MSCA Innovative Training Networks confirm their popularity

MSCA networks keep setting the competition high for applicants. Over 1500 project proposals were submitted, requesting more than 11 times the available call budget.

The registration trend was suggesting a stabilisation of submissions compared to previous years. This has been confirmed with the 1,565 project proposals submitted, 5.6% below the previous ITN call figure in 2018 and similar to the ITN 2015 call figure.

The breakdown of submission figures shows that the European Training Networks (ETN) has been the most popular scheme with 1,345 project proposals (85.9%), followed by the European Industrial Doctorates (EID) with 137 proposals (8.8%), and the European Joint Doctorates (EJD) with 83 proposals (5.3%). Compared to last year, the EID scheme had a significant decrease in proposal submission (12%).

Evaluation of the research proposals will start in February 2019. All Grant Agreements are expected to be signed by September 2019.

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Networks (ITN) aim to train a new generation of creative, entrepreneurial and innovative early-stage researchers. With a budget of €470 million it is expected to fund about 150 projects supporting over 1,950 young researchers. ITN will support the ETN mode with €400 million, the EJD mode with €35 million and the EID mode with €35 million.