Widening Fellowships

Support is foreseen for individual, trans-national fellowships awarded to researchers of any nationality, in Widening countries. Applications to the 2020 call for Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions Individual Fellowships (MSCA-IF), where the host organisation is located in an eligible widening country, will be resubmitted to this call upon the agreement of the applicant and in case their proposal fails to reach an adequate place in the ranking to be funded in the regular MSCA-IF call[[The following ""Types of Action"" under MSCA-IF are eligible for resubmission: CAR – Career Restart panel, RI – Reintegration panel, SE - Society and Enterprise panel, Standard EF.]]. Applicants who do not wish to be considered for this funding opportunity should specify this in the application form.

The proposals submitted under the Widening Fellowships must fulfil all the admissibility and eligibility conditions of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions Individual Fellowships and pass all the thresholds for that call.

The Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions (MSCA) contribute to boosting jobs, growth and investment by equipping researchers with the new knowledge, skills and international and inter-sectorial exposure to fill the top positions of tomorrow and solve current and future societal challenges. They are based on the principle of mobility, and researchers can receive funding on the condition that they move from one country to another to acquire new knowledge. The results from the first years of MSCA in Horizon 2020 also revealed the existence of a mobility gap across Europe and discrepancies between European countries in their ability to attract funding. To specifically address this gap in participation Widening Fellowships will provide an additional opportunity to researchers of any nationality to acquire and transfer new knowledge and to work on research and innovation in Widening countries.

The expected impact indicated for the MSCA-IF-2020 Individual Fellowships call under the MSCA Work Programme will apply to this call.

In addition, the Widening Fellowships are expected to lead to the following:

Enhanced cooperation and stronger networks including widening countries.

Boosting of R&I capacity among participating organisations.

Increase in international, interdisciplinary and intersectoral mobility of researchers in Widening countries.