Spain will hold the rotating EU Council Presidency in the second half of 2023. In this context, the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT), on behalf of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MCIN) will organize a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Presidency Conference. The event will be held November 14th and 15th 2023 in the city of Toledo.
The project MSCA DiReCT-GC (DIverse REsearch Careers to Tackle Global Challenges) aims at organizing the MSCA conference with the overarching objective of fostering the connection between science and policy making to better address societal challenges.
With the objective of raising the visibility of MSCA and establishing a link with the policy agenda, the conference will address ongoing initiatives in the realm of science for policy, the contributions of MSCA to societal challenges from a global perspective to a local impact, and the future of diverse and inclusive research careers, including professional paths to support evidence-based policy making.
Finally, a recognition of the MSCA best projects in terms of science for policy contributions will be present in the MSCA Awards Ceremony.
The specific objectives of the conference are the following:
• To foster the discussion of the relevance of science for policy in contributing to tackling global challenges and how MSCA as a bottom-up approach programme can support both researchers and policy makers in this rising field.
• To learn more about the state of play of the main actions carried out in the ERA Policy Agenda in relation with the promotion of attractive and sustainable research careers, balanced talent circulation and international, transdisciplinary and inter sectoral mobility across the European Research Area.
• To enable open and interactive sessions on some of the MSCA main features with the objective to come up with suggestions or preliminary ideas that could be implemented in the 2025-2027 MSCA Work Programme.
• To allow the gathering and networking of the main European and international actors involved in human resources, mobility and research career development in order to foster collaborations, synergies among the participating actors