New Delhi: The European Union and the India’s Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) on Wednesday launched a new co-funding initiative for the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Staff Exchanges, part of the EU’s research and innovation programme, Horizon Europe.
Through this scheme, CSIR will top up selected MSCA Staff Exchanges projects, enabling its institutes to engage in joint research projects with European and international partners and second their scientific and technical staff to European research organisations for knowledge sharing and research activities. This will promote a balanced researcher mobility and long-term collaborations.
The funding will be from 2025 to 2027 and be open to any CSIR institution involved in successful projects selected under the upcoming Staff Exchange calls.
This new partnership will strengthen research and innovation ties between Europe and India and drive forward scientific and technological progress by enhancing bilateral institutional cooperation, collaborative research and researcher exchanges in a plurilateral setting under Horizon Europe.
Through its Staff Exchanges scheme, the MSCA promotes collaborative research, knowledge transfer and innovation by supporting the secondment of research and innovation staff within international consortia of organisations based in the EU, countries associated with Horizon Europe and third countries.
The next calls of Staff Exchanges will open on 19 September this year, with a deadline of 5 February 2025, and on 27 March 2025, with a deadline on 8 October 2025.
What is MSCA?
The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions under Horizon Europe is the reference programme for doctoral education and postdoctoral training. They support researchers across any career stage, as well as doctoral training and postdoctoral fellowship programmes and collaborative research in all domains.
Since 2014, the MSCA has supported 182 research and innovation projects involving Indian organisations. India ranks first among non-European countries in participation of individual researchers, with over 2,800 Indian beneficiaries over the ten past years, including about 1,800 PhD candidates and 1,000 postdoctoral researchers.
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