New MSCA Seal of Excellence scheme kicks off in Cyprus
The Research and Innovation Foundation announced a call for proposals to fund projects that have been awarded a MSCA Seal of Excellence.
The Research and Innovation Foundation (RIF) in Cyprus has opened a new call under the “Horizon Europe – 2nd Opportunity – MSCA” programme within the “RESTART 2016-2020” funding scheme.
This call will support researchers with projects that have been awarded the Seal of Excellence under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Postdoctoral Fellowships call, and whose proposals have been evaluated with a score of at least 85%, but failed to be funded due to budget constraints.
The scheme is co-financed by the Republic of Cyprus and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and is an example of synergies with cohesion funding.
About the call
The call budget is €1.000,000, and the maximum funding per project is €150.000, or €170.000 for proposals that include industry placement in Cyprus.
The scheme will support research projects lasting
- up to 24 months for those not including industry placement
- up to 30 months for those including industry placement in Cyprus
In any case the duration cannot exceed the duration of the proposal that was submitted to the European Commission.
Proposals can be submitted in two categories.
- Path 1: Project coordinators can be researchers whose MSCA European Postdoctoral Fellowships proposals have received a Seal of Excellence from the EU (with a score of at least 85%) with host organisations in Cyprus that would host the researcher for the implementation of the project in Cyprus.
- Path 2: Project coordinators can be researchers whose MSCA European Postdoctoral Fellowships proposals received a Seal of Excellence from the EU (with a score of at least 85%) and the host organisation was in another EU country and has been replaced by an organisation in Cyprus that will host the researcher for the implementation of the project in Cyprus.
How to apply
The call is open until 9 May 2025, 13.00 CEST or until the exhaustion of the available budget.
Proposals must be submitted through the Research and Innovation Foundation’s IRIS Portal.
The full details and eligibility conditions are available on the RIF website in both English and Greek.
About the MSCA Seal of Excellence
The MSCA Seal of Excellence is a quality label awarded to applicants under Postdoctoral Fellowships and COFUND who achieved a high score in their applications (85% or higher) but unfortunately were not awarded funding due to budgetary constraints.
The MSCA Seal of Excellence
- underlines the value of these projects and aims to support applicants in securing alternative funding
- allows other funding bodies such as national, regional, and local authorities, public and private institutions to support MSCA proposals that have been awarded the Seal of Excellence and to take advantage of the Horizon Europe evaluation process.
More information
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