Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions COFUND (MSCA-COFUND)

The MSCA-COFUND is part of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions programme. It helps organisations co-finance doctoral and postdoctoral training programmes that attract international research talent. This page explains who can apply, what the funding covers and how to prepare a competitive proposal.

What is MSCA-COFUND?

MSCA-COFUND provides funding for regional, national and international programmes for training and career development, through co-funding mechanisms. Part of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions under Horizon Europe, it spreads the MSCA’s best practices by promoting high standards. COFUND promotes sustainable training and international, interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral mobility.

There are two types of COFUND:

1. COFUND Doctoral Programmes

Doctoral Programmes offer research training activities that help doctoral candidates develop and broaden their skills, and lead to the award of a doctoral degree.

2. COFUND Postdoctoral Programmes

Postdoctoral Programmes fund advanced research training and career development fellowships for postdoctoral researchers.

COFUND is a bottom-up programme: the host organisation decides the overarching topic, which may span several research disciplines, rather than focusing on specific disciplines set by the European Commission. Programmes are designed to enhance talent circulation through international research training and cross-sectoral mobility, and can support regional or national smart specialisation and innovation strategies.

What does the funding cover?

The financial support for COFUND is based on a co-funding mechanism. For each recruited researcher, the EU provides a fixed amount, the COFUND allowance, calculated per researcher per month. The host can use this allowance for a wide range of costs linked to the enrolled researcher, including salary (with full social security coverage), mobility costs, training, research expenses, knowledge transfer and networking activities, management costs and indirect costs.

COFUND projects last up to five years and recruit at least three researchers, each supported for a minimum of three months. Recruited researchers must respect the mobility rule: they must not have lived or worked in the country of the recruiting organisation or implementing partner for more than 12 months in the 36 months before the co-funded programme’s call deadline.

Who can apply?

A single legal entity established in an EU Member State or a Horizon Europe Associated Country applies, and additional partners, including associated partners from any sector or country, can be included. The types of organisations COFUND works with include government entities, regional authorities, funding agencies, universities, research organisations and enterprises; individual research teams are not funded. A beneficiary can receive funding up to a maximum of €10 million per call. COFUND is especially relevant for organisations that already manage, fund or coordinate research training programmes and want to expand them internationally.

Researchers do not apply directly. Instead, doctoral candidates and postdoctoral researchers apply to funded COFUND projects through open vacancies advertised internationally, including on the EURAXESS portal. For postdoctoral programmes, applicants must hold a doctoral degree; those who have successfully defended their doctoral thesis but not yet been formally awarded the degree are also considered eligible.

How to apply for COFUND projects

Applications can be submitted at any time from the opening of the chosen call, with the complete proposal and all annexes due by the deadline. Applicants find open and forthcoming calls on the MSCA funding page and apply through the EU Funding & Tenders Portal. For detailed information, the MSCA work programme, guide for applicants, FAQs and forms are available on the call page.

Read more information on the application process.

MSCA-COFUND overview

Grant amount: max €10 million

Total budget in 2026: €105.5 million

Funding rate: 50%

2026 call: Opens 16 December 2025, deadline 8 April 2026

2027 call: Opens 8 December 2026, deadline 6 April 2027.

Project duration: 5 years

Please visit the MSCA funding opportunities page for open or forthcoming calls.

Check the official MSCA-COFUND call page.

About MSCA

The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Programme offers five different types of grants aiming to strengthen Europe’s research activities and innovation capacity by investing in researchers’ long-term careers. The programme, part of Horizon Europe, aims to set up different types of training networks (MSCA-DN) or training programmes (MSCA-COFUND), while other grants fund fellowships (MSCA-PF) and events (MSCA-NIGHT) to increase the popularity of science in society.

More about MSCA Work Programme.

About Catalyze

At Catalyze, we help accelerate innovations that have a positive impact on the world. We help organisations secure funding, manage projects and bring innovations to market across the fields of Life Sciences and Sustainability. Our offering of strategic consulting services, funding consulting, project management and more, deliver impactful expertise for all development stages. Catalyze supports organisations in identifying suitable funding opportunities, developing competitive proposals and managing funded projects. For MSCA-COFUND, we can help assess programme fit, structure the application and align the proposal with funder expectations.

Learn more about Catalyze.