MSCA Staff Exchanges 2025

The HORIZON-MSCA grant initiative, part of the Horizon Europe program, focuses on facilitating international and interdisciplinary staff exchanges in research and innovation (R&I). This call aims to promote collaboration through the mobility of staff for knowledge transfer and innovation capacity enhancement. The program is open to a diverse range of organizations, including academic institutions, non-academic entities such as small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), large corporations, and NGOs, from across the globe. Eligible applicants are required to form a consortium consisting of at least three independent legal entities from different countries, including two from EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries. The geographic eligibility encompasses EU Member States, Horizon Europe Associated Countries, and specific non-associated Third Countries, which may have self-funding provisions for their participants. The grant provides funding as a HORIZON Unit Grant, with a total budget of approximately €97.7 million expected to support around 85 projects. Each project may involve funding of €1 million to €5 million, covering costs associated with staff mobility, including travel and accommodation. The application process is an open call with a single-stage submission due by October 8, 2025. Successful projects should encompass all stages of the innovation chain and should demonstrate the ability to build upon previous work while fostering long-term collaborations. The expected outcomes include enhanced skills for participating staff, increased employability, and stronger collaborative networks for partnering organizations. The program supports various fields including health, AI, sustainability, and more, with an emphasis on inter-sectoral and interdisciplinary collaboration. The grant also stipulates that secondments must involve physical mobility between legally independent entities, prohibiting virtual mobility. Additionally, while European Union beneficiaries are not required to co-fund, organizations from high-income countries may need to self-fund their participation. The scheme ultimately promotes a culture of creativity and entrepreneurship, aiming to turn innovative ideas into practical products and services while increasing Europe’s attractiveness as a destination for research and innovation.

The HORIZON-MSCA call, titled HORIZON TMA MSCA Staff Exchanges, is part of the Horizon Europe (HORIZON) program and falls under the MSCA Staff Exchanges 2025 (HORIZON-MSCA-2025-SE-01) call. It is a single-stage action with the type HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-SE HORIZON TMA MSCA Staff Exchanges and uses the HORIZON Unit Grant [HORIZON-AG-UN] model grant agreement. The call opened for submission on March 27, 2025, and has a deadline of October 8, 2025, at 17:00:00 Brussels time. The total budget allocated for this topic in 2025 is €97,713,523. The expected outcomes of projects funded under this call are improvements for both staff members and participating organizations. For staff members, these include an increased set of research and transferable skills, improved employability, more knowledge translated into products and services, more entrepreneurial mindsets, increased international exposure, and enhanced networking and communication capacities. For participating organizations, the expected outcomes are innovative ways of cooperation and knowledge transfer, strengthened international, inter-sectoral, and interdisciplinary collaborative networks, and a boosted R&I capacity. The scope of this call involves organizations from the academic and non-academic sectors, including SMEs, from across the globe. It supports international, inter-sectoral, and interdisciplinary mobility of R&I staff, leading to knowledge transfer between participating organizations. The organizations within the partnership contribute to a joint R&I project through seconding and hosting eligible staff members. These projects should build upon previous work but go beyond it to generate or strengthen long-term collaborations. Secondments must involve physical mobility between independent legal entities. MSCA Staff Exchanges can address international, inter-sectoral, and interdisciplinary mobility. Exchanges within EU Member States and Horizon Europe Associated Countries should primarily be inter-sectoral, but same-sector exchanges are possible if they are interdisciplinary. Interdisciplinarity is not required for same-sector exchanges with non-associated Third Countries. Secondments between institutions in non-associated Third Countries or within the same EU Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country are not eligible. The collaborative approach should exploit complementary competences and create synergies, with secondments being essential for the joint project’s R&I activities. Projects should also enable networking activities, workshops, and conferences to facilitate knowledge sharing and testing of innovative approaches. Participating staff members should gain new skills and career development perspectives, and organizations must ensure adequate mentoring for seconded staff. Virtual mobility is not allowed for secondments. Interdisciplinarity is defined as the integration of information, data, techniques, tools, perspectives, concepts, or theories from two or more scientific disciplines. MSCA Staff Exchanges promote innovative international, inter-sectoral, and interdisciplinary collaboration in research and innovation by exchanging staff and sharing knowledge. The scheme fosters a shared culture of research and innovation, welcoming creativity and entrepreneurship, and helps turn ideas into innovative products, services, or processes. It is open to research, technical, administrative, and managerial staff supporting R&I activities. Proposals should contribute to increasing international, inter-sectoral, and interdisciplinary mobility of research staff, strengthening the R&I human capital base, increasing Europe's attractiveness as a destination for R&I, contributing to Europe's competitiveness and growth, and fostering a culture of open science, innovation, and entrepreneurship. General conditions for admissibility, eligibility, financial and operational capacity, exclusion, evaluation, award, and legal and financial setup are described in the relevant annexes of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes. Specific conditions are described in the specific topic of the Work Programme. Application form templates are available in the Submission System, including the Standard application form (HE MSCA SE). Evaluation form templates, including the Standard evaluation form (HE MSCA), will be used with necessary adaptations. Guidance is provided in the HE Programme Guide and the HE MSCA SE Guide for Applicants. Model Grant Agreements include the HE MGA and HE Unit MGA. Additional documents include the HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 1. General Introduction, HE Main Work Programme 2023–2025 – 2. Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, HE Main Work Programme 2023–2025 – 13. General Annexes, HE Programme Guide, HE Framework Programme 2021/695, HE Specific Programme Decision 2021/764, EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509, Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment, EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement, Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual, Funding & Tenders Portal Terms and Conditions, and Funding & Tenders Portal Privacy Statement. There are 40 partner search announcements available. LEARs, Account Administrators, and self-registrants can publish partner requests. The Funding & Tenders Portal provides access to the Electronic Submission Service. The Online Manual guides users through proposal submission and grant management. The Horizon Europe Programme Guide details the structure, budget, and political priorities. The Funding & Tenders Portal FAQ answers common questions. The Research Enquiry Service, National Contact Points (NCPs), Enterprise Europe Network, IT Helpdesk, European IPR Helpdesk, CEN-CENELEC Research Helpdesk, ETSI Research Helpdesk, European Charter for Researchers, and Partner Search tools offer additional support. The MSCA Staff Exchanges 2025 call aims to foster international, inter-sectoral, and interdisciplinary collaboration in research and innovation through staff exchanges. It supports projects that involve organizations from both academic and non-academic sectors, including SMEs, worldwide. The goal is to facilitate knowledge transfer, enhance research and innovation capacity, and promote a shared culture of creativity and entrepreneurship. By providing funding for the mobility of research, technical, administrative, and managerial staff, the program seeks to improve the skills and career prospects of individuals while strengthening collaborative networks and boosting Europe's competitiveness in research and innovation. The call encourages projects that go beyond existing work, fostering long-term collaborations and enabling networking activities, workshops, and conferences to share knowledge and test innovative approaches.

Summary:

The HORIZON-MSCA call, under the Horizon Europe program, is focused on MSCA Staff Exchanges. It aims to promote international, inter-sectoral, and interdisciplinary collaboration in research and innovation through the exchange of staff and the sharing of knowledge and ideas. The program supports projects at all stages of the innovation chain and is open to research, technical, administrative, and managerial staff supporting R&I activities.

The call encourages the mobility of R&I staff between organizations from academic and non-academic sectors, including SMEs, across the globe. The projects should explore activities that build upon previous work but go beyond to generate or strengthen long-term collaborations. Secondments must involve physical mobility between legal entities independent from each other. Virtual mobility is not allowed.

The collaborative approach should exploit complementary competences and create synergies between participating organizations. The secondments should be essential to achieve the joint project’s R&I activities. The project should enable networking activities and the organization of workshops and conferences to facilitate sharing of knowledge and testing of innovative approaches.

The expected outcomes include an increased set of research and transferable skills for staff members, more knowledge and innovative ideas converted into products, strengthened collaborative networks for participating organizations, and boosted R&I capacity.

The total budget for this call is €97,713,523. The application process is a single-stage submission, with the deadline on October 8, 2025. The program is open to a wide range of organizations, including those from EU Member States, Horizon Europe Associated Countries, and non-associated Third Countries, fostering a global approach to research and innovation.