RSC Project Advisor:

European Commission has opened its call for proposals under the Co-funding of regional, national and international programmes (COFUND) under the Maria Skłodowska-Curie Actions (the MSCA), for co-financing Horizon Europe (HE) doctoral programmes (Doctoral Programmes).

The call for proposals is open by 8 February 2024, 5 p.m. (UTC+1).

Terms of the call and application procedure are available on the websites of:

• the European Commission
• the National Contact Point for EU research programmes
• the Research Support Centre: www.cwn.uj.edu.pl “Open calls”  „KE open calls”

Call essentials:

• The European Commission co-finances new or existing research and teaching programmes aimed at educating researchers before earning doctorate in all research domains.
• Proposals are being submitted by one organisation regardless of the sector (e.g. a ministry, agency, university, company, association) of a EU member state or a Horizon Europe associated state, which would implement the project in collaboration with other national and/or international institutions, approaching researchers with an attractive programme. Such an organisation, in its capacity of a beneficiary and a project coordinator, signs a funding agreement with the European Commission.
• Doctoral Programmes should open access to international and intersectoral mobility. Taken into account in evaluation of proposals is the participation in the project of enterprises and other organisations from the non-academic sector, giving researchers the opportunity to learn about the sector and to develop competencies and knowledge to work in non-academic institutions of this kind.
• A project may deal with any domain of research and may be implemented for up to 60 months.
• The hosting of researchers from freely chosen country and of every nationality takes place under open and transparent calls held by the beneficiary of the project, with obligatory publication of the offer in the EURAXESS portal.
• Beneficiaries of the MSC must comply with the rule of mobility, which stipulates that they may not implement their project in a country in which they spent more than 12 months in the last three years at the time of the call’s closure.
• Doctoral students hosted under the MSCA COFUND by a Polish science and higher education entity should be employed under a temporary full-time employment contract with full health and social insurance – it is possible pursuant to Article 119.2.(3a) of the Act – Law on higher education and science, and inducted in the doctoral student training programme under a doctoral school arrangement. Emerging researchers employed under the MSCA COFUND and admitted to a doctoral school shall receive remuneration pursuant to a contract of employment, financed with the project’s funds. A doctoral student does not receive a doctoral scholarship should the conditions set out in Article 209(1a) of the Act be met.
• At least 3 researchers must be employed in each project.
• The minimum duration of each scholarship provided for in the project is three months.
• Doctoral students admitted as part of Doctoral Programmes may not hold a doctoral degree on the closing date of the call.
• In project evaluation subject to scrutiny will be offered work conditions, recruitment transparency and career advancement opportunities based on the provisions of the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers.
• The proposals are submitted to the European Commission electronically, using the portal Funding & tender opportunities. All documents necessary for preparing a project are available on the call's website in the portal: Work Programme, Guide for Applicants, Application form. Applicants in the call are required to name in the Funding & tender opportunities portal the call assistant at the RSC as the contact for JU.
• The proposal must be supported with letters of intent by partner institutions.

Basic terms of funding projects:

• The budgets of the MSCA projects are generated automatically on the basis of the number of man-months for which researchers are hosted, and the budget should provide funds for: personnel costs (remuneration) for the hosted researchers, research, training, travel, management and indirect costs. The EC shall subsidise the personnel costs of the hosted researchers, at a rate of € 2,800 per person-month.

• It is still possible for those who have received funding from the EC and signed funding agreements to apply to the Ministry of Education and Science for a 90-per-cent co-funding of eligible costs incurred by the applicant while implementing the project using national funds (so-called own contribution specified in the grant agreement) – pursuant to Communication by the Minister of Science and Higher Education dated 28 June 2019 on establishing the programme: “International Co-financed Projects” and call for proposals, as amended.

Internal regulations:

Pursuant to Ordinance No 129 of 10 November 2022 by JU Rector on: The procedure for drawing up and implementing projects funded from external sources at Jagiellonian University and hiring and rewarding personnel of the project persons interested in entering the call (not applicable to JU MC) are asked to deliver to the RSC:

• by 26 January 2024:
• an Educational/Other Project Application Form and a VAT Eligibility Form using the electronic system JU Project Zone at: www.cwn.uj.edu.pl  -> tab “Project Zone”;
• a proposal draft (electronic version sent as a PDF file to the address of the call assistant at the RSC);
• by 2 February 2024 – a final version of the proposal (electronic version, sent in as a PDF file to the address of the call assistant at the RSC, signed with a qualified electronic signature or a pdf without signatures supported with an email declaration of its acceptance, or a scan of the hard copy with handwritten signatures) – signatures required: the author/principal investigator in the project, the Director of the Doctoral School, the Dean/Head of the JU organisational unit acting as the project’s host entity.

More information:

Communication by JU Vice-Rector for Research