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NEWS28 Nov 2018News

MSCA-RISE Call 2019 - deadline 2 April - NEW: RISE Handbook 2019

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Application Advice: MSCA-RISE Handbook 2019 (Net4Mobility+)

MSCA Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE) funds short-term exchanges of personnel between academic, industrial and commercial organisations throughout the world. It helps people develop their knowledge, skills and careers, while building links between organisations working in different sectors of the economy, including universities, research institutes and SMEs.

The MSCA RISE Call 2019 is now open with a deadline of 2 April 2019.

The call budget is 80 million Euros.

For further call information please click here

MSCA-RISE programme objectives and scope

MSCA-RISE involves organisations from the academic and non-academic sectors (in particular SMEs), based in Europe (EU Member States and Horizon 2020 Associated Countries) and outside Europe (third countries).

Support is provided for the development of partnerships in the form of a joint research and innovation project. This is aimed at knowledge sharing via international as well as intersectoral mobility, based on secondments of research and innovation staff (exchanges) with an in-built return mechanism.

The organisations constituting the partnership contribute directly to the implementation of a joint research and innovation project by seconding and/or hosting eligible staff members. Secondments shall always take place between legal entities independent from each other.

MSCA-RISE proposals can focus either on one dimension of mobility (intersectoral / international), or include a combination of both. Exchanges can be for both early-stage and experienced researchers and can also include administrative, managerial and technical staff directly involved in the research and innovation activities of the proposal.

Support for the exchanges between institutions within Europe (EU Member States and Horizon 2020 Associated Countries) covers only intersectoral secondments, but exchanges with institutions from and to third countries can be intersectoral as well as within the same sector (secondments between institutions established in third countries or within the same EU Member State or Horizon 2020 Associated Country cannot not be supported).

Expected Impact

At staff member level:

- Increased set of skills, both research-related and transferable ones, leading to improved employability and career prospects both in and outside academia

- Increase in higher impact R&I output, more knowledge and ideas converted into products and services

- Greater contribution to the knowledge-based economy and society

At organisation level:

- Enhanced cooperation and transfer of knowledge between sectors and disciplines

- Strengthening of international and intersectoral collaborative networks

- Boosting of R&I capacity among participating organisations

At system level:

- Increase in international, interdisciplinary and intersectoral mobility of researchers in Europe

- Strengthening of Europe's human capital base in R&I

- Increase in Europe's attractiveness as a leading destination for R&I

- Better quality R&I contributing to Europe's competitiveness and growth

The 2018 MSCA-RISE call results

The 2018 RISE call opened on 22 November 2017 and closed on 21 March 2018. The results of the proposal evaluations were unveiled in late June 2018. A total of 275 proposals were submitted in response to this call. The number of proposals for each scientific panel is shown below:

• Chemistry (CHE): 24

• Economic Sciences (ECO): 10

• Information Science and Engineering (ENG): 79

• Environment and Geosciences (ENV): 39

• Life Sciences (LIF): 45

• Mathematics (MAT): 8

• Physics (PHY): 26

• Social Sciences and Humanities (SOC): 44

Out of these 275 proposals, 176 were eligible and above the threshold for selection, with a total budget request of 175.2 million EUR. 81 of those were finally selected in the 2018 call (see here for a complete list).

 

Interview with Assoc Prof Dr Amin Akhavan Tabassi of Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), project partner in MSCA-RISE consortium

 

Dr Tabassi, you are involved in the RISE consortium "Being Lean and Seen". Can you tell our readers what this project is all about?

The “Being Lean and Seen” programme is an EU-H2020 funded collaborative, multidisciplinary programme of research exchanges between 10 international partners over four years (2017-2020). From a wider perspective of advancing knowledge in project management through research exploration, the programme enriches and extends the field beyond its current intellectual foundations and connects it more closely to the challenges of contemporary practices. The multidisciplinary perspective of the work goes beyond the traditional boundaries of the project management body of knowledge to develop a holistic framework which will enable the successful delivery of projects both now and in the future.

Our project is based on three major pillars:

  • Being Lean: Adapt, enhance and advance management practices from other industries in response to the need for efficiency and effectiveness of projects
  • Begin Seen: Incorporate the perspective of the people responsible for delivering projects by accentuating the psycho-social aspects
  • Being Lean and Seen: Adapt projects to dynamic environments in order to sustain competitive advantage in the long run with Dynamic Capabilities and adapt project management methods to developing countries.

We are doing this research with 10 innovative interdisciplinary & multidisciplinary collaborating partners undertaking 7 work packages. Overall, 49 separate secondments totalling 73 months to collect and analyse data have been set for this program.

 

2. Which role do you and your colleagues at USM play in the project?

We at USM have 6 Secondments and are hosting of 10 Secondees from the UK and Germany. We are also doing different tasks at USM for this research including but not limited to:

  • In-depth Reviews of the Literatures
  • Cross-sectional Surveys
  • Focus Groups analysis
  • Interviews
  • Writing conference papers
  • Writing journal papers
  • Sharing the research findings with the industry

 

3. How did you become involved in this European consortium? Can you share some advice to other researchers in Malaysia who want to expand their international research collaboration?

Based on my professional and personal connections with some European institutions including the University of Liverpool I have been involved in the European consortium under the RISE program. My experience as honorary lecture for MSc program in project management for University of Liverpool in online platform provided me this opportunity to meet different researchers from Europe including Prof. David James Bryde from LJMU, the leader of our RISE project. He is very productive and supportive professor and it was a nice experience for me and I enjoyed and learned a lot from him. Aside from my personal connections, the successful research projects that I have completed at national level and publications that I have had in high impact factor journals, helped to be involved as a participant in this research.

Those who are interested to expand their experience with international research activities will be probably asked to complete some national research programs successfully. They need to show high levels of scientific expertise and experience in research and publications. Attending in international forums, conferences and symposiums will also help them to develop their networking and find potential partners from Europe. I have this suggestion to all colleagues that do not wait to be invited to a research program by others. Instead you should start and invite potential partners from European institutions to your research activities that you have at hand. It will help you to develop the trust in your academic and professional networks as well.

 

4. In your views, how do you and USM benefit from your participation in MSCA-RISE?

The RISE gives us the opportunity to develop our knowledge about Lean and Agile management for performance improvement. By having 6 secondments in the UK and Germany we will give this opportunity to our staff to make themselves more familiar with the current practices of project managers there. Therefore new ideas on managing projects will be come out from such great experiences.

Aside from knowledge sharing, USM starts to develop networking and globalization program with our participants in the RISE project. As I have pointed before, we are 10 participants in this project, 9 from Europe and USM from Asia. Through the first secondee that we hosted Prof. Dr.-Ing. Hans Peter Schelkle from HTGW Germany at USM, we facilitated the program of having an MOA with them. The plan was successful and the MOA was signed by the authorities at both universities after few months from his secondment.

 

5. For someone interested in joining an MSCA-RISE consortium, what would be your top 3 tips?

My top three tips to researchers who are interested in joining international research programs with Europe could be:

1. Focus on Quality rather than Quantity in your current research and publication. Instead of having too many publications in none cited journals, you may do your best to have few in well-known and reputable journals in your field.

2. Attend to any international networking events, such as international conferences, workshops, training courses, symposiums, etc. that include academy and industry participants from Europe.

3. Develop a proposal based on a global issue in the area of your expertise and then invite at least three participants from Europe. This will increase your chance to be accepted by potential researches in the field and facilitate the networking development.

Dr. Amin Akhavan Tabassi, PhD, is currently an Associate Professor at the School of Housing, Building, and Planning, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), an honorary lecturer at University of Liverpool, and a visiting research fellow at Liverpool Business School, Liverpool John Moores University, United Kingdom. He holds a doctoral degree in Project Management, has master degree in Project Management, and a bachelor of science in Civil Engineering. He has more than 13 years of experience in the areas of civil engineering and construction management. He has also been bestowed the globally recognized Project Management Professional (PMP) ® certification from the Project Management Institute (PMI).

His research interests extend to the areas of leadership, conflict management, contract and procurement management, construction human resource management and development, teamwork, and sustainable housing development. He has more than 20 International Scientific Indexing (ISI) and Scopus journal publications, more than 22 indexed, peer-reviewed journal and conference proceedings, and a number of published book chapters. He has led four research projects in different the areas related to Project Management in the construction industry. He can be contacted at: “akhavan.ta@gmail.com”

 

Resources:

Marie Sklodowska-Curie Action

MSCA RISE 2019 staff exchanges