Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MSCA DE 2020 (MSCA 2020 - Achieving more together)
Reporting period: 2020-08-01 to 2021-05-31
On September 29, 2020, the conference "MSCA 2020 - Achieving more together" was held as part of the German Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The conference focused on the two important topics "Synergies between MSCA and European Universities" and "Supervision in the MSCA and beyond". Another important part of the conference was the MSCA Falling Walls Lab 2020, where 20 outstanding scientists presented their research to the jury and the audience. This Falling Wall Lab was an excellent example of science communication - a topic of great importance in bringing science policy, research and society together. In addition to high-ranking representatives from politics and science, more than 550 people from over 50 countries participated in the online conference. This high number of participants clearly demonstrated the importance of the MSCA in European research policy.
During the panel discussion on synergies, it became clear that the MSCA and the European Universities offer many opportunities for cooperation and can benefit from each other, but that there are also obstacles that need to be removed. On the subject of supervision, it became clear that there is a need for action and that many ambiguities stand in the way of better supervision. The key to good supervision is communication from both sides, with roles and expectations clearly defined. The guidelines for supervision in the MSCA, recently published by the European Commission, are likely to prove extremely helpful in this respect. All the results of the conference can be found in the conference report on the conference website.
The discussions at the conference generated important insights on the topic of supervision, which have been incorporated into the Guidelines on Supervision in MSCA published by the European Commission.