Higher education and R&I organisations call for EU to preserve and enhance MSCA in FP10

Seventeen European organisations representing higher education institutions and research organisations are calling for the EU to recognise and reinforce the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) in the next Horizon Europe and Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), rather than changing its "proven model".

"Europe's long-term capacity to innovate ultimately depends on its ability to generate new knowledge and cultivate the research talent driving it," the organisations stated on 29/06/2026.

For the signatories, MSCA aims at boosting excellent research through investment in early and mid-career researchers, making it the only European instrument dedicated to supporting researchers from doctoral candidates to emerging research leaders.

"It uniquely strengthens the talent pipeline on which Europe’s research, innovation and competitiveness ambitions ultimately depend," they argued.

The associations call for MSCA not to be used as an instrument to address shortages and labour market demands, instead preserving its "equally open to all research fields" and "bottom-up, research-field agnostic…