MSCA Co-funding of regional, national and international programmes (COFUND)

MSCA COFUND co-finances doctoral programmes and postdoctoral fellowship schemes with the aim of spreading the best practices of the MSCA including international, inter-sectoral and interdisciplinary research training (triple-i), as well as transnational and cross-sectoral mobility of researchers at all stages of their career. Those co-funded programmes must follow MSCA’s good practice in terms of international recruitment and minimum standard of employment for the recruited fellows as described in the European Charter for Researchers and Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers.

WHO CAN APPLY?

Each COFUND proposal has one main participant, such as:

• UiB/university
• government ministry
• regional authority
• funding agency
• research organisation
• enterprise.

Postdoctoral or doctoral candidates apply directly to the beneficiary who runs a COFUND Action through vacancies on Euraxess, which is a job portal for researchers.

A COFUND Action can have many partners who contribute with training, hosting secondments, financial contributions etc. They do not sign the contract with or receive money from the European Commission.

WHAT CAN BE FUNDED?

The scheme funds recruitment programmes, not research. Proposals can come from any level at UiB (e.g. a faculty), but should ideally encompass more than one discipline. The scheme is fully bottom-up, i.e. recruitment to any research area can be funded.

A minimum of three researchers must be recruited. The minimum duration of each fellowship (full-time employment) must be three months.

Usually, a COFUND application requires close collaboration between research environments and adminstration to shape a recruitment program that matches the expected outcome.

Doctoral programmes

offer research training activities to allow doctoral candidates to develop and broaden their skills and competences. They will lead to the award of a doctoral degree in at least one EU Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country. The training activities should be based on the EU Principles on Innovative Doctoral Training.

Important skills training: transferable skills, Open Science, innovation, entrepreneurship, collaborative tools, FAIR data management, public engagement and citizen science.

Cross-sectoral mobility and interdisciplinarity are encouraged.

Postdoctoral Programmes

offer training to develop key transferable skills and competences related to innovation,entrepreneurship, Open Science practices, FAIR data management, public engagement and citizen science, etc, for researchers who posess a Doctoral degree.

Recruited researchers will be able to freely choose a research topic. Fellowship Programmes can be shaped as incoming or outgoing Fellowships (comparable to MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships), or as combination of both types. Cross-sectoral mobility (scondments) and interdisciplinarity are encouraged.

WHAT DOES THE FUNDING COVER?

The program is cofunded, participating organisations receive a fixed amount for each supported researcher as a contribution to their living and other allowances and for the programme’s management costs: EUR 2800 for doctoral candidates and EUR 3980 for postdoctoral researchers per person month. These amounts indicate also the minimum remuneration to be paid to researchers. The EC contribution can be freely used by the beneficiary to cover any cost in relation to the COFUND Action. The beneficiary will contribute with own funding to top up salaries, research, management and other costs. This requires close dialogue with and strong anchoring at the institution, at all relevant levels. The EC encourages applicants to seek synergies with other European and/or nactional/regional funding sources to cover the costs.

The maximum duration of the program is 5 years.

The EU contribution is limited to EUR 10 million per beneficiary per call. If an applicant submits two or more successful applications totalling more than EUR 10 million within one call, the applicant will decide which of these proposals to implement.

If you have questions regarding the COFUND scheme, please contact the Local Contact Point.

Calls

The next call opens on Oct 10 2023. The proposal template and the Guide for Applicants will be made available there. More information.

HORIZON-MSCA-2023-COFUND-01 Deadline: 8 February 2024

UiB has been granted two COFUND Actions, one in 2021 (Horizon 2020) - the SEAS Programme, and one in 2023, LEAD AI.