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 closed on 11 September 2024. The European Research Executive Agency received 10,360 proposals. By comparison, 8,039 proposals were submitted in 2023. This represents an increase of 29%. In Notification of call results to applicants, is expected mid February. More information about the 2024 call timeline can be found here.

The opening of the 2025 MSCA-PF has been postponed to 5 May 2025, with a tentative deadline 10 September 2025.

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 2025) 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. 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 and arranged a brainstorm/intake meeting together with the hosting PI and RGS grant advisors.

To receive support from RGS, applicants must submit either the Feasibility Form or the Travel Grant Application Form to rgs@amsterdamumc.nl by 1 July.

Amsterdam UMC researchers can already access these forms and detailed information about the call via the MSCA landing page and the MSCA-PF SharePoint page.

External applicants should contact RGS directly for the forms and further guidance, but only after confirming with their intended Amsterdam UMC supervisor that they plan to apply for the MSCA-PF call.

Amsterdam UMC offers a travel grant opportunity for potential fellows to visit their host PI before August 31 2025 in order to support the preparation of the fellowship application. 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 01-07-2025. This is a rolling deadline, however, the call can close before this date when budget has already been spent (3-4 grants available). Therefore, we recommend to send in your application as soon as possible.

Amsterdam UMC researchers can refer to the call text here for more details. The travel grant application form can be found here.

Important note: Travel Grants will only be refunded upon submission of the proposal.

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: € 2.5M for 5 years.

Additional funding up to € 1M possible to cover eligible ‘start-up’ costs for researchers moving and/or the purchase of major equipment and/or access to large facilities.

Research Support