Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) are a set of major mobility research grants created by the European Union/European Commission to support research in the European Research Area (ERA). Established in 1996 as Marie Curie Actions and known since 2014 as Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, the fellowship programme aims to foster the career development and further training of researchers at all career stages. These grants promote interdisciplinary research and international collaborations, supporting scientists from not only within Europe but also across the globe. MSCA fellowships are among Europe’s most competitive and prestigious awards, aimed at supporting the best and most promising scientists.[1]
MSCA is currently financed through the eighth Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (called Horizon 2020) and belongs to the so-called 'first pillar' of Horizon2020: "Excellent Science." Through this funding scheme, the Research Executive Agency (REA) has devoted over €6 billion to the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions. Since the launch of the programme in 1996, over 100,000 researchers had received MSCA grants by March 2017.[2][3] To mark this milestone, the European Commission selected thirty highly-promising researchers (who achieved the highest evaluation scores in 2016)[2] to showcase the EU's actions dedicated to excellence and worldwide mobility in research.[4]
Marie Skłodowska-Curie is the Polish — and later French through naturalization — namesake of the programme and was the first female Nobel prize winner. The only person to win a Nobel Prize for contributions in two different sciences (physics and chemistry), she was also the first — and only woman — to have been awarded a Nobel Price twice.
Types of funding
Fellowships are awarded by the European Commission across scientific disciplines within the framework of Horizon 2020.
MSCA are grouped into the following schemes:
- Research Networks (ITN),
- Individual Fellowships (IF),
- Research and Innovation Staff Exchanges (RISE),
- Co-funding of regional, national and international programs involving mobility (COFUND),
- European Researchers' Night (NIGHT).
Within the framework of Horizon 2020, which runs from 2014 through 2020, MSCA will award €6.16 billion in funding.
Examples of Marie Curie Actions
Initial Training Networks (ITN) networks:
| Abbreviation | Full name or Content |
|---|---|
| ACRITAS | Actuation and Characterisation at the Single Bond Limit |
| ARTISAN | Adaptive RF front-end for 4G communication systems and beyond |
| AWESCO | Airborne Wind Energy: System Modelling, Control and Optimisation |
| BigChem | Big Data in Chemistry + Informatics = Chemoinformatics |
| CREAM | Mechanistic Effect Models for Ecological Risk Assessment of Chemicals |
| DCOMM | Deictic Communication |
| DECIDE | Decision-making within cells and differentiation entity therapies |
| DiXiT | Digital Scholarly Editions |
| ECO | Environmental Chemoinformatics |
| EDUSAFE | Education in advanced VR/AR Safety Systems for Maintenance in Extreme Environments |
| Energy SmartOps | Equipment and Process Monitoring, Integrated Automation and Optimization for Energy Savings |
| EPIHEALTHNET | Identification of the main genetic pathways affecting health of developing embryos in a diabetic or obese maternal environment |
| EUROPOL | Developing new applications for hyperpolarisation NMR |
| FlexSMELL | Realize a hybrid olfaction system based on bio-receptor and implemented on a flexible substrate |
| HEADS | Head protection: a European network for Advanced Designs in Safety |
| INFRASTAR | Innovation and Networking for Fatigue and Reliability Analysis of Structures - Training for Assessment of Risk |
| INTERAQCT | International Network for the Training of Early stage Researchers on Advanced Quality control by Computed Tomography |
| MarPipe | Improving the flow in the pipeline of the next generation of marine biodiscovery scientists |
| META-CAN | Metabolism and Cancer Immunology |
| MLPM | Machine Learning for Personalized Medicine |
| MULTI-POS | Multitechnology Positioning Professionals |
| NANOS3 | Soft, Small, and Smart: Design, Assembly, and Dynamics of Novel |
| PlaMatSu | Plant-inspired Materials and Surfaces |
| PRIDE | Drivers of Pontocaspian Biodiversity RIse and DEmise |
| PRONTO | Process Network Optimization |
| PEARRL | Pharmaceutical Education and Research with Regulatory Links |
| Privacy&Us | Privacy and Usability |
| [ PROSENSE] | Parallel sensing of prostate cancer biomarkers |
| PROPHET | Postgraduate Research on Photonics as an Enabling Technology |
| PROTECTED | PROTECTion against Endocrine Disruptors; Detection, mixtures, health effects, risk assessment and communication. |
| PURESAFE | Preventing Human Intervention for Increased Safety in Infrastructures Emitting Ionizing Radiation |
| REMEDIATE | Improved decision-making in contaminated land site ingestigation and risk assessment |
| SANITAS | Sustainable and Integrated Urban Water System Management |
| SMARTEN | Smart Management for Sustainable Human Environment |
| SPHINGONET | Sphingolipid Homeostasis: from Basic Biology to Applications |
| STREAM | Smart Sensor Technologies and Training for Radiation Enhanced Applications and Measurements |
| TALENT | Training for Career Development in High Radiation Environment Technologies |
| TECAS | Doctoral Academy in Regenerative Engineering |
| TEMPO | Training Embedded in Predictive Control and Optimization |
| TRANCYST | Translational Research in Polycystic Kidney Disease |
| TRANSMIT | Training Research and Applications Network to Support the Mitigation of Ionospheric Threats |
| TreatRec | Interdisciplinary concepts for municipal wastewater treatment and resource recovery |
| TRUSS | Training in Reducing Uncertainty in Structural Safety |
| ZENCODE | Understand genome regulation through combined experimental and computational approaches in a model vertebrate |
| PathChooser | Innovative, mechanistic-based strategies for delivery of therapeutic macromolecules across cellular and biological barriers |
Industry-Academia Partnerships and Pathways (IAPP)
See also
- Horizon 2020
- Seventh Framework Programme
- Marie Curie Alumni Association (MCAA)
- Marie Curie Fellows Association (MCFA)
References
- ^ European Commission "Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions: Individual Fellowships (IF)". Retrieved on 4 February 2017.
- ^ a b "European Commission - PRESS RELEASES - Press release - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions: support for 100 000 excellent researchers, with a strong focus on boosting women's careers in science". europa.eu. Retrieved 2017-03-07.
- ^ "Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions reach 100,000 researchers - Research & Innovation - European Commission". Research & Innovation. Retrieved 2017-03-07.
- ^ "100 000 fellows supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions - Research & Innovation - European Commission". Research & Innovation. Retrieved 2017-03-07.
- "Marie Curie Actions" (PDF). European Commission. 2012. p. 5. Retrieved 10 September 2012.