Funding news digest ·
Research Funding News for Doctoral and Early-Career Researchers
This digest gathers a selection of notable announcements from the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, chosen for their relevance to doctoral candidates and early-career researchers. Each summary explains what was announced and why it may matter for your research career.
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 brings together more than 100 success stories and testimonials from the programme. Readers can browse by country or by institution to find researchers and projects connected to their own background. For doctoral and early-career researchers weighing an application, it offers concrete examples of how others have built careers through the programme.
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions · 20 October 2026
Science without borders: the lasting legacy of Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Marking 30 years of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions in 2026, this article traces the programme's growth from about 800 supported researchers per year to around 8,000, with more than 150,000 participants since 1996, including 25 Nobel laureates. It also notes that companies make up almost half of participating organisations, many of them small and medium-sized enterprises. For early-career researchers, this points to substantial opportunities for international mobility and for careers that bridge academia and industry.
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions · 6 October 2026
Nobel Prizes in Medicine and Physics awarded to former MSCA fellow and supervisor
Two 2026 Nobel laureates have ties to the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions: Georg Nagel, who shares the Medicine prize for work on light-gated ion channels and optogenetics, held a fellowship at the University of Naples Federico II around 1999 and 2000, and Francis Halzen, awarded the Physics prize for his role in the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, supervised the programme-funded ASTRONU project on neutrino astronomy. The announcement shows how fellowships and training networks can sit within research paths that later lead to major scientific recognition.
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 has announced more than €210 million in extra funding for the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, presented at the programme's 30th anniversary event as part of its Choose Europe approach, with the increase going to Postdoctoral Fellowships and Doctoral Networks. The top-up responds to record demand: the 2026 Postdoctoral Fellowships call attracted 21,627 applications, the highest number for any action in over 40 years of EU framework programmes. With more than €1.3 billion foreseen for 2027 under the final Horizon Europe work programme, more funded places should open for doctoral and postdoctoral researchers, although competition is likely to remain strong.
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions · 25 September 2026
Cancer research in the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
This document presents cancer research supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, a programme with a budget of EUR 6.6 billion for 2021 to 2027 that funds training, skills development and mobility for researchers at every career stage. Because the programme works bottom-up and selects projects on scientific excellence, early-career researchers in oncology and related fields can propose their own topics without needing to match a predefined theme.