Funding news digest ·
Research Funding News for Doctoral and Early-Career Researchers
This digest gathers notable announcements from European research bodies that matter to doctoral candidates and early-career researchers. This edition centres on the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, which mark their 30th anniversary in 2026.
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions · 21 October 2026
Interactive publication featuring over 100 success stories and testimonials
The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions have released an interactive publication that collects more than 100 success stories and testimonials from people involved in the programme. Readers can browse by country or look up projects linked to their former university. For doctoral and early-career researchers, it offers concrete examples of career paths and funded projects, which can help when shaping their own applications.
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions · 20 October 2026
Science without borders: the lasting legacy of Marie Skłodowska-Curie
This feature looks back on 30 years of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions. Since their launch in 1996, more than 150,000 researchers have taken part, 25 of whom went on to become Nobel laureates, and annual support has grown from roughly 800 to about 8,000 researchers. It also notes that companies, including many small and medium-sized enterprises, make up almost half of participating organisations, a sign that these fellowships can lead to careers beyond academia.
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions · 6 October 2026
Nobel Prizes in Medicine and Physics awarded to former MSCA fellow and supervisor
Two of the 2026 Nobel Prizes in the sciences went to researchers with ties to the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions. Georg Nagel, a former fellow at the University of Naples Federico II, shared the Medicine prize for work on light-gated ion channels and optogenetics. Francis Halzen, who received the Physics prize for his contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the detection of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos, was a supervisor in the programme's ASTRONU neutrino astronomy project, showing how fellowship and training networks can feed into leading discoveries.
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions · 30 September 2026
Over €210 million boost for the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions to support more researchers in Europe
The European Commission announced more than €210 million in extra funding for the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions at the programme's 30th anniversary event, as part of its Choose Europe approach to attracting and retaining research talent. The top-up responds to record demand: the 2026 Postdoctoral Fellowships call drew 21,627 applications, the highest number for any funding action in over four decades of EU framework programmes. The extra money increases the budgets for both Postdoctoral Fellowships and Doctoral Networks, and more than €1.3 billion is foreseen for 2027. Applicants should note that the amended 2026 to 2027 work programme contains the final calls under the current Horizon Europe framework.
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions · 25 September 2026
Cancer research in the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
This document presents cancer research supported through the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions. The programme has a budget of €6.6 billion for 2021 to 2027 and funds career development, skills training and mobility for researchers at every stage, selecting bottom-up proposals in any field on the basis of scientific excellence. Early-career researchers in oncology and related disciplines may find it a useful overview of how their work could fit within the programme.