1. Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions -COFUND-
DAAD LUNCH TALK Mobility and Training for Young Researchers
Bodo Richter, Deputy Head of Unit
Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture
Brussels 5 April 2017

2. COFUND Objective
WHAT?
To stimulate excellence in researchers' training, mobility and career development, spreading the best practices of Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions.
HOW?
Through co-funding of new or existing regional, national, and international programmes which foster excellence in researcher’s training and career development.
Programmes shall promote international, intersectoral and interdisciplinary mobility, while providing open recruitment and attractive working conditions.
Exploit synergies between EU actions and regional, national and international programmes
 leverage funding and combat fragmentation in terms of objectives, evaluation methods and working conditions and thereby help structure the ERA

3. COFUND Objective
In line with:
Principles set out in the European Charter for Researchers
& the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers
EU Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training
-Research excellence
-Attractive Institutional Environment
-Interdisciplinary Research Options
-Exposure to industry and other relavant employment sectors
-International networking
-Transerable skills training
-Quality Assurance

4. Fellowship Programmes
COFUND – Main Features
Early Stage Researchers (ESR)
Doctoral Programmes
(DP)
MSCA COFUND
Experienced Researchers (ER)
Fellowship Programmes
(FP)
Each single application must only address a DP or FP
BUT
More than one application can be submitted
(bearing in mind: maximum € 10 Million per beneficiary per call)

5. Who can participate and how?
COFUND – Main Features
Who can participate and how?

6. COFUND – The Beneficiary
Mono-beneficiary action;
Legal entity established in MS or AC.
For the purpose of COFUND, international European interest organisations (IEIO) are considered as legal entities established in a MS or AC;
It funds or manages DP or FP.
It may also recruit, supervise, host or train the researchers, on its own or with partner organisations;
It can be from the academic or the non-academic sector;
Beneficiary is the sole signatory to the Grant Agreement.
It receives the EU funding, claims costs, and takes complete responsibility for the proper implementation of the proposed programme;
Examples of possible beneficiaries include: research funding agencies, ministries, universities, research organisations, private companies or other organisations from the non-academic sector.

7. COFUND – The Partner Organisations
The Partner Organisations (PO) are legal entities that contribute to the action:
by implementing a DP or FP (including recruitment of researchers);
and/or by providing training and hosting to researchers during secondments.
PO can be from the academic or the non-academic sector.
PO that recruit researchers for a DP/FP must be established in an EU Member State, H2020 Associated Country, or non-associated Third Country listed in General Annex A to the H2020 Work Programme.
PO that provide secondments can be established in any country
PO are not signatories of the Grant Agreement. They cannot claim costs of the programme directly from the REA.
BUT their costs for activities in the research training programme are covered by the unit costs paid to the beneficiary.
Partnership agreements strongly recommended. 7

8. COFUND – Other Main Features
Duration of projects: 3 to 5 years;
Fellowships: min.3 months, but specificities of the programmes to be taken into account;
EU contribution to living allowances for researchers and management costs;
Selection process based on openness, transparency, merit, impartiality and equality for the researchers who are applying; Calls to be advertised and published at international level (incl. on EURAXESS website);
Researchers to comply with the mobility rules of the MSCA;
Programmes should avoid limitations as to nationality, as well as origins and destinations of researchers;
Programmes encouraged to cover all research disciplines ("bottom- up") BUT They can also focus on specific disciplines, especially for the DP or in the context of RIS3 strategies;
Measures to ensure equal opportunities for researchers;
Unless prohibited by national legislation all fellows, including doctoral fellows, must be recruited on a work contract.

9. COFUND - Doctoral Programmes -Specificities-
The DP must provide for call(s) allowing ESR to choose to a certain extent the topic of their PhD project;
Selection procedure to be based on independent peer review;
Each ESR must be enrolled in a Doctoral Programme (DP);
Qualitative and quantitative supervision, mentoring arrangements and career guidance.
Training follows the EU Principles on Innovative Doctoral Training;
Collaboration with a wide set of partners, including from the non-academic sector.

10. COFUND - Fellowship Programmes -Specificities-
The FP can have a single call or in the case of several calls must have regular selection rounds following fixed deadlines or regular cut-off dates (4 max. per year), allowing ER to choose research topic and host organisation fitting their needs;
Selection to be based on independent international peer review;
Cross-sectoral mobility strongly encouraged.

11. COFUND – Award Criteria
Excellence %
Impact %
Implementation 3 -20%

12. EU Contribution: What does it co-fund?
LIVING ALLOWANCE:
EU contribution under an employment contract
(or other direct contract with equivalent benefits, incl. social security)
Early-stage researchers (DP): €1885 per person/month
Experienced researchers (FP): € 2625 per person/month
MSCA COFUND
EU contribution under a fixed-amount-fellowship agreement *
Early-stage researchers (DP): €942.5 per person/month
Experienced researchers (FP): € per person/month
(DP & FP): €325 per person/month
MANAGEMENT COSTS
MSCA COFUND
EU contribution
* Fixed-amounts fellowships would only be allowed in exceptional cases, where the national law would prohibit employment contracts.

13. Key Requirements for receiving EU contribution
MINIMUM REMUNERATION (incl. EU Contribution) for
[LIVING ALLOWANCE + MOBILITY ALLOWANCE]
under an employment contract
(or other direct contract with equivalent benefits, incl. social security)
Early-stage researchers (DP): €2597 per person/month
Experienced researchers (FP): € 3675 per person/month +
MSCA COFUND
under a fixed-amount-fellowship agreement *
Early-stage researchers (DP): € per person/month
Experienced researchers (FP): € per person/month
OTHER COSTS
(i.a. Research Costs, Training and Networking Costs,
Mobility allowance, Family Allowance, Indirect Costs)
MSCA COFUND
* Fixed-amounts fellowships would only be allowed in exceptional cases, where the national law would prohibit employment contracts.

14. Key Requirements for receiving EU contribution
MINIMUM REMUNERATION (incl. EU Contribution) for
[LIVING ALLOWANCE + MOBILITY ALLOWANCE]
under an employment contract
(or other direct contract with equivalent benefits, incl. social security)
Early-stage researchers (DP): €2597 per person/month
Experienced researchers (FP): € 3675 per person/month +
MSCA COFUND
under a fixed-amount-fellowship agreement
(DP): € per person/month
(FP): € per person/month
OTHER COSTS
(i.a. Research Costs, Training and Networking Costs,
Mobility allowance, Family Allowance, Indirect Costs)
Other EU funds than H2020 (e.g. ESIF)

15. Synergies with ESIF (European Structural and Investment Funds)
Why Synergies with ESIF?
Support regional policies by internationalisation of human resources in research;
Programmes that prioritise specific scientific disciplines based on R&I smart specialisation strategies (RIS3) may also be supported;
What can synergies with ESIF be used for (if all ESIF rules are respected)? Examples:
cover research, travel and training costs related to your programme (cost items not covered by the MSCA)
fund non-mobile researchers in your programme
build a new large research infrastructure

16. Synergies with ESIF
Guide on synergies ESIF/H2020/other R&I EU programmes (e.g. ESIF <->MSCA-COFUND)
Operational Programmes prepared by each Member State and/or region:
-financed under the ERDF or the Cohesion Fund
-financed under the ESF 16

17. COFUND – 2016 Call : a few numbers
5% decrease in number of applications vs. 2015
124 proposals Received from 20 countries
111 proposals Evaluated (DP=43; FP=68)
89 proposals Above Threshold (DP=38; FP=51)
33 proposals on Main List (DP=16; FP=17)
9 proposals on Reserve List (DP=5; FP=4)
Number of projects normally to be financed:
33 projects from Main List
+ project(s) from Reserve List -Still To Be Determined-
Current Success Rate
(without projects to be selected from Reserve List)
≈ 29%

18. COFUND – 2016 Call : a few numbers
proposals Received (FP=7; DP= 4)
proposals Evaluated (FP=7; DP= 1)
proposals Above Threshold (FP=2; DP= 0)
proposals on Main List (FP=3; DP= 0)
proposals on Reserve List (FP= 1; DP= 0)
For the DP: 3 out of 4 were ineligible! The content of the proposals did not relate to the topic. They were not DPs.

19. COFUND 2017 CALL
5/04/2017 – 28/09/2017
Budget: EUR 80 million

20. Useful Links to help you
Where to get more information?
 MSCA Website: ec.europa.eu/msca
Horizon 2020 Website: ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020
Horizon 2020 Helpdesk:
Frequently Asked Questions: faq.html
How to apply for MSCA?
 Participant Portal: ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal

21. Thank you for your attention
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