III. PEOPLE

Strengthening, quantitatively and qualitatively, the human potential in research and technology in Europe, by stimulating people to enter into the profession of researcher, encouraging European researchers to stay in Europe, and attracting to Europe researchers from the entire world, making Europe more attractive to the best researchers. Building on the experiences with the ‘Marie Curie’ actions under previous Framework Programmes, this will be done by putting into place a coherent set of ‘Marie Curie’ actions, particularly taking into account the European added value in terms of their impact on the European Research Area. These actions will address researchers at all stages of their careers, from initial research training specifically intended for young people to life-long learning and career development in the public and private sectors. Efforts will also be made to increase participation by women researchers, by encouraging equal opportunities in all ‘Marie Curie Actions’, by designing the actions to ensure that researchers can achieve an appropriate work/life balance and by facilitating the resumption of a research career after a break. Abundant and highly trained qualified researchers are a necessary condition to advance science and to underpin innovation, but also an important factor to attract and sustain investments in research by public and private entities. Against the background of growing competition at world level, the development of an open European labour market for researchers free from all forms of discrimination and the diversification of skills and career paths of researchers are crucial to support a beneficial circulation of researchers and their knowledge, both within Europe and in a global setting. Special measures to encourage early-stage researchers and support early stages of scientific career, as well as measures to reduce the ‘brain drain’, such as reintegration grants, will be introduced. Mobility, both trans-national and intersectoral, including the stimulation of industrial participation and the opening of research careers and academic positions at European scale, is a key component of the European Research Area and indispensable to increasing European capacities and performance in research. International competition between researchers will remain central in order to ensure the highest quality of research under this activity. Increasing the mobility of researchers and strengthening the resources of those institutions which attract researchers internationally will encourage centres of excellence around the European Union. To ensure training and mobility within new research and technology areas, appropriate coordination with other parts of the Seventh Framework Programme will be ensured and synergies will be sought with other Community policies, e.g. on education, cohesion and employment. Actions on linking science education to careers, and research and coordination actions on new methods in science education are foreseen under the Science in Society part of the ‘Capacities’ programme. Initial training of researchers to improve their career perspectives, in both public and private sectors, inter alia through the broadening of their scientific and generic skills, including those relating to technology transfer and entrepreneurship, and attracting more young people to scientific careers. This will be implemented through Marie Curie Networks with the main objective being to overcome fragmentation of and to strengthen at European level the initial training and career development of researchers. Support is foreseen for the best early-stage researchers to join established research teams. Members of the trans-national networks must exploit their complementary competencies through integrated training programmes. Support will comprise recruitment of early stage researchers, organisation of training events also open to researchers outside the network and senior chairs and/or industry positions for knowledge transfer and supervision. Life-long training and career development to support the career development of experienced researchers. With a view to complementing or acquiring new skills and competencies or to enhance inter/multidisciplinarity and/or inter-sectoral mobility, support is foreseen for researchers with particular needs for additional/complementary competences and skills, for researchers to resume a research career after a break and for (re-)integrating researchers into a longer term research position in Europe, including in their country of origin, after a trans-national/international mobility experience. This action line will be implemented through both individual fellowships awarded directly at Community level and through the co-financing of regional, national or international programmes where this fulfils the criteria of European added value, transparency and openness. Initially the co-financing mode will be implemented on a controlled scale allowing for the necessary experience to be gained. Industry-academia pathways and partnerships: Support for longer term cooperation programmes between organisations from academia and industry, in particular SMEs and including traditional manufacturing industries, will aim at stimulating intersectoral mobility and increasing knowledge sharing through joint research partnerships, supported by the recruitment of experienced researchers to the partnership, by staff secondments between both sectors, and by the organisation of events. The international dimension: to increase the quality of European research by attracting research talent from outside Europe and fostering mutually beneficial research collaboration with researchers from outside Europe. This will be addressed through international outgoing fellowships (with an in-built mandatory return phase); international incoming fellowships; partnerships to support the exchange of researchers. Common initiatives between European organisations and organisations from countries neighbouring the EU and countries with which the Community has a Science and Technology agreement will also be supported. The activity will include measures to counter the risk of ‘brain drain’ from developing countries and emerging economies and measures to create networks of European researchers working abroad. These actions will be implemented in line with the international activities under the ‘Cooperation’ and ‘Capacities’ programmes. Specific actions to support the creation of a genuine European labour market for researchers, by removing obstacles to mobility and enhancing the career perspectives of researchers in Europe. Incentive measures for public institutions that promote the mobility, quality and profile of their researchers will also be supported. Furthermore, awards to improve the public awareness of Marie Curie actions and their objectives will be provided.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-11-04 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.