Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MSCA-NET (Cooperation and Support for MSCA NCPs)
Période du rapport: 2022-03-01 au 2023-08-31
The first objective of MSCA-NET is to facilitate the transnational cooperation between National Contact Points (NCPs) for the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Action (MSCA) in order to achieve a professional, consistent and harmonised level of NCP support and services across Europe and globally via trans-national cooperation.
As a second objective, the project aims at simplifying the access of potential applicants to the MSCA Horizon Europe calls. In the long run, the consortium aims at raising the average quality of submitted MSCA proposals.
The target groups - the NCPs, facilitators, scientific community and stakeholders - will receive concrete, timely and efficient support to apply to the MSCA, to implement the actions successfully, and to contribute to a global exchange of knowledge.
As the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions are a competitive and complex programme which evolves with each framework programme, there is a high entry barrier for newcomers to the EU funding landscape, and in particular for those from widening or third countries. This requires concentrated efforts to inform applicants and stakeholders alike about the actions’ changes and evolutions. There is also a high fluctuation of MSCA NCPs, which the project mitigates with a welcome package and continous trainings and twinnings.
The overall outcome of the project is a community of well trained and knowledgeable MSCA NCPs, who support each other and are recognized among other stakeholders, in the scientific community, by facilitators or first contact points, who are competent in all MSCA matters and are well connected on the national and international level.
The project is structured into 5 Work Packages and has 26 Beneficiaries and 4 Associated Partners with different levels of experience and from all Horizon Europe country groups.
MSCA-NET has a duration of 36 months and an overall budget of 1'870'357 Euro. The action is under the coordination of Euresearch in Switzerland.
As a second objective, the project aims at simplifying the access of potential applicants to the MSCA Horizon Europe calls. In the long run, the consortium aims at raising the average quality of submitted MSCA proposals.
The target groups - the NCPs, facilitators, scientific community and stakeholders - will receive concrete, timely and efficient support to apply to the MSCA, to implement the actions successfully, and to contribute to a global exchange of knowledge.
As the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions are a competitive and complex programme which evolves with each framework programme, there is a high entry barrier for newcomers to the EU funding landscape, and in particular for those from widening or third countries. This requires concentrated efforts to inform applicants and stakeholders alike about the actions’ changes and evolutions. There is also a high fluctuation of MSCA NCPs, which the project mitigates with a welcome package and continous trainings and twinnings.
The overall outcome of the project is a community of well trained and knowledgeable MSCA NCPs, who support each other and are recognized among other stakeholders, in the scientific community, by facilitators or first contact points, who are competent in all MSCA matters and are well connected on the national and international level.
The project is structured into 5 Work Packages and has 26 Beneficiaries and 4 Associated Partners with different levels of experience and from all Horizon Europe country groups.
MSCA-NET has a duration of 36 months and an overall budget of 1'870'357 Euro. The action is under the coordination of Euresearch in Switzerland.
MSCA-NET is structured into the 5 following work packages:
WP1, management and coordination (Lead: Euresearch - CH)
WP2, training , mentoring and support (Lead: APRE - IT)
WP3, tools (Lead: InnovationAuth - IL)
WP4, strategic capacity development (Lead: NKFIH - HU)
WP5, synergies and collaborations (Lead: FMID - ES)
The goal of professionalisation, harmonisation and consistent service level provision is reached through the continutious training offer for National Contact Points, which also comprises mentoring in online groups and consecutive on-site twinnings and meet & exchange workshops- These events are tailored to the needs of the NCPs and have been assessed at the start of the project in a benchmarking questionnaire and subsequent updates. The provision of a number of strategic tools and outputs such as the FAQ blog or handbooks, policy briefs, train the trainer events and material, evolution guides, self-assessment tool, ESR analysis and guidelines on how to collaborate with the non-academic sector serve as veritable resource database for experienced and newcomer NCPs alike. Newcomers are especially welcomed with a welcome package and a newcomers’ e-coffee and a ‘Tips and Tricks’ poster. There’s a special focus on Widening Countries with inspirational stories and a twinning and mentoring scheme focusing on NCPs of Widening Countries. Furthermore, the third country NCPs are also provided with a specific mentoring and twinning scheme and focused events.
The project considers ongoing networking with other relevant stakeholders such as the WidERA network, the MCAA, COST, Bridge2Horizon, the EEN and Euraxess in the ‘synergies’ work package, which contributes to awareness raising of the opportunities in the MSCA and further transfer of knowledge.
Future and current applicants to the MSCA can equally benefit from many of the tools and project outputs such as the evolution guide, policy briefs, the FAQ blog, the handbooks or the training material. As a novelty, applicants and future host institutions can make use of the B2Match platform.
The project reaches its target groups via the following communication channels: Website, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn as well as promotion at national and international events. Additionally, the project’s public outputs are also published on the micro-website of the Bridge2Horizon ‘NCP portal’.
Internal communication is guaranteed via the NCP google email group, a weekly informal zoom meeting for interested beneficiaries, and three NCP fora (at the Kick-off meeting, the mid-term meeting and the final event). The project dashboard provides an overview of the project’s achievements to all interested project parties.
WP1, management and coordination (Lead: Euresearch - CH)
WP2, training , mentoring and support (Lead: APRE - IT)
WP3, tools (Lead: InnovationAuth - IL)
WP4, strategic capacity development (Lead: NKFIH - HU)
WP5, synergies and collaborations (Lead: FMID - ES)
The goal of professionalisation, harmonisation and consistent service level provision is reached through the continutious training offer for National Contact Points, which also comprises mentoring in online groups and consecutive on-site twinnings and meet & exchange workshops- These events are tailored to the needs of the NCPs and have been assessed at the start of the project in a benchmarking questionnaire and subsequent updates. The provision of a number of strategic tools and outputs such as the FAQ blog or handbooks, policy briefs, train the trainer events and material, evolution guides, self-assessment tool, ESR analysis and guidelines on how to collaborate with the non-academic sector serve as veritable resource database for experienced and newcomer NCPs alike. Newcomers are especially welcomed with a welcome package and a newcomers’ e-coffee and a ‘Tips and Tricks’ poster. There’s a special focus on Widening Countries with inspirational stories and a twinning and mentoring scheme focusing on NCPs of Widening Countries. Furthermore, the third country NCPs are also provided with a specific mentoring and twinning scheme and focused events.
The project considers ongoing networking with other relevant stakeholders such as the WidERA network, the MCAA, COST, Bridge2Horizon, the EEN and Euraxess in the ‘synergies’ work package, which contributes to awareness raising of the opportunities in the MSCA and further transfer of knowledge.
Future and current applicants to the MSCA can equally benefit from many of the tools and project outputs such as the evolution guide, policy briefs, the FAQ blog, the handbooks or the training material. As a novelty, applicants and future host institutions can make use of the B2Match platform.
The project reaches its target groups via the following communication channels: Website, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn as well as promotion at national and international events. Additionally, the project’s public outputs are also published on the micro-website of the Bridge2Horizon ‘NCP portal’.
Internal communication is guaranteed via the NCP google email group, a weekly informal zoom meeting for interested beneficiaries, and three NCP fora (at the Kick-off meeting, the mid-term meeting and the final event). The project dashboard provides an overview of the project’s achievements to all interested project parties.
MSCA-NET creates an impact on the European and global scientific community by awareness raising for the opportunities within the MSCA and by training the NCP community and enabling them to better identify, inform and advise their applicants. The global transfer of knowledge and dedicated support for widening and third countries contributes to decreasing the funding gap. The transfer of knowledge extends to the facilitators’ community who are by now acting as increasing intermediate between the NCPs and the scientific community. The higher quality level of applications can be partially attributed to excellent training and guidance material issued by the project. Furthermore, the involved institutions learn from synergies with other projects.