What is it for?

MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships aim to support researcher careers and foster excellence in research. They target researchers holding a PhD who wish to carry out their research activities abroad, acquire new skills and develop their careers. MSCA PFs help researchers gain experience in other countries, disciplines, and non-academic sectors.

The MSCA European Postdoctoral fellowships are open to researchers moving within Europe or coming to Europe from another part of the world to pursue their research career. These fellowships take place in an EU Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country and can last between 1 and 2 years. Researchers of any nationality can apply.

Who can apply?

MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships are open to excellent researchers of any nationality, including researchers wishing to reintegrate in Europe, researchers who are displaced by conflict as well as researchers with high potential aiming for a career restart in research. Applications will be made jointly by the researcher together with a beneficiary.

Applicants must have been awarded their doctoral degree within 8 years prior to the deadline of the call. Exceptions: career breaks including parental or sickness leave, time spent working outside of research, or time spent working outside of Europe.

As of the call deadline, researchers must have a PhD degree or have successfully defended their doctoral thesis.

Researchers must comply with mobility rules: the researcher must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country of the beneficiary for more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before the call deadline.

What does the funding cover?

The grant to Imperial as Host Institution will include an allocation for

• the Researcher, which includes a Living Allowance, a Mobility Allowance (in recognition of the additional cost of living outside of the home country) and potentially a Family Allowance (if married and/or with responsibility for dependent children).
• the Institution, which includes Research Costs for all project-related activities (travel, purchase of consumables, software, subscriptions, any secondments etc.) and a contribution to the beneficiary for management and overheads.

What activities are typically included?

The fellowships are intended to follow a programme of training-through-research which the applicant defines in the proposal. As well as technical training in his or her field(s), the fellowship supports transferrable skills training, e.g. project finance and management, dealing with Intellectual Property, gender issues training or anything that the applicant can demonstrate as a training need. Secondments to other organisations worldwide are possible for up to a third of the fellowship’s duration.

How to apply

Researchers must identify an Imperial Principal Investigator as Supervisor and contact the PI directly find out whether they would support you carrying out an MSCA postdoctoral fellowship in their group.

PIs should let their Department’s research manager or research facilitator and Faculty Research Services Manager know at the earliest opportunity that you intend to support an MSCA postdoctoral fellowship application. To attract MSCA postdoctoral fellowship applicants, PIs could consider advertising on any group social media platform #MSCA or on the EURAXESS platform.

Researchers and PIs work together to draft and submit the proposal on the European Commission's Funding and Tenders Portal by the call deadline.

For any questions not answered on this page or within the support material, please contact us at mscapostdocfellowships@imperial.ac.uk

Please note that although the MSCA offers, in addition to the European Postdoctoral Fellowships, a Global Postdoctoral Fellowship scheme which funds the mobility of researchers outside Europe, Imperial does not participate in the Global Postdoctoral Fellowships.