MSCA
MSCA explained: Postdoctoral Fellowships, Doctoral Networks, COFUND and Staff Exchanges
8 min read · Updated 19 September 2026
Written by Alessandro Brunetti, Founder of Arvacore · Last reviewed 19 September 2026
Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions fund researchers rather than topics. The schemes share a logic — mobility, training and career development — but they are applied for by different people, evaluated differently, and prepared on very different timelines.
Postdoctoral Fellowships
An individual fellowship written by the researcher together with a supervisor and host. European Fellowships cover mobility within Europe; Global Fellowships add an outgoing phase to a third country with a mandatory return phase.
Evaluation is on Excellence, Impact and Implementation, with heavy weight on the training and career-development dimension. A strong science proposal with a thin training plan and a generic supervisor statement is a typical near-miss.
Doctoral Networks
A consortium action that recruits and trains doctoral candidates across partner organisations. Written by the coordinator and partners well before any candidate exists.
The evaluation rewards a coherent network-wide training programme, real secondments and genuine non-academic involvement — not a collection of independent PhD projects stapled together.
COFUND
Co-funding for regional, national or international doctoral or postdoctoral programmes. The applicant is the programme owner, and the application is about the quality and fairness of the programme: recruitment, selection, supervision, training and career support.
COFUND applications live or die on process. Open, transparent and merit-based recruitment has to be described in operational detail, not asserted.
Staff Exchanges
Short-term secondments of staff between sectors and countries to build lasting collaboration. The evaluation looks for exchanges that transfer real knowledge in both directions, rather than visits arranged to satisfy the format.
What every MSCA application needs
- A training plan that is specific to the individual or cohort, with named activities, timing and responsible people.
- A supervisor and host contribution that shows what the applicant gains that they could not get elsewhere.
- A career-development perspective: where the researcher goes after the action.
- Concrete communication, dissemination and public-engagement activities with audiences and indicators.
- Ethics handled early — MSCA proposals are routinely flagged for consent, data protection and third-country data transfer issues.
Timeline reality
- Postdoctoral Fellowships: three months of preparation is comfortable; six weeks is tight but possible with an engaged supervisor.
- Doctoral Networks: six to nine months. Partner recruitment and the joint training programme take longer than the writing.
- COFUND: allow time for institutional sign-off on recruitment rules and co-funding commitments.
Frequently asked questions
- Can I apply for a Postdoctoral Fellowship at my current institution?
- The mobility rule requires that you have not spent more than a defined period in the host country in the years before the deadline. Check the exact rule in the current call documents, because it is the most frequent cause of inadmissible applications.
- How important is the supervisor for MSCA?
- Very. Evaluators read the supervisor's profile, the hosting arrangements and the training offer as evidence that the fellowship will deliver more than salary. A generic or copy-pasted supervisor section costs real points.
- Does MSCA fund research costs?
- MSCA uses unit costs: a living, mobility and family allowance for the researcher, plus a management and research cost contribution to the host. There is no cost-based budget to negotiate, which is why the training and implementation narrative matters so much.