BU Research Blog

As regular EU blog readers will know, I think Marie Curie Fellowships are the perfect way to start your EU career. You can bring a shining talent over from anywhere in the world, from academia or industry to undertake research and you can visit an organisation/ university anywhere in the world to undertake research. Needing only one other partner to be involved, it allows for the establishment of a great contact who can help branch out to networks and also enables you to have some research you are interested in, done.

The final calls for Marie Curie under FP7 are in January 2013 and the scheme is definitely here to stay for Horizon 2020, albeit with  a slightly amended name Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions.

The programme will contain similar schemes, but these will be banded together and made more simple.

*Innovative Training Networks (ITN) will be aimed at training early stage researchers

*Individual Fellowships (IF) will be aimed at experienced researchers

*Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE) will be aimed at the exchange of staff and knowledge transfer

*COFUND will be aimed at stimulating excellence in regional, national and international programmes.

There may also be a pilot strand under the first set of calls released in 2014 within the IF scheme; the Dual Careers Strand. This would enable an applicant with a spouse working in research to apply for funding for their spouse to hold a fellowship either in the host institution or an institution in the host country. This is still in development but is an exciting possible development.