The European Commission provides funds for postdoctoral scientists (PhD holders) from anywhere in the world to do 2-year research projects in various institutions: companies, research groups, non-governmental organisations and public administrations. The funds are provided through the prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowships (MSCA PF, formerly called MSCA Individual Fellowships).
Research and innovation project aligned with your interests
Interested host organisations start the application process by submitting an expression of interest where they outline the type of research and innovation project they would be interested in hosting. This makes it possible to look for researchers that could bring them real added value.
Any legal entity based in Luxembourg – public or private – willing to host a postdoctoral researcher in Luxembourg for up to 2 years can put forward an expression of interest.
Luxinnovation support: researcher selection and proposal writing training
Expressions of interest are published on Euraxess, a European portal for the mobility of researchers. However, in order to increase your chances of finding highly qualified researches with profiles that really match your interests, Luxinnovation, the National Contact Point for this type of European funding, offers Luxembourg entities support in finding the best researchers from around the world who could apply for this funding. You will receive CVs of potential applicants and select the one(s) that you find most interesting.
The next step is preparing the funding application MSCA PF. Applications are mainly written by the researchers, but input from the host organisations is valuable, for example for defining the research question to be explored during the project.
MSCA PF funding is highly competitive, and the average success rate in the EU is 15%. In order to increase the chances of success, Luxinnovation offers (remote) training sessions and support material to applicants and host organisations to help with the proposal writing process. This support has previously helped Luxembourg applicants increase their success rate considerably.