Jane Carrigan
National Contact Point (NCP) for Horizon Europe Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
Irish Universities Association
MSCA Updates
With over €110m MSCA funding secured by Ireland-based organisations to date in Horizon Europe, applying for MSCA funding in the remaining years of the current framework programme, should be actively considered, writes MSCA National Delegate and National Contact Point, Dr Jane Carrigan.
The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) is an EU funding mechanism that funds excellent research and training activities and supports the mobility of researchers between countries, sectors and disciplines. It is the EU’s flagship programme for doctoral education and postdoctoral training.
Ireland has had an impressive track record in MSCA success. In Horizon 2020, Ireland’s MSCA drawdown was €196.5 million and, to date, over €110m in MSCA funding has been secured by Ireland-based institutions under Horizon Europe. Excellent resources have been created to support applicants and increased national participation means that examples of case studies with Ireland-based researchers are plentiful. The Irish Marie Skłodowska-Curie Office (IMSCO) has produced webinars on all research and innovation MSCA calls and you can view past and current webinars (with case studies featured) on our IMSCO resources and training webpage.
While the 2025 MSCA COFUND call is due to close shortly on 24 June 2025, other MSCA calls are currently open:
o The 2025 Postdoctoral Fellowship call opened on 08 May and will close on 10 September 2025.
o The 2025 Staff Exchanges call launched on 27 March and will close on 08 October.
o The 2025 Doctoral Networks call opened on 28 May with a deadline of 25 November.
In addition to the MSCA research and innovation calls listed above, the MSCA & Citizens call (a public engagement call) is also open and will close on 22 October 2025.
The revised MSCA 2023-2025 Work Programme has recently been published too – of particular note is the piloting of the EU’s MSCA Choose Europe for Science programme which will open on 01 October with a deadline of 03 December 2025. The objective of this new scheme is to tackle brain drain and precarity of researchers' careers. It aims to increase the attractiveness of European research careers and will support projects in which both academic and non-academic organisations can recruit postdoctoral researchers with a vision for employment beyond the project period. This co-funded pilot scheme facilitates the recruitment of at least three researchers for up to five years, with MSCA co-funding the first 2 to 3 years and the institutions providing the funding (with internal or external funds) for an additional 2 years.
As you can see, 2025 is a busy year for MSCA and good to remember that the MSCA research and innovation calls, as well as being ‘bottom up’ and open to all disciplines, run every year, so even if not applying this year, 2026 could be an option.