The European Commission has announced the results of the 2021 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) call for Staff Exchanges.

The European Research Executive Agency (REA) received 209 applications for this call, the first under the Horizon Europe programme for research and innovation.

Funding for 71 projects

The European Commission will fund 71 Staff Exchanges projects with €72 million.

Selected projects will promote international, interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral collaboration to

• train researchers and innovators in academia and beyond
• allow them to enlarge their networks and share knowledge
• boost their creativity and entrepreneurship
• turn cutting-edge research into new products, services and processes

Researchers involved will go abroad to enlarge their networks, share knowledge and carry out cutting-edge research for the benefit of our societies.

Individuals funded will include

• doctoral candidates
• post-doctoral fellows
• technicians, managerial and administrative staff involved in research and innovation activities

Close collaborations beyond academia

These doctoral programmes are implemented by international partnerships, covering 655 organisations based in 84 countries in the EU, countries associated to Horizon Europe and beyond.

This includes 157 organisations from the private sector and 118 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Frontier research in all fields

Selected projects will promote research in all scientific fields, ranging from the use of microalgae for the development of new antiviral drugs to earth observation for early warning of land degradation.

The projects selected are in the fields of

• engineering and ICT: 37% (26 projects)
• social sciences and humanities: 14% (10 projects)
• environment and geosciences: 13% (9 projects)
• life sciences: 11% (8 projects)
• chemistry: 11% (8 projects)
• physics: 8% (6 projects)
• economics: 3% (2 projects)
• mathematics: 3% (2 projects)

Once the grant agreements are finalised, the complete list of funded projects will be published on CORDIS.

Next steps for successful applicants

The European Research Executive Agency sent out letters on the results of the evaluation to inform applicants of the outcome of the selection.

Applicants should be able to access the results of the evaluation on their personal space of the Funding and Tenders Opportunities Portal.

The letter sent out to the successful applicants contains all the instructions about the next steps to prepare the grant agreement with the agency. The first projects will start at the earliest in November 2022.

Projects in the reserve list may be contacted until all grants for the call have been signed.

Next funding round is coming soon

The next call for MSCA Staff Exchanges will open on 6 October 2022. You will find more information on the MSCA website on how to apply.

About the MSCA Staff Exchanges scheme

MSCA Staff Exchanges supports international consortia of leading organisations across the world, including universities, research institutions, businesses, SMEs and other non-academic organisations.

These projects organise short-term international, interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral exchanges of staff members involved in research and innovation activities.

Between 2014 and 2020 the MSCA funded 586 Staff Exchanges projects.