MSCA-COFUND programmes are European Commission initiatives that offer additional funding for new or existing regional, national and international programmes to provide an international and intersectoral dimension to research training and career development. Doctoral programmes as well as fellowship programmes for experienced researchers can be supported.
Therefore these actions are meant for organisations that fund or manage doctoral programmes or fellowship programmes for researchers. Each COFUND proposal should have a sole participant, which could be a government ministry, regional authority, funding agency, university, research organisation, research academy or enterprise.
Once the COFUND proposal is selected to be funded, the applying organisation will open up a call to select researchers to enrol its doctoral or fellowships programmes.
Open positions from funded COFUND projects are published on EURAXESS Jobs website. Furthermore, the beneficiaries will use their own mechanisms to disseminate the open calls (COFUND programme website, social media, etc.)
Professional status: Support cannot be awarded to researchers who are already permanently employed by the organisation hosting them.
Mobility rule: Researchers supported under this scheme must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country of the recruiting beneficiary or implementing partner for more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before the deadline of the co-funded programme's call.
Experience:
- For COFUND Doctoral Programmes, researchers must be doctoral candidates, not already in possession of a doctoral degree at the deadline of the co-funded programme's call.
- For COFUND Postdoctoral Programmes, researchers must be in possession of a doctoral degree at the deadline of the co-funded programme's call.
The organisation must recruit each eligible researcher under an employment contract or 'equivalent direct contract' with full social security coverage (including sickness, parental, unemployment and invalidity benefits, pension rights, benefits in respect of accidents at work and occupational diseases) except where national legislation prohibits this possibility.
Along Horizon 2020 (2014-2020), 44 MSCA COFUND programmes coordinated by organisations in Spain were funded (18 for early-stage researchers and 26 for experienced researchers). Eight more have obtained funding in the first call of Horizon Europe in 2021 (5 for doctoral candidates and 3 for postdoctoral researchers).
As of January 2023 there are currently 39 MSCA-COFUND ongoing programmes in Spain; 17 doctoral programmes and 22 fellowship /postdoctoral programmes.
In this document we present those ongoing programmes which will launch recruitment processes for researchers along 2023.