Doctoral School

Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) is a sub-programme of the European Union’s research funding framework programme aimed at research staff. It supports researchers at different stages of their careers, regardless of their age, nationality and area of knowledge. 

The MSCA also encourages cooperation between industry and academia and seeks to improve researchers’ employability and career development through innovative, interdisciplinary, international and cross-sector training.


PREDOCTORAL STAGE

Regarding the predoctoral stage, the MSCA supports innovative training networks (ITN) for promoting scientific excellence and innovation. They bring together universities, research institutes and other non-academic institutions to train researchers up to the doctoral level.

Doctoral candidates can benefit from a Marie Curie grant to complete their thesis by joining one of the networks that have obtained funding. All the MSCA-ITN project offers are published on Euraxess.

Please remember:

If you wish to apply for a Marie Skłodowska-Curie position:

  1. You must be an early-stage researcher, that is, you must be in the first four years of your research career and not have been awarded a doctoral degree.

  2. You must not have resided in the host country for more than 24 months within the last 36 months.

If you are a UPC researcher and you are interested in applying for an MSCA-ITN project, you can find more information about the programme and its actions by clicking on this link.

There is an annual call and the UPC’s International Projects Unit of the Research and Innovation Support Service can advise you on submitting your application: 

As of January 2021, a new European funding framework programme, Horizon Europe, comes into force, and these networks will be renamed as doctoral networks.


POSTDOCTORAL STAGE

At this stage, researchers can apply for individual fellowships in collaboration and in agreement with their chosen host institution. 

Please remember:

If you wish to apply for an individual fellowship:

  1. You must be an experienced researcher, that is, you need to have a doctoral degree or at least four years’ full-time research experience.

  2. If you wish to apply for a position at the UPC, you must not have resided in Spain for more than 12 months within the last 36 months. (This differs in the Reintegration Panel and the Career Restart Panel; you can see the details by clicking on this link.)

There is an annual call for contracts for up to two years in European institutions or contracts for up to two years in non-EU institutions with a subsequent 12-month return period to the home institution. 

The grant covers the entire salary and research costs.