International Mobility Programs

H2020 Excellent Science pillar ensures excellent and innovative research training as well as attractive career and knowledge-exchange opportunities through cross-border and cross-sector mobility of researchers, to better prepare them for current and future societal challenges.

Beneficiaries: the participation in the MSCAs is open to researchers of any age, from either public or private sector, academic or not, at all stages of their careers, from initial training. The program has a bottom-up approach so that the research topics can be freely identified by the proponents.

In particular, we would like to highlight:

the Individual Fellowships (IF)
the Innovative Training Networks (ITN)

The IF goal is to provide experienced researchers with the opportunity to expand their professional skills benefiting from periods of international and inter-sectoral mobility. The Individual Fellowships are divided into two different types of actions:

European Fellowships are held in EU Member States or Associated Countries and are open to researchers either coming to Europe or moving within Europe. The researcher must comply with the rules of mobility in the country where the European Fellowship is held. These Actions are aimed at promoting: i) the return in EU and the reintegration of experienced researchers who have previously carried out their professional activity in Europe; ii) the return of experienced researchers after a period of career break.

Global Fellowships are designed to fund the mobility to a third country and a mandatory 12 month return period to a European host of experienced researchers coming from a Member State or one of the Associated Countries to H2020, or who have carried out full-time research in one of them for at least five consecutive years.

The ITN bring together universities, research centres and companies from different countries worldwide to train a new generation of researchers. The Individual Fellowships are divided into three different types of actions:

European Training Networks - The aim is for the researcher to experience different sectors and develop their transferable skills by working on joint research projects.

European Industrial Doctorates - The aim is for the doctoral candidates to develop skills inside and outside academia that respond to public and private sector needs.

European Joint Doctorates - The aim is to promote international, intersectoral and multi/interdisciplinary collaboration in doctoral training in Europe.

For more information and a comparison with the Marie Curie Actions supported by the Seventh Framework Programme, see the following document.

See also MSCA Actions - Open calls: http://ec.europa.eu/research/mariecurieactions/apply-now/open-calls/index_en.htm