European fellowships (ERC, MSCA)
Marie Skłodowska Curie Postdoctoral Fellowships
The Horizon Europe Marie Skłodowska Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship scheme offers several fellowship opportunities. The MSCA European Fellowship provides two years’ salary for a postdoctoral researcher from anywhere outside the Netherlands (or a fellow already in NL <12 months in the 3 years prior to the September deadline). The MSCA Global Fellowship offers Amsterdam UMC postdocs a 12 to 24-month stay to a third country (USA, Canada, Australia, etc.) and a mandatory 12-month return at Amsterdam UMC.
The 2024 MSCA-PF call is already open and has a tentative deadline of 11 September 2024.
Within Amsterdam UMC Research Grant Support (RGS), it is our experience that involvement of the hosting PI is an important contributing factor for a successful MSCA-PF proposal. Therefore, we encourage Amsterdam UMC PIs to be well informed of this program and to contribute actively to proposal development by frequent meetings with the applicant and providing active input. In this regard, comprehensive RGS grant support is only given to MSCA-PF applicants that have attended the RGS Masterclass (scheduled in July), have registered for support on time (deadline 1 July 2024) and arranged a brainstorm/intake meeting together with the hosting PI and RGS grant advisors.
Amsterdam UMC PIs interested in hosting an MSCA-PF fellow, can reach out to collaborators for potential candidates or express their interest for hosting and co-writing the MSCA-PF proposal through the searchable EURAXESS job database or the MSCA Match making website under the option ‘Participation type: Fellows’.
Amsterdam UMC Research Grant Support (RGS) provides extensive support for incoming external researchers, as well as Amsterdam UMC postdoctoral researchers applying for a Global Fellowship with a return to Amsterdam UMC. Support consists of infosessions, a hands-on masterclass, travel grants, a toolkit containing documents relevant to the application, refresher sessions, opportunities to discuss questions and issues, and reviews by experienced grant advisors.
Researchers that have already agreed with an Amsterdam UMC PI to co-apply for the MSCA-PF 2024 call and are interested in RGS support, they should fill in the 'MSCA-PF AUMC registration form' here. Deadline to apply for support is 1 July. After registration, they will be contacted in regards to next steps, which will include the completion of a feasibility assessment and an intake meeting together with the hosting PI and RGS grant advisor(s). If interested in applying for the Travel Grant (see below), there will be no need to fill in the feasibility assessment, since this is included in the Travel Grant application already.
Travel Grant: deadline 1 July
Amsterdam UMC offers a travel grant opportunity for potential fellows to visit their host PI before 31 August 2024 in order to support the preparation of the fellowship application. There are 3-4 travel grants available in 2024. For each selected travel grant, the Amsterdam UMC host PI’s department will receive a maximum amount of either € 1000 (travel costs within Europe) or € 1500 (intercontinental travel) based on travel and accommodation costs only.
Interested applicants will need to send a completed 'Travel Grant application form' and a 'letter of support' from the host PI, to rgs@amsterdamumc.nl before 1 July 2024. Information on how to register will be sent to you upon registration to RGS support. Your PI can also find information here.
ERC Starting and Consolidator Grant
Profile
For excellent, prestigious researchers with groundbreaking frontier research ideas starting or consolidating their own independent research team. Applications to the European Research Council (ERC) Starting and Consolidator Grant can be made in any field of research.
Target group
Candidates with 2-7 years of experience since the completion of their PhD for the ERC Starting Grant and 7-12 years of experience since the completion of their PhD for the ERC Consolidator Grant. Justified extensions - like maternity leave (18 months per child), paternity leave and clinical training (after the PhD award and up to 4 years maximum) - of this period may be accepted.
Amount
ERC Starting Grant: € 1.5M for 5 years
ERC Consolidator Grant: € 2M for 5 years
For ERC Starting Grant laureates, an additional incentive arrangement is available.
RGS offers extensive support to both Amsterdam UMC and external researchers who intend to apply with Amsterdam UMC as Host Institute.
Internal applicants: for registration to the internal support, please do so via this link. For more information and questions regarding internal support, please contact us at rgs@amsterdamumc.nl.
External applicants: for information and registration to the internal support please contact RGS.
ERC Advanced Grant
Profile
For exceptional established research leaders in any field of science, engineering and scholarship to pursue frontier research of their choice. Applications to the European Research Council (ERC) advanced Grant can be made in any field of research.
Target group
Excellent Principal Investigators at the career stage at which they are already established research leaders with a recognized track record of research achievements. Principal Investigators must demonstrate the ground-breaking nature, ambition, and feasibility of their research proposal.
Amount
ERC Advanced Grant: € 2.5 million for 5 years.
Additional funding up to € 1 million possible to cover eligible ‘start-up’ costs for researchers moving and/or the purchase of major equipment and/or access to large facilities.
RGS offers extensive support to both Amsterdam UMC and external researchers who intend to apply with Amsterdam UMC as Host Institute.
For more information and questions regarding our support, please contact Research Grant Support.
EIC Pathfinder and Transition
Profile
The European Innovation Council (EIC) under the Horizon Europe programme provides funding for breakthrough technologies and game changing innovations to SMEs and start-ups, as well as universities and research organisations.
The EIC Pathfinder provides the possibility to explore bold ideas for radically new technologies with potential to create new markets. The programme takes forward breakthrough deep tech projects with a high degree of scientific and technological ambition and risk (TRL 1-4). The EIC Pathfinder Open is open for projects in any field of science, technology or application without predefined thematic priorities, whereas the EIC Pathfinder Challenges support portfolios of project within a predefined thematic area.
The EIC Transition programme funds innovation activities that go beyond the experimental proof of principle in laboratory. The goal is to validate technologies and develop business plans for specific applications (TRL 3-6). The EIC Transition is open for projects with identified EU-funded results from EIC Pathfinder, ERC Proof of Concept or RIA projects.
Target group
Research teams of at least three legal entities can apply to the EIC Pathfinder Open.
You can apply for EIC Pathfinder Challenges and the EIC Transition either as:
- single legal entity;
- small consortia of two independent entities;
- consortium of minimum three and maximum five independent legal entities.
Amount
EIC Pathfinder: € 3M (Pathfinder Open) or € 4M (Pathfinder Challenges). Most projects have a duration of 3-4 years.
EIC Transition: € 2.5M for a project duration of 1-3 year(s).
Additional Booster grants are available (€ 50,000) to commercialise results and collaborate with other projects.