MSCA4Ukraine Fellowships 2025
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See in 5 min if you're eligible for MSCA4Ukraine Fellowships 2025 offering max €10.0M funding💰 Funding Details
Funding Description – MSCA4Ukraine Fellowships 2025
What the Grant Funds
* One Coordination and Support Action (CSA) that will design, launch, manage and monitor a competitive fellowship scheme for doctoral & post-doctoral researchers displaced from Ukraine.
* The CSA will disburse sub-grants (unit-contribution fellowships) to third-party host organisations (universities, RTOs, companies, NGOs, public bodies) located in EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries.
* Fellowships will cover:
* living allowance, mobility allowance, family allowance (where applicable)
* research, training & networking costs
* management & indirect costs for the host
* Maximum fellowship length: 24 months (secondments up to 1/3 of duration).
* Short-term secondments to Ukraine (when safe) or to non-associated third countries are eligible.
Available Budget & Financial Details
* Total EU contribution: €10 000 000 (only one CSA will be funded).
* Maximum EU contribution to any single fellowship (via unit costs) corresponds to standard MSCA rates (Doctoral Networks & Postdoctoral Fellowships).
* Cap per third-party host: €2 000 000.
* Payments to the CSA will follow the standard Horizon Europe reimbursement model (pre-financing, interim, final) while payments to fellows are lump-sum unit contributions.
Who Is Eligible to APPLY (Beneficiaries)
* Consortium or single legal entity capable of running the scheme (e.g. experienced research council, large university alliance, MSCA NCP network, international foundation).
* Must be established in an EU MS or Associated Country.
* Strong operational capacity to: publish calls, evaluate, contract, pay, train, monitor fellows.
Who Will Ultimately RECEIVE Fellowships (Third Parties)
* Academic or non-academic organisations in EU MS/AC recruiting eligible researchers.
* Researchers must be:
* Ukrainian nationals OR stateless/other-nationality researchers legally residing in Ukraine;
* displaced on/after 24 Feb 2022;
* Doctoral candidates or post-doctoral researchers.
Key Compliance Points
* Open science, ethics & security, equal opportunities, work-life balance and the European Charter & Code for Researchers must be embedded.
* Transparent, merit-based selection of fellows and hosts.
* Fellowship calls must remain open to all R&I disciplines.
* Reintegration pathways back to Ukraine should be planned and budgeted.
📊 At a Glance
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🇪🇺 Strategic Advantages
EU-Wide Advantages & Strategic Opportunities under MSCA4Ukraine 2025
1. Single Market Access – 450 + Million Consumers and Test-Beds
• Pan-European Validation of Results: Fellows can pilot prototypes, social innovations or policy solutions simultaneously in several Member States, accelerating time-to-market and allowing rapid feedback from diverse user groups.
• Fast-Track to Commercialisation: Access to the European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator, InvestEU and national innovation agencies provides scale-up capital once MSCA-financed R&I reaches TRL 5-6.
• Public-Procurement Potential: Fellowship hosts can position resulting products for EU cross-border public procurement (e.g. joint health or defence procurements), a market unreachable through purely national schemes.
2. Cross-Border Collaboration & Mobility
• Built-in Transnational Secondments: Up to one-third of each fellowship can be spent in another country, automatically creating mini-consortia that pool facilities, datasets and infrastructures (e.g. CERN, ESRF, EMBL).
• Gateway to 8 000+ MSCA Alumni & 1 000+ European University Alliances Partners enabling co-publishing, co-patenting and long-term networks that will reconnect with Ukraine after the war.
• Access to COST Actions & Research Infrastructures: Fellows can join 300+ COST networks free of charge, leveraging travel & conference budgets already available in COST.
3. Alignment with EU Flagship Policies
| EU Strategy | Opportunity for Fellows |
|-------------|------------------------|
| European Green Deal | Develop circular-economy, energy storage or biodiversity projects and tap into €100 bn InvestEU green window. |
| Digital Europe / Chips Act | Collaborate with European Digital Innovation Hubs and KDT JU to prototype AI, cybersecurity or semiconductor solutions. |
| EU Mission “Restore our Oceans & Waters” | Ukrainian marine scientists can use EU research vessels and Copernicus data to prepare Black-Sea restoration plans. |
| New European Bauhaus | Architects & social scientists can co-create Ukraine’s post-war sustainable reconstruction concepts, aligning with Cohesion Policy funds. |
4. Regulatory Harmonisation Advantages
• Single IP Framework: Use Horizon Europe MGA rules (beneficiary owns the foreground), avoiding multi-jurisdictional IP conflicts.
• GDPR Compliance by Design: Working inside EU hosts secures data-protection clearance for future scale-up in any Member State.
• Mutual Recognition of Degrees & Skills: Doctoral candidates gain ECTS-compatible training records valid across the European Higher Education Area.
5. Embedded in Europe’s Innovation Ecosystem
• Proximity to 3 400+ European clusters (via European Cluster Collaboration Platform) facilitates industry placements and Venture Capital introductions.
• Synergies with Knowledge & Innovation Communities (KICs): Automatic eligibility for EIT Community booster vouchers (e.g. EIT RawMaterials Jumpstarter).
• Access to State-of-the-Art Infrastructures: EU Open Science Cloud, EuroHPC supercomputers, and 23 ESFRI landmarks lower R&D costs.
6. Funding Synergies & Leveraging Effect
• Seal of Excellence: Highly-scored but unfunded fellowship applications can secure alternative money from REPowerEU, Recovery & Resilience Facility, or national ERA budgets.
• Combination with Cohesion Funds: Less-developed regions can co-finance hosting costs via ERDF or Just Transition Fund, attracting talent outside traditional R&I hubs.
• Blending with Erasmus+ & INTERREG: Use Erasmus+ staff-mobility or INTERREG seed vouchers to extend secondments into cross-border regions such as PL-SK or RO-MD.
7. Scale and Impact at EU Level
• Critical Mass to Re-Launch Ukraine’s R&I Post-War: Training 300-400 fellows across all disciplines creates a nucleus of EU-aligned experts able to run Horizon Europe proposals from inside Ukraine once security allows.
• Pan-European Science Diplomacy: Visible support strengthens EU soft power and demonstrates unity, feeding into future EU-Ukraine Association negotiations.
• Model for Rapid Crisis Response: Success will institutionalise a blueprint that can be redeployed for other geopolitical emergencies, reinforcing EU strategic autonomy.
8. Unique Value over National-Only Schemes
1. Scale: A single €10 m action reaches multiple sectors and 27+ legal systems, impossible for any one Member State.
2. Interoperability: Fellowship conditions, salary rates and mobility rules are standardised, minimising administrative burden for hosts.
3. Brand Equity: The ‘Marie Skłodowska-Curie’ label is globally recognised, giving fellows superior career prospects versus national fellowships.
4. Risk Diversification: Hosting spread across many countries mitigates geopolitical or economic shocks in any individual state.
9. Actionable Next Steps for Applicants
• Map potential host institutions in at least two EU countries and outline secondment links to a Ukrainian university/research institute to score on impact.
• Position the internal call for fellows around EU missions to increase policy relevance and evaluation scores.
• Budget complementary training on open science, IP management and entrepreneurship to align with MSCA best practices.
• Engage National Contact Points early for co-funding routes (Seal of Excellence, ERDF top-ups) and legal set-up of financial support to third parties.
Bottom Line: Leveraging the MSCA4Ukraine 2025 scheme at EU level provides unmatched market access, regulatory certainty, political visibility and funding synergies that no single-country instrument could replicate, while simultaneously empowering Ukraine’s scientific diaspora to become the backbone of the country’s future recovery and its deeper integration into the European Research Area.
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Ready to Apply?
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See in 5 min if you're eligible for MSCA4Ukraine Fellowships 2025 offering max €10.0M funding