Taking the Work programme (WP) wording as reference: “Implementing partners means third parties receiving financial support from the beneficiary and implementing the MSCA COFUND Doctoral or Postdoctoral programmes” (p.75 of the Horizon Europe MSCA Work Programme). An implementing partner that employs researchers but does not get funding would not strictly fall within the WP definition of implementing partners.

However, if a partner plays an important role in the implementation of the project but does not receive financial support from the beneficiary, the situation will be assessed by the evaluators at the proposal stage. In this case, the partner could still be considered implementing partner and still, partners recruiting researchers and playing a major role in the implementation of the project would need to comply with the specific eligibility conditions (e.g., country eligible for funding). The corresponding EU contribution (researcher-months) should be properly used by the beneficiary in some cost of the project though.

Yes, of course. The letter of commitment must state if Associated Partners contribute financially and how much is this contribution; however Associated partners cannot recruit researchers or receive EU funding, they can only host/ train researchers.

Implementing partners can also contribute financially even though they will receive financial support via the beneficiary.

Yes, as indicated in the GfA (page 9) https://rea.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2021-10/MSCA%20COFUND%202021%20-%20Guide%20for%20Applicants.docx.pdf: Associated partners known at the proposal stage must be included under the participants section in the part A of the proposal as well as in the relevant section in the part B2 (section 5).

The applicant shall only fill out this section if relevant, otherwise it can be left blank. There is already a table to be completed for the partners (Implementing or Associated) in part B2.

Both implementing partners and associated partners can provide co-financing. The money for the implementing partners can come from the coordinator, whereas the money for the associated partners has to come from a different source as they can’t receive EU money.

This is up to the experts to assess; all networks are highly encouraged to follow what is explained in FAQ n 16721.

One single IERO/IO (all branches included) cannot receive more than 40% of the total EC contribution. The country where the IERO is based won’t be counting towards the 40% rule, but it is the IERO itself which is counting (as if the IERO was considered as a separate country, but using the country correction coefficients of their hosts). Example: In a project, if there are European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) German and French branches, the budget requested by both branches will count towards the 40% rule for EMBL’s share, while this specific budget will not count for France’s or Germany’s share of the budget.

The university must be included (either as an associated partner or associated partner linked to a beneficiary) and they must provide a Letter of Commitment even if they only award the degree and have no other task.

No, it is not.

Yes, it is possible as long as it is well described in the proposal. It will be assessed accordingly by the experts during the evaluations. However, this set-up should not be used to circumvent some other rules, like the 40% rule.

Timesheets and declarations are not requested in MSCA projects (contrary to other Horizon Europe actions based on actual costs). To prove that the researcher worked on their MSCA project, it is sufficient to present a contract with the host institution together with additional documents proving the fellow’s dedication to the project, if needed.

Moreover, declarations are not allowed by the auditors. REA has confirmed that the declaration on exclusive work is not applicable for audits carried out in MSCA ITN, IF and COFUND actions to determine time spent working on the action. It is expected this will continue in Horizon Europe.

As outlined in the H2020 Indicative Audit Programme, such evidence may include lab books, attendance lists, conference abstracts, library records, travel expenses, timesheets, reports to supervisor, meeting minutes, e-mail exchanges, etc. and other open sources (e.g. the internet) to see if the researcher worked on activities other than their  project. The auditors will also look at the researcher’s employment contract or corresponding agreement to see if it complies with Article 32 of the H2020 Annotated Model Grant Agreement, including but not limited to the obligation that the researcher works exclusively for the action.

Fellows need documentation in the form of a contract that shows the 50% commitment or something similar since MSCA does not typically operate with timesheets.

When talking about impact, this is prospective, it is in the future, assuming that the project is successful and that it achieves everything that it set up to achieve. The applicants could base themselves on some other studies to strengthen or build their case about the impact they could have, before the impact is actually achieved.

There are different scientific panels and proposals are ranked within their scientific panel. Proposals in some panels are more STEM-oriented and would have a different kind of impact than proposals in the SOC panel for instance, but these proposals would not compete against the STEM-oriented proposals. It should also be considered that the impact is now broadened to encompass not only a purely scientific impact but also impact on the society at large. This can be an area where the SSH proposals could actually have a competitive advantage.

The first thing to note is, that even though they cannot directly claim costs, it does not mean that they cannot indirectly receive some funding for the role they have in the DN. Typically for each unit cost, there is one part that goes to the researcher and then there is the institutional part, and this part should not be seen as funding for just this particular fellow, and this beneficiary. It is rather a common pot for the whole consortium to run the project. In the consortium agreement the consortium defines how this is split. This funding can be distributed to the different partners according to their needs in the project: some partners provide more trainings, for instance, the coordinator typically has more management costs, so this funding can be redistributed, and some of this money can go to associated partners to cover the costs of them hosting researchers for secondments, or for them to provide trainings. So these are internal arrangements within the consortium (in the broader sense with the associated partners) so they can get indirectly money for their action. Of course, there are also non-financial incentives; the interest for them to participate could be transfer of knowledge or being part of a dynamic network and being associated to the research project.

For PF, direct financial benefits may not be there but there are plenty indirect benefits – scientific contributions, networking, getting experience in this type of projects, hosting events.

NCPs cannot share examples of successful MSCA PF proposals due to copyright ownership. Applicants and research managers should be contacting previous MSCA fellows directly.

As clarified in the EC FAQ 16399, there can be only one supervisor per host institution. As European Fellowships have only one host institution, fellows can only have one supervisor. For Global Fellowships, an additional supervisor should also be appointed for the time spent at the associated partner for the outgoing phase. Other (senior) colleagues supporting the supervision of the fellow at the same host institution can be included as ‘mentors’ in the descriptive part of the proposal.

Applicants should follow the formatting guidelines in the 2022 MSCA PF Standard Application Template, which they can download from the Funding and Tenders Opportunities Portal.

• The non-academic placement can only take part in a EU Member State or a country associated to Horizon Europe, at the end of the MSCA Fellowship and only for a maximum of 6 months. 
• The host institution for this placement needs to be from the non-academic sector. Interested organisations should check their sectoral status assigned by the European Commission during the validation process on the FTOP. 
• The host institution for the non-academic placement must provide a letter of commitment for the application. A template is available in section “8. Letter(s) of commitment from associated partners (only for hosts of outgoing phase of Global Fellowships or non-academic placement)” in the MSCA PF Standard Application Template which can be downloaded from the FTOP submission system.
• A dedicated budget for the non-academic placement is available in the 2022 MSCA PF call. Care must be taken to encode the request for a non-academic placement correctly in the online submission system. Applicants are encouraged to check the REA’s document on most common mistakes in MSCA PF proposals. 

In this case, the applicant must still select the keywords in the drop-down menu in the Part A which would best describe their research as explained in the EC FAQ 16507. They can also provide additional information on their research area in the “free keywords” section of the Part A. The vice chairs of the evaluation panels will take this information into account when allocating proposals to evaluators.

No, table 5.1 is only for the associated and implementing partners. The beneficiary will be included in the table in the beginning of part B soon after the start page ‘Information on the Beneficiary’.

The only option in such cases is having more than 2/3 of the secondments to/ from Switzerland. The Guide for Applicants 2021 states on p. 6: “There is no pre-defined size for Staff Exchanges projects. However, it is recommended to keep the size of the consortium between 6 to 10 organisations. As for the number of associated partners, it should remain reasonable and commensurate with the size of the network.” Some evaluators could highlight weaknesses due to the distribution of the secondments. It is better to increase the number of partners from 3 to 6. This will provide more possibilities for secondments distribution.

The deadlines and procedures are set out in the evaluation result letter. For more information on complaints about proposal rejection: https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/funding-tenders-opportunities/display/OM/Complaints+about+proposal+rejection.

Secondments from/ to branches/ departments of beneficiaries/ partner organisations that are not separate legal entities, are NOT eligible, if they are located in countries other than the country of their beneficiary/ partner organisation.

The total person-months for the Associated Partners linked to a beneficiary should be encoded together with the main beneficiary (e.g. University A.) in the budget table. That means, the total person-months must be encoded only into the beneficiary budget and no budget should be encoded for the associated partners linked to a beneficiary. There will be a warning in the form because the associated partner linked to beneficiary budget will be zero. This does not prevent from submitting. In case the number of secondments from the Associated Partners linked to a beneficiary is substantial, they should appear as beneficiary/participant only (not Associated Partners linked to a beneficiary). Applicants should list and detail the relation of the other Associated Partners linked to a beneficiary (e.g. University B) in part B.