Marie Curie Co-funding of
regional, national and international
fellowship programmes (COFUND)
[presenter], [organisation]
[event title]
[event location], xx/xx/201x
Content
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Marie Curie Actions - introduction
•
COFUND:
•
•
•
•
•
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Objectives
Principles and rules
Evaluation and selection procedure
State-of-play: results of previous calls
Best practises: examples of co-funded
Fellowship Programmes
Further information
FP7 (2007-2013)
FP7 = EU’s research funding instrument
Budget : Billion €50.5
4 Programmes: Cooperation, Ideas, People, Capacities
FP7 breakdown
(€ + Euratom)
(+ Joint Research
Centre
million)
Ideas: B €7.51
Cooperation:
B€ 32.5
People : B €4.75
Marie Curie Actions
JRC:
€1.75
JRC : M€B
1750
Euratom: B €2.75
Nuclear research
Capacities: B €4.1
Marie Curie Actions
A dedicated programme for structuring training, mobility
and career development
Objectives:
•
•
•
•
Human resources potential in R&D in Europe
Stimulate people to enter into the profession of researcher
Encouraging researchers to stay in Europe
Attracting researchers from around the world
One main condition to be eligible: Mobility
•
•
•
•
•
Employment contracts with full social rights
Addressed to researchers at all stages of their careers
Adequate working conditions and attractive salaries
Peer-reviewed international evaluation
European (and international) prestige
Geographical
Sectorial
“People” Programme ~€4.75 Billion
= Marie Curie Actions
Initial training (~40% budget)
Initial Training Networks (ITN)
Life-long training and career development (~25-30% budget)
Intra-European Fellowships (IEF)/ Career Integration Grants (CIG)
Co-funding of regional/national/international programmes (COFUND);
Industry dimension (~5-10% budget)
Industry-Academia Partnerships and Pathways (IAPP)
World fellowship (~25% budget)
International Outgoing & Incoming Fellowships (IOF & IIF); International
Staff Exchange Scheme (IRSES)
Policy support actions (~1% budget)
Mobility and career enhancement actions
Marie Curie Actions
Applicants
Profile of recruited
researchers
Individual
researchers
OIF
> 10 years
IIF
Post-docs (ER)
ERG
> 4 years
IRG
< 4 years
*MER: More Experienced Researcher
Research
funding bodies
IEF
Senior Post-docs
(MER*)
Post-graduates
(ESR)
Industry/Research
Institutions
IAPP
IRSES
ITN
COFUND
Initial Training Networks (ITN)
Aims to improve career perspectives of early stage researchers in both
public & private sector



International networks of participants from public & private sector
Joint research training programme
Complementary skills acquisition: entrepreneurship, management, IPR, grant writing,
communication
Eligible researchers : Nationals from any country

Mainly Early-Stage Researchers (ESR): > 80% - less than 4 years experience in research

Experienced researchers (ER):< 20% - more than 4 years experience in research
Community Contribution



Attractive salaries of recruited researchers
Research and networking costs
Organisation of short training events (workshops, seminars, summer schools and conferences)
Industry–Academia
Partnerships & Pathways (IAPP)
Foster research collaboration between non-commercial (public)
research organisations & commercial enterprises




Based on common research project
Intersectoral mobility & skills exchange
Staff secondments & recruitments of experienced researchers
Funding for research costs & networking activities
Eligible researchers

Staff exchange – secondments : 2 to 24 months

Recruitment (optional) : 12 to 24 months
Community contribution

Staff secondments and recruitment of experienced researchers (optional)

Research and networking costs

Specific small equipment for SMEs: <10% total contribution
International Research Staff
Exchange Scheme (IRSES)
Participant rules :

At least 2 independent research organisations in two different MS/AC



One or more organisations in TC
Additional partners from any sector and from any other country welcome
Joint multi-annual programmes of 24-48 months
Eligible researchers :
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Research staff mainly, but also technical and management staff

Min. 1 month - max. 12 months/researcher

Staff is seconded (not recruited)
Community contribution :


Balanced exchange of EU/International researchers
Subsistence/travel allowance for outgoing European researchers € 1800/month per researcher

Case by case: subsistence/travel allowance incoming ICPC/ENP
Life Long Training and Career
Development
Intra-European Fellowships for career development (IEF)



12 to 24 months (full-time) period
Any nationals working/living in MS*/AC** moving to another MS/AC
Mobility requirement at the deadline of the call (definition)
Career Integration Grants (CIG)


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Financial contribution of 25 000 €/year during 2-4 years
Host institution within MS/AC, including country of origin
Research costs, including salary of researchers or assistants
MS*: Member States
AC**: Associated Countries with science and technology cooperation agreements that involved contributing to the
framework programme budget
World Fellowships
International Outgoing Fellowships for career development (IOF)


12-24 months period in a TC plus 12 months of compulsory return phase in MS/AC
For Nationals of MS/AC
International Incoming Fellowships (IIF)



12-24 months period in MS/AC
Third country nationals coming from outside Europe
Possible return phase to country of origin (12 months)
COFUND
Global objective
COFUND supports existing and new regional,
national and international fellowship
programmes
– to increase transnational mobility for training
and career development of experienced researchers
– to improve the working and employment
conditions of researchers in Europe.
COFUND
Impacts
– Numerical impact and leverage effect
• 2.5 x more individual Marie Curie fellowships
• Creation of new fellowship programmes
– Encourages regional and national fellowship
programmes to open for transnational mobility
– Structuring the European Research Area (ERA):
• selection processes based on competition, transparent
selection criteria, composition of selection committee,
international peer review
• Improved working conditions for researchers (employment
contracts with full social rights)
COFUND
Charter and Code
– Working conditions of
researchers
– Transparency of
recruitment processes
– Career development
COFUND
Who can apply?
– Public bodies
– Private bodies with public mission
– International organisations
responsible for funding and managing fellowships or
research training programmes
For example: ministries, research academies, research
funding agencies, universities
COFUND
What are the eligibility criteria? (1)
– Fellowship Programmes can only fund experienced
researchers; they must be either
• doctorate holders
• or have >4 years research experience
– Researchers have to show transnational mobility:
• incoming from another country
• outgoing to another country
• (re)integration into research employment in Europe after
period of transnational mobility
COFUND
What are the eligibility criteria? (2)
– Beneficiaries must be established in a EU
Member State or Associated Country to FP7
– COFUND allows:
• Creation of new transnational fellowship programmes
• Opening of existing programmes to transnational mobility
• Increasing number of transnational fellowships currently
awarded by an existing programme
• Improving working/research conditions of fellows
COFUND
What does the funding cover?
– EU contribution: 40% of fellowship costs
– Max. € 10 million per organisation per call
– Duration: 24-60 months
– Supported fellowship programmes receive label co-
funded by Marie Curie actions
– Researchers selected by fellowship programmes are
Marie Curie Fellows
COFUND
Which topics can be funded?
– Bottom-up approach: all domains of research and
technological development are eligible
– Fellowship programmes can cover several or all
fields of research or can be restricted to a
specific domain
– However, programmes should have sufficient
impact in the specific scientific field(s)
COFUND
Evaluations of fellowship programmes
– Organisations managing fellowship programmes
send application to yearly call for proposals
– Proposals are evaluated in independent peer
review, based on pre-established criteria
– Proposals are evaluated in two separate panels:
• Panel A: existing transnational fellowship
programmes (including those opening for the first
time for transnational mobility)
• Panel B: new transnational fellowship
programmes
COFUND
Evaluation criteria (1)
– Quality of the selection process for the
fellows under the programme (30% weight)
• Transparency of selection process*
• Composition and organisation of selection
committee*
• Criteria and merit of judging merit*
*see Charter and Code
COFUND
Evaluation criteria (2)
– Implementation - Management of the
programme (30% weight)
• Appointment conditions of selected fellows*
• Quality of the programme management
• Client-friendliness towards applicant
researchers
• Administrative capacity to implement the
programme
• Appropriateness of the scale of the programme
• Future development of the programme
*see Charter and Code
COFUND
Evaluation criteria (3)
– Relevance and Impact to “Life long training
and Career development” (40% weight)
• Openness of programme to transnational mobility
• Contribution to diverse career development of
researchers (broadening or deepening)
• Career development support for fellows*
• Equal opportunities (including possibility to resume
research career after break)*
• Relevance for ERA of research field covered by
programme’s calls
• Impact of programme to development of researchers’
careers in the ERA
*see Charter and Code
COFUND
What happens after the evaluations?
– If proposals are selected for funding, Research
Executive Agency (REA) negotiates yearly flat-rate EU
contribution per fellow-year
– Organisations sign grant agreement with REA
– Organisations run co-funded fellowship programmes
independently from EC and REA, with own
application/selection rules and financial contribution
rates to fellows
– Co-funded programmes report annually to REA
– Financial reporting exclusively based on flat-rates, not
on actual costs
COFUND
state of play
Call
Budget
M€
N° of eligible
proposals
N° of proposals
retained for funding
Success
rate
Co-funded
Fellowships
FP7-PEOPLE2007-2-3COFUND
65
45
24
53.3%
1568
FP7-PEOPLECOFUND-2008
75
35
26
74.3%
~1800
(estimated)
FP7-PEOPLE2010-COFUND
75
53
expected 30
~56.6%
~1800
(estimated)
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COFUND
state of play
20
18
16
international
organisations
14
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10
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4
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0
# proposals retained for funding in COFUND calls
COFUND
state of play
40
Universities
35
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Funding agencies
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COFUND
state of play
25
20
15
ECO-SOC
ENG-MAT-PHY
LIFE
MULTI
10
5
0
COFUND
state of play
1400
co-funded Fellow-years (1st call)
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0
outgoing
incoming
type of m obility
re-integration
COFUND
state of play
70
new fellowhip programmes
60
existing fellowhip programmes
# proposals
50
40
30
20
10
0
1st call
2nd call
3rd call
COFUND Programmes – Examples
regional funding agencies (1)
– Czech Republic: South Moravian Region
– Spain:
• Catalonia (AGAUR)
• Bizkaia (Bizkaia:xede)
• Galicia
• Aragón
• Basque (IKERBASQUE)
– Italy: Provincia Autonoma di Trento
– UK: Royal Society of Edinburgh
COFUND Programmes – Examples
regional funding agencies (2)
– TRENTINO Fellowship Programme:
• Existing fellowship programme since 2003 (only incoming)
• COFUND allowed:
– increase in number of incoming fellowships (30 Fellow-years)
– introduction of outgoing (65 Fellow-years) and reintegration
scheme (25 Fellow-years)
– improve the fellows' working conditions (employment
contracts)
• EU contribution: € 2.66 Mio
COFUND Programmes – Examples
national funding agencies (1)
– Austria: FWF
– Belgium:
• Belgian Science Policy Office
• F.W.O.
– Germany:
• Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung
• Gerda Henkel Stiftung
• Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik
– Estonian Science Foundation
– Hungary: National Office for Research and
Technology
COFUND Programmes – Examples
national funding agencies (2)
– Ireland:
• Health Research Board
• Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering & Techn.
• Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sci.
• Science Foundation Ireland
– Iceland: The Icelandic Centre for Research
– Italian Association for Cancer Research
– Luxemburg: National Research Fund
– The Netherlands: N.W.O
– Portugal: Fundação para a Ciência e a tecnologia
COFUND Programmes – Examples
national funding agencies (3)
– Schrödinger Fellows (FWF, Austria):
• Largest Outgoing Programme in Austria for basic research
at postdoc level open to all disciplines and destinations.
• 117 Fellow-years outgoing researchers, fellowships up to 2
years
• COFUND funding used to introduce reintegration phase (25
Fellow-years), fellowships up to 1 year, research cost
indicative contribution of € 8.000 year
• Total EU contribution € 2.4 Mio
COFUND Programmes – Examples
regional research organisations (1)
– Belgium: VIB
– Switzerland: Zürich-Basel plant Science Center
– Spain:
• Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG)
• Ciber de Diabetes y Enfermedades Metabolicas Asociadas
• August Pi i Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute
• Institut de Ciencies Fotoniques
• Institute for Research in Biomedicine
• Universitari Vall D‘Hebron
– Italy:
• Fondazione Bruno Kessler
• Fondazione Centro San Raffaele del Monte Tabor
• Istituto Superiore di Sanità
COFUND Programmes – Examples
regional research organisations (2)
– BIOTRACK Programme of IDIBAPS:
• IDIBAPS: biomedical research centre located at University
of Barcelona's School of Medicine and Hospital Clínic
• 72 incoming Fellow-Years
• 35 outgoing Fellow-Years
• 20 re-integration Fellow-Years
• EU contribution: € 2.9 Mio
COFUND Programmes – Examples
national research organisations (1)
– Switzerland: EMPA – Eidgenössische
Materialprüfungs- und Forschungsanstalt
– Spain:
• TECNALIA
• Fundación CNIC Carlos III
– France: CEA
– Ireland: National Biophotonics and Imaging Platform
– Italy: Istituto Nazionale di Alta Matematica
COFUND Programmes – Examples
national research organisations (1)
– Eurotalents Fellowship Programme of the
Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies
alternatives (CEA), France
• Scientific fields: Energy, environment and climate change,
Life sciences and biotechnology, Microelectronics,
nanosciences and nanotechnologies, high performance
computing, high energy physics, high energy density
physics and physics of the universe.
• Incoming fellowships: 129 fellow-Years
• Outgoing fellowships: 14 fellow-years
• EU contribution: € 5 Mio
COFUND Programmes – Examples
international organisations (1)
– European Respiratory Society (ERS)
– Central European Initiative (CEI)
– European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO)
– European Research Consortium for Informatics and
Mathematics (ERCIM)
– European Southern Observatory (ESO)
– European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)
– International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)
– European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL)
– European Institutes for Advanced Study
COFUND Programmes – Examples
international organisations (2)
– RESPIRE Programme of the European Respiratory
Society (ERS):
• ERS promotes research into respiratory diseases, including
asthma, cystic fibrosis, COPD, lung cancer
• Existing fellowship programme in pneumology and
respiratory science since 1998
• COFUND used to increase number of fellowships to 18
over three years period
• EU contribution: € 290 k
COFUND Programmes – Examples
international organisations (3)
– European Southern Observatory Fellowship
Programme for the Atacama Large
Millimetre/submillimetre Array (ALMA)
• Incoming fellowships: 24 fellow-years
• Outgoing fellowships: 24 fellow-years
• Re-integration fellowships: 21 fellow-years
• EU contribution: € 1.79 Mio
COFUND Programmes – Examples
universities (1)
– Belgium: Université Catholique de Louvain
– Switzerland:
• Universät Bern
• Université Genève
• ETH Zürich
– Germany: FU Berlin
– Spain:
• Universidad de Malaga
• Universidad de Murcia
• Universidad Politecnica de Madrid
COFUND Programmes – Examples
universities (2)
– France:
• Université Européenne de Bretagne
• UniverSud Paris
– Sweden:
• Karolinska Institutet
– UK
• University of Durham
COFUND Programmes – Examples
universities (2)
– International Fellowship Program on Integrative
Kidney Physiology and Pathophysiology, Universität
Bern
– Programme supports postdocs to conduct research
at one of the five medical university faculties in
Switzerland (Basel, Bern, Geneva, Lausanne and
Zürich) for two years.
– EU contribution: € 1.26 Mio
COFUND in WP 2011
– Next call (indicative): FP7-PEOPLE2011-COFUND
• Date of publication: 20 October 2010
• Deadline: 17 February 2011
• Budget: EUR 90 million
COFUND
more information
List of COFUND Fellowship Programmes:
http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/people/cofund_en.html
Information on Marie Curie Actions:
http://ec.europa.eu/research/mariecurieactions/
NEW: EURAXESS Fellowship
Programmes Portal
– http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess
-> go to “Jobs”
– “Fellowship Programmes“
Portal: database of regional,
national and international
research fellowship
programmes
– Possibility to search for
fellowship opportunities
according to specific criteria
How are the Marie Curie
actions implemented?
The Research Executive Agency
 Evaluation of the proposals
 day to day management of FP7 Marie Curie projects
More information
[E-mail address presenter]