Introduction

The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) ensures excellent and innovative research trainingas well as attractive career and knowledge-exchange opportunities through cross-border and crosssectormobility of researchers. They are open to all domains of research and innovation, from basicresearch up to market take-up and innovation services. Mobility is a key requirement in the MSCA.The Innovative Training Networks (ITN) aim to train creative, entrepreneurial and innovative earlystageresearchers, able to face current and future challenges and to convert knowledge and ideasinto products and services for economic and social benefit. ITN will raise excellence and structureresearch and doctoral training in Europe, extending the traditional academic research trainingsetting, incorporating elements of Open Science and equipping researchers with the rightcombination of research-related and transferable competences. It will provide enhanced careerperspectives in both the academic and non-academic sectors through international, interdisciplinaryand inter-sectoral mobility combined with an innovation-oriented mind-set.

Objective of the call

The call concerns the “European Training Networks” (ETN), a component of the wider actionInnovative Training Networks (ITN). ETN are joint research training networks with the objective oftraining highly-skilled early-stage researchers and stimulating entrepreneurship, creativity andinnovation in Europe.

Eligible activities

The training programme should exploit complementary competences of the participatingorganisations, and enable sharing of knowledge, networking activities, the organisation ofworkshops and conferences. Training must respond to well identified needs in defined researchareas, with appropriate references to inter- and multidisciplinary fields and follow the EU Principlesfor Innovative Doctoral Training. It should be primarily focused on scientific and technologicalknowledge through research on individual, personalised projects. Substantial training modules,including digital ones, addressing key transferable skills common to all fields and fostering theculture of Open Science, innovation and entrepreneurship will be supported.

Eligible applicants

a) Legal entities must come from:

- Academic sector: public or private higher education establishments awarding academic degrees,public or private non-profit research organisations whose primary mission is to pursue research, andinternational European interest organisations (these are international organisations, the majority ofwhose members are Member States or associated countries, and whose principal objective is topromote scientific and technological cooperation in Europe).

- Non-academic sector: socio-economic actors not included in the academic sector, for example:industry to business, government, civil society organisations, cultural institutions and hospitals.

b) Individuals

Only early-stage researchers are eligible: they can be of any nationality and must be recruited bythe host organization and undertake transnational mobility. When recruited they must be in thefirst four years (full-time equivalent research experience) of their research careers and have notbeen awarded a doctoral degree. Researchers may not have resided or carried out their mainactivity in the country of their host organisation for more than 12 months in the 3 yearsimmediately before the recruitment.

Partnership criteria

ETNs must be composed of at least three beneficiaries established in at least three different EUMember States or Associated Countries. Beneficiaries must: a) recruit at least one researcher; b)host at their premises and supervise recruited researchers, or use entities with a legal or capital linkto host and supervise them.

Funding

The financial support is calculated on the basis of person-months and takes the form of grantscovering up to 100% of the costs. Grants cover:

a) recruitment and training of each researcher forup to three years. The researcher is hired under an employment contract and benefits from amonthly living allowance (3.270 euro), social security cover, a mobil

ity (600 euro per month) andfamily allowance (500 euro per month); b) research costs for the partner institutions (1.800 euro perperson-month);

c) management and overhead costs for the partner institution (1.200 euro perperson-month). The contribution is limited to the recruitment of a maximum 540 person-months.

Projects duration

The duration of the project is limited to 48 months. The recruitment of each researcher is supportedfor a minimum of 3 months and up to a maximum of 36 months.

Areas of research

The evaluation panels are: Chemistry (CHE), Social Sciences and Humanities (SOC), EconomicSciences (ECO), Information Science and Engineering (ENG), Environment and Geosciences(ENV), Life Sciences (LIF), Mathematics (MAT), Physics (PHY).

More information at

https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/topicdetails/msca-itn-2019;freeTextSearchKeyword=;typeCodes=1;statusCodes=31094501,31094502,31094503;programCode=H2020;programDivisionCode=31047830;focusAreaCode=null;crossCuttingPriorityCode=null;callCode=31089252;sortQuery=openingDate;onlyTenders=false