The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowships (MSCA PF) of the European Commission provides complete funding (salary, research costs, training) for postdoctoral scientists (PhD holders) from anywhere in the world to do 2-year research projects in various institutions: companies, research groups, non-governmental organisations and public administrations.
Any legal entity based in Luxembourg – public or private – willing to host a postdoctoral researcher in Luxembourg for up to 2 years can put forward an expression of interest.
“This approach allows interested organisations to outline the type of research and innovation project they would be interested in initiating or developing with a researcher,” explains Charles Betz, Senior Advisor – European R&D and Innovation Support at Luxinnovation. “This makes it possible to look for researchers that could bring them real added value.”
As the national contact point, Luxinnovation provides support and expertise in the selection of researchers worldwide and in proposal writing. “MSCA PF funding is highly competitive, and the average success rate in the EU is 15%,” says Charles Betz.
In order to increase the chances of success, Luxinnovation offers (remote) training sessions and support material to applicants and host organisations to help with the proposal writing process. This support has previously helped Luxembourg applicants increase their success rate considerably.
The next deadline for the final proposal submission is in September 2022, which means that successful projects can start around May 2023. “However, finding appropriate applicants takes a lot of time, and so does training and proposal writing. Luxinnovation therefore invites interested parties to submit their expression of interest by 17 December 2021.”