufficient budget, study shows

The European Commission has released a new study highlighting the contribution of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions’ (MSCA) to strengthening human capital in research and innovation and stimulating the mobility of researchers across the European continent and internationally.

The study is part of the mid-term evaluation of Horizon Europe, the EU framework programme for Research and Innovation for 2021-2027.

The case for increased funding

The bottom-up nature of the MSCA, meaning that funding can go to projects, organisations and researchers working in any field, continues to be a key element of its success. 

The research community unanimously praises the freedom to pursue its own research agenda and the opportunity to conduct both basic/fundamental and applied research.

With an overall success rate of  just 16% across its funding instruments, the MSCA are a highly attractive and competitive programme under Horizon Europe. 

The MSCA continue to successfully attract well-networked organisations with a long-standing tradition of scientific excellence in various fields of research.

Unfortunately, this also means that a significant number of excellent projects cannot be funded under the current budget. 

An additional 6 billion euros would be needed to fund all the unsuccessful high-quality proposals received under MSCA only in 2021 and 2022. This is nearly as much as the EUR 6.6 billion allocated to MSCA for the whole framework programme (2021-2027).

Attracting, retaining and promoting research talent

Despite its limited budget, MSCA is the Horizon Europe programme which most stimulates the mobility of researchers across countries, both within the EU and beyond.

While providing international mobility opportunities, the MSCA also encourage researchers to pursue their careers within Europe, thereby contributing to retaining research talent within the European scientific community.

The MSCA are effective in facilitating the return of European researchers working outside of the continent, particularly towards less developed regions of the EU.

The mobility patterns of MSCA postdoctoral fellows remain similar with previous trends under Horizon 2020.

• High research and innovation performing countries continue to host the largest shares of researchers (e.g. Spain, Italy, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark)
• The MSCA also continue to support fellows returning to their home countries, a particularly notable trend in the case of Greece, Italy, Cyprus and Spain

Applicants under the MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships who aim to carry out their research in countries lagging behind in research and innovation (also called “widening countries”) benefit from a second chance to be funded under the ERA Fellowships. This action is widely appreciated by applicants and stakeholders and plays an essential role in supporting mobility towards these countries.

The MSCA continues to shine through its remarkably strong international dimension, with third and associated countries accounting for 23% of total participations in the programme.

The MSCA support researchers at various career stages effectively and provide opportunities not only for international, but also interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral mobility.

• 41.5% of MSCA postdoctoral fellows indicate that their project responds to their intersectoral mobility needs (compared to 19.6% of ERC principal investigators, although the ERC does not aim to facilitate intersectoral mobility as such)
• The participation of the non-academic sector (e.g. enterprises, SMEs, hospitals and administrations) has slightly increased in MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships compared to Horizon 2020, although a more detailed analysis of inter-sectoral mobility trends under Horizon Europe is premature at this stage

Improved career prospects for researchers

The MSCA make a significant contribution to strengthening human capital in research and innovation by developing researchers’ skills, providing unique career development opportunities and prospects and encouraging innovation. The study shows very positive findings in this regard. 

More than 80% of fellows and organisations participating in Doctoral Networks, COFUND and Staff Exchanges projects agree that the support received through MSCA contributes or will contribute to improve career prospects to a "large" or "very large" extent.

MSCA fosters better recruitment practices and working conditions for researchers across Europe. Almost half of the organisations participating in Doctoral Networks, COFUND and Staff Exchanges expect that their MSCA project will lead to improved working conditions for researchers at organisational level to a "large" or "very large" extent.

For example, the MSCA require host organisations and projects to advertise their open positions for doctoral and postdoctoral fellows on Euraxess, to provide clear eligibility criteria, and to ensure that the selection process is fair and unbiased.

Tangible improvements for research organisations

The MSCA foster tangible organisational improvements in terms of professional development opportunities for researchers by

• influencing positively the nature and quality of the training and curricula provided and developed in-house
• creating a more attractive, supportive and inclusive research environment, in line with the principles outlined in the European Charter for Researchers
• setting standards in terms of high-quality supervision and mentorship
• incentivising participating organisations to develop their own career development strategies for researchers and to provide access to career advice

Thanks to more stable and attractive working conditions, participation in the MSCA results in improved competitiveness for the concerned organisations, which in turn is a crucial element for more competitive and innovative European research and innovation ecosystems.

Undisputed European added value

The opportunities provided under the MSCA remain unparalleled at national level, demonstrating undisputed European added value. 

The MSCA allow to fund research projects that are

• larger in scope and more complex in terms of research methods
• more diverse in terms of organisations involved, leading to more research outputs and innovations
• providing more favourable research conditions as well as access to essential knowledge, expertise and skills that would otherwise not be available

In addition, the MSCA are praised for their high degree of responsiveness and flexibility in addressing emerging challenges such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the COVID-19 crisis.

Stakeholders also appreciate the additional flexibility measures introduced under Horizon Europe, as well as the efforts to make the MSCA more socially inclusive and to promote environmental sustainability.