Skip to main content
European Commission logo
EURAXESS Researchers in motion
NEWS24 Sep 2024News

Research and innovation projects through mobility - MSCA Staff Exchanges

MSCA SE - call open

The 2024 call is open until 5 February 2025. 
The call selects international consortia of universities, research institutions, businesses, SMEs and other non-academic organisations to exchange their staff for up to 12 months. LAC institutions are eligible to join any consortium to submit a proposal.

Objective of Staff Exchanges

The SE action funds short-term international and inter-sectoral exchanges of staff members involved in research and innovation activities of participating organisations. The aim is to develop sustainable collaborative projects between different organisations from the academic and non-academic sectors (in particular SMEs), based in Europe and beyond. Exchanged staff benefit from new knowledge, skills and career development perspectives, while participating organisations increase their research and innovation capacities.

Such a project must explore activities that can be based on previous work but should go beyond and generate or strengthen long-term collaborations.

Previously known as Research and Innovation Staff Exchanges (RISE), these exchanges offer unique opportunities for researchers and innovators. They can use Staff Exchanges actions to enlarge their networks, share knowledge and turn cutting-edge research into innovative products and services.

MSCA Staff exchanges projects

Staff Exchanges projects can last up to four years.The mobility of seconded staff members can last from one month to one year. Staff involved should return to their sending organisations after the secondment, to pass on the knowledge they gained during their secondments.

Staff exchanges between organisations in EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries are required to be between different sectors (academic or non-academic), except if they are interdisciplinary. For partnerships with non-associated Third Countries (such as LAC), exchanges within the same sector and the same discipline are allowed.

Eligibility to submit a MSCA SE proposal

The MSCA Staff Exchanges call is open to international consortia of universities, research institutions, businesses, SMEs and other non-academic organisations.

Consortia need to include:

  • at least three organisations in three different countries, two of which need to be located in a different EU Member States or countries associated to Horizon Europe;

  • above this minimum, the participation of organisations from any country is possible;

  • if all participating organisations are from the same sector (academic or non-academic), at least one must be from a non-associated Third Country such as all LAC countries.

In the case of MSCA SE, only legal entities that are established in EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries can be beneficiaries.
Organisations from LAC (and from everywhere else) and from any sectors can join any consortium to submit a proposal. LAC institutions join the consortia as associated partners.

Once the projects are approved, who can be seconded?

The seconded individual staff members are selected by their sending organisations to take part in the planned exchanges.

They

  • can be researchers at any career stage, from PhD candidates to postdoctoral researchers, as well as administrative, technical or managerial staff involved in research and innovation activities

  • can be of any nationality

  • must be engaged in, or linked to, research and innovation activities at their sending organisation for at least one month prior to the secondment

  • should return to their sending organisation after the secondment, to pass on their knowledge and foster collaboration.
     

Eligibility to funding

Remember: Organisations from LAC (and from everywhere else) and from any sectors can join any consortium to submit a proposal.  They receive and send* staff at no cost. 

In the case of institutions from Bahamas, Barbados, Brazil*, Chile, Mexico, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago and Uruguay, they are eligible to participate but they must fund their own participation or bring their co-funding. They still host visiting researchers from Europe at no cost.

** Please note: Brazil (CONFAP) launched a call associated with the MSCA Staff Exchange programme to co-fund Brazilian entities participating in MSCA SE projects:

Applicants from Brazil should consult their respective State Research Support Foundation (FAP) participating in the call (22 states) to check their eligibility. The participating FAPs can provide specific guidelines or directives with instructions for this purpose. More at https://bit.ly/MSCASE_CONFAP
 

=> Why institutions from some LAC countries are eligible to automatic funding and others are not?

Within Horizon Europe, LAC countries are considered "non-associated Third Countries". Participants from non-associated non-EU countries can take part in Horizon Europe actions — but not always with funding.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, the low- to middle-income countriesautomatically eligible for institutional funding by the European Commission are: Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Paraguay, Peru, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic). Legal entities established in countries not listed in the Programme Guide will be eligible for funding if their participation is considered essential for implementing the action by the granting authority. This is the case of institutions based in Bahamas, Barbados, Brazil**, Chile, Mexico, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago and Uruguay, that are eligible to participate but they must fund their own participation or bring their co-funding. 

 

Deadline call 2024: 5 February 2025

MSCA SE call 2024

HORIZON-MSCA-2024-SE-01-01

 

Attend the networking and brokerage event

If you are looking for partners, you can attend the online networking and brokerage event organised by the European Research Executive Agency on 15 November 2024.  More here.

Past webinars for LAC

Grabación Webinar in Spanish for LAC institutions (October 2023)

No new webinars by EURAXESS LAC are foreseen for the moment. Watch the recording of 2022 events in  Spanish and Portuguese for LAC and Brazilian institutionsfor more details.
Testimonials in Portuguese:

Additional resources

RESULTS MSCA Staff Exchanges 2023

More here

RESULTS MSCA Staff Exchanges 2022

Excellent results for Latin America and the Caribbean, with 6 LAC countries among the top-10 third countries participating in this founding round, one of the calls with the highest third country participation in Horizon Europe.

  • 86 participations (vs 51 in the 2021 call)
  • 70 different organisations from 13 countries (vs 42 organisations from 11 countries in the 2021 call)  
  • 27 different projects (vs. 24 in the 2021 call for proposals)

io

Disclaimer: These statistics are subject to change and will only be confirmed once the grant agreements are signed with all the projects concerned. The final funding decision on some projects is subject to the association of some countries to Horizon Europe.