3. MARIE SKŁODOWSKA-CURIE ACTIONS

Europe needs a strong and creative human resource base, mobile across countries and sectors, with the right combination of skills to innovate and to convert knowledge and ideas into products and services for economic and social benefit. This will be achieved in particular by structuring and raising excellence in a substantial share of the high-quality initial training of early stage researchers and doctoral candidates throughout Member States and associated countries including, where appropriate, participation from third countries. By equipping early stage researchers with a diversity of skills that will allow them to face current and future challenges, the next generation of researchers will benefit from enhanced career perspectives in both public and private sectors, thereby enhancing also the attraction of young people to research careers. The action will be implemented through support to Union-wide competitively selected research training programmes implemented by partnerships of universities, research institutions, research infrastructures, businesses, SMEs and other socio-economic actors from different countries across Europe and beyond. Single institutions able to provide the same enriching environment will also be supported. Flexibility in the implementation of the objectives will have to be ensured in order to address the different needs. Typically, successful partnerships will take the form of research training networks that may offer innovative types of training such as joint or multiple doctoral degrees or industrial doctorates, while single institutions will usually be involved in innovative doctoral programmes. Industrial doctorates are an important element to foster an innovative spirit among researchers and create closer links between industry and academia. In this frame, support is foreseen for the best early stage researchers from any country to join these excellent programmes, which may include, inter alia, mentoring to transfer knowledge and experience. These training programmes will address the development and broadening of core research competences, while equipping researchers with a creative mind, an entrepreneurial outlook and innovation skills that will match the future needs of the labour market. The programmes will also provide training in transferable competences such as team-work, risk-taking, project management, standardisation, entrepreneurship, ethics, intellectual property rights (IPR), communication and societal outreach which are essential for the generation, development, commercialisation and diffusion of innovation. Europe has to be attractive for the best researchers, European and non-European alike. This will be achieved in particular by supporting attractive career opportunities for experienced researchers in both public and private sectors and by encouraging them to move between countries, sectors and disciplines to enhance their creative and innovative potential. Funding will be given to the best or most promising experienced researchers, regardless of their nationality, who want to develop their skills through a transnational or international mobility experience. They can be supported along all the different stages of their career, including the most junior ones just after their doctoral degree or equivalent experience. These researchers will receive funding on the condition that they move from one country to another to broaden or deepen their competences in universities, research institutions, research infrastructures, businesses, SMEs or other socio-economic actors of their choice (e.g. civil society organisations), working on research and innovation projects fitting their personal needs and interests. They will be encouraged to move from public to private sector or vice versa through the support of temporary postings. This should enhance the innovativeness of the private sector and promote cross-sector mobility. Part-time opportunities allowing combined positions in both public and private sectors will also be supported to enhance the transfer of knowledge between sectors and also to encourage the creation of start-ups. Such tailor-made research opportunities will help promising researchers to become fully independent and to facilitate career moves between public and private sectors. In order to fully exploit the existing potential of researchers, possibilities to be trained and to acquire new knowledge in a third-country high-level research institution, to restart a research career after a break and to (re)integrate researchers into a longer term research position in Europe, including their country of origin, after a transnational/international mobility experience covering return and reintegration aspects will also be supported. Societal challenges are becoming more and more global and cross-border and cross-sector collaborations are crucial to successfully face them. Sharing of knowledge and ideas from research to market (and vice versa) is therefore vital and can only be achieved through the connection of people. This will be promoted through the support of flexible exchanges of highly skilled R&I staff between sectors, countries and disciplines. European funding will support exchanges of R&I staff within partnerships of universities, research institutions, research infrastructures, businesses, SMEs and other socio-economic actors among Europe, as well as between Europe and third countries to reinforce international cooperation. It will be open to R&I staff at all career levels, from the most junior (post-graduate) to the most senior (management), including also administrative and technical staff. Stimulating regional, national or international programmes to foster excellence and to spread best practices of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions in terms of European-wide mobility possibilities for researchers' training, career development and staff exchange will increase the numerical and structural impact of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions. This will also enhance the attractiveness of the centres of excellence across Europe. This will be achieved by co-funding new or existing regional, national and international programmes, both public and private, to open up to and provide for international, intersectoral and interdicisplinary research training, as well as cross-border and cross-sector mobility of R&I staff at all stages of their career. This will allow the exploitation of synergies between Union actions and those at regional and national level, combating fragmentation in terms of objectives, evaluation methods and working conditions of researchers. In the framework of co-funding activities, use of employment contracts will be strongly promoted. To meet the challenge efficiently it will be essential to monitor progress. The Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions will support the development of indicators and the analysis of data related to researchers' mobility, skills, careers and gender equality with a view to identifying gaps and barriers in these actions and to increasing their impact. These activities will be implemented by seeking synergies and close coordination with the policy support actions on researchers, their employers and funders carried out under the specific objective 'Europe in a changing world - Inclusive, innovative and reflective societies'. Specific actions will be funded to support initiatives to raise awareness on the importance of the research career and to disseminate research and innovation results emanating from work supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions. To further increase the impact of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions, the networking between Marie Skłodowska-Curie researchers (current and past) will be enhanced through a strategy of alumni services. These will range from supporting a forum for contact and exchange between the researchers, providing possibilities for exploring collaborations and job opportunities, to the organisation of joint events and the involvement of the fellows in outreach activities as ambassadors for the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions and for the ERA. The Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions will be open to training and career development activities within all domains of research and innovation addressed under the TFEU, from basic research up to market take-up and innovation services. Research and innovation fields as well as sectors will be chosen freely by the applicants. To benefit from the worldwide knowledge base, the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions will be open to R&I staff, as well as to universities, research institutions, research infrastructures, businesses and other socio-economic actors from all countries, including third countries, under the conditions defined in Regulation (EU) No 1290/2013. Throughout all the activities described above, attention will be paid to encourage a strong participation of enterprises, in particular SMEs, as well as of other socio-economic actors in the successful implementation and impact of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions. A long-term collaboration between higher education, research organisations and the public and private sectors, taking into account the protection of intellectual property rights, is promoted throughout all Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions. The Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions will be developed in close synergy with other programmes supporting these policy objectives, including the Erasmus+ programme and the Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) of the EIT. The possibility is retained, if specific needs arise, to target certain activities under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions regarding specific societal challenges, types of research and innovation institutions, or geographical locations in order to respond to the evolution of Europe's requirements in terms of skills, research training, career development and knowledge sharing. In order to be open to all sources of talent, general measures to overcome any distortions in the access to the grants will be ensured, for example by encouraging equal opportunities for male and female researchers in all Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions and by benchmarking gender participation. In addition, the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions will support researchers to get established on a more stable career path and to ensure that they can achieve an appropriate work/life balance, taking into account their family situation, and to facilitate resuming a research career after a break. The principles of the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers promoting open recruitment and attractive working conditions are recommended to be endorsed and applied by all funded participants. To further enhance dissemination and public engagement, beneficiaries of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions may be required to plan suitable outreach activities to the general public. This plan will be assessed during the evaluation process as well as during the project follow-up.

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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.