The Institute of Health Carlos III has created a new scheme for MSCA Seal of Excellence holders who applied to the 2021 call for Postdoctoral Fellowships under Horizon Europe, or the 2020 call for Individual Fellowships under Horizon 2020.

The ISCIII-HEALTH initiative will dedicate a total of €6 million, of which €1 million for MSCA, for young researchers to put in place outstanding projects in Spanish organisations working on biomedicine and life sciences and technologies.

Each selected project will receive up to €177 000 for actions lasting up to two years.

The institute has published full details and eligibility conditions on its website (in Spanish).

The deadline to submit proposals is 15 November 2022. Applications must come from the host organisation of the original proposal, which will hire the postdoctoral researcher.

ISCIII-HEALTH is the second Seal of Excellence funding scheme established for MSCA applicants in Spain. It is the third example of using the Recovery and Resilience Facility to support MSCA Seal of Excellence holders, after similar schemes in Romania and Italy.

About the MSCA Seal of Excellence

The MSCA Seal of Excellence is a quality label awarded to applicants of Postdoctoral Fellowships and COFUND who achieved a high score in their applications (85% or more) but unfortunately were not awarded funding due to budgetary constraints.

The MSCA Seal of Excellence

• underlines the value of these projects, which may use it to help find alternative funding
• allows other funding bodies such as national, regional and university-level schemes to support MSCA proposals holding the label and take advantage of the Horizon Europe evaluation process