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.

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.

This option is fine. It is important to clearly state that all fellows will be enrolled into doctoral studies. It is quite difficult for beneficiaries to commit to the awarding of a doctoral degree to each recruited researcher at a specific date, given that the PhD programmes duration can be different from an institution to another and that unpredictable events can delay the PhD thesis completion.

Yes, each student must be enrolled in a double degree awarded by two participating organisations from MS/ AC. If an associated partner from a third country delivers a degree to a student, there should also be two other beneficiaries/ associated partners from MS/ AC delivering a degree to the same student.

An anti-plagiarism tool is used to flag any potential cases but REA are aware that a certain percentage of similarities will be explained by the templates or some standardized parts from institutions. REA only focuses on most critical cases.

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.

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.

All participating organisations should be added, either as “beneficiary” or “associated partners” (including both the associated partners and the associated partners linked to a beneficiary). Applicants would declare the main beneficiary as beneficiary/participant and the associated partner linked to this beneficiary adding both as partners by clicking on the button “Add Partner”. For more information please see FAQ n 18851.

Applicants should list the secondments between beneficiaries that are considered interdisciplinary. This table will be used to help determine the eligibility of the secondments. Applicants can provide an additional table for interdisciplinary secondments with associated partners, or just discuss them in the text.

There are two ways to address this aspect: – Institutions can add PM in both Work packages but they have to explain that those are in-kind and are not related to secondments as such, as these will not be eligible. OR – Institutions can indicate two levels of PM: secondments PM (supported through project funding) and total PM spent on project (just indicative), and make a clear distinction between the two categories.