SE: Do Associated Partners based in Third Countries have to encode person-months for their staff in the budget table of Part A?

Partners based in low and middle-income countries are eligible for Horizon Europe funding. If they plan to send their staff for secondments, they must encode the number of seconded researchers and the number of person-months, even though they will not receive the funding from the European Commission because the beneficiaries will manage their funds. In case they don’t plan to send their staff for secondments, and will only be hosting staff from other participants, then PM should be 0.

Partners based in high-income countries do not encode the budget, except for exceptional funding request.

SE: How do applicants encode Associated Partners from third countries in the online system?

Under Staff Exchanges, all participant organisations must be encoded simply as ‘Partner’ (regardless of whether they are beneficiaries or associated partners), except for the coordinator, which is registered as ‘Coordinator’.

Applicants should refer to ‘How to complete the Budget table (Part A section 3)’ of MSCA Staff Exchanges Guide for Applicants.

During the GAP phase, the Associated Partners will be moved to the ‘Associated Partners’ tab.

SE: How should applicants fill in Table 5 of part B2 of the MSCA Staff Exchanges application form for the assessment of the operational capacity of non-academic beneficiaries?

The column ‘No. of employees in R&I’ refers to all staff working in R&I, regardless of whether they are involved in the particular Staff Exchanges project or not.

In the ‘No. of full-time employees involved in the project’ column all staff members involved in the project should be inserted, including administrative staff who cannot be seconded. This gives a strong indication that the organisation has the capacity to implement the project.

PF: Can periods of inactivity due to surgery be deducted from the 8-year research experience rule?

Periods of more than 30 days are considered as long term sick leave and can extend the 8-year period of research experience. Applicants should refer to the Guidelines on the calculation of 8-years research experience in PF under Horizon Europe.

SE: Should same-sector secondments in Europe meet the interdisciplinary requirement?

Concerning the eligible exchanges for the MSCA Staff Exchanges 2026:

-          Secondments between EU member states and associated countries are eligible for funding (no 1/3 rule). ​

-          Secondments from EU member states and associated countries to all third countries are eligible for funding.

-          Secondments from low to middle income third countries to EU member states and associated countries are eligible for funding. ​

However,

-          Secondments from participants from “Other Countries” (not in the List of Participating Countries in Horizon Europe) are not eligible for funding and therefore by default have to participate at their own cost​

-          Secondments between Third Countries are not eligible for funding.​

Concerning the interdisciplinarity, it is not mandatory for the same-sector secondments in Europe. However, according to the update of the MSCA part of the Work Programme the applicants will be evaluated under the criterion 1.2 Excellence on the Soundness of the proposed approach to foster international, intersectoral and interdisciplinary collaborations.

In addition, there is a new eligibility condition (see p. 6 of the Guide for Applicants)

-          Sectors: The consortium must include participating organisations from both academic and non-academic sectors.

To conclude, interdisciplinarity is not mandatory for the same-sector secondments in Europe, however, the international, intersectoral and interdisciplinary aspect of the proposal will be evaluated under the excellence criterion.

COFUND: Should CCC be applied to the MSCA COFUND allowances?

No, country correction coefficients are not applied to COFUND allowances.

If there are several countries involved in recruiting fellows in a COFUND project, applicants can provide competitive salary amounts taking into account the national situation. A table may be included with columns by country and the allowance for each fellow in each country.

PF: What are the steps in case the beneficiary wants to terminate the Postdoctoral Fellowship during the fellow’s probation period?

The beneficiary should follow the internal labour rules as well as national / regional laws. The Project Officer will guide the beneficiary on how to proceed. However, the termination of the fellow’s contract will also put an end to the Grant Agreement, and the beneficiary will have to restore the remaining funding to the European Commission.

COFUND: Can vacation days be subtracted from the total time spent in the country of the beneficiary?

Days of holiday cannot be subtracted.

On p. 96 of the MSCA Work Programme 2026-2027 it is written that “Compulsory national service, short stays such as holidays, time spent by the researcher as part of a procedure for obtaining refugee status under the Geneva Convention  and time spent for obtaining EU temporary protection  are not taken into account.” This applies in another sense: if the candidate was living abroad but spent some days in the country of the beneficiary on holidays, these days will not be taken into account for the 12-months rule for application in this country.

COFUND: When a project is co-funded by the coordinator and by the implementing partners, how should applicants fill in Table 1.1 when, for example, the implementing partners are funding X fellows and the coordinator Y fellows?

Applicants can calculate the average rate per fellow: take the total co-funding amount provided by the coordinator, and the total provided by the implementing partners, and divide it by the number of fellows.

SE: How can an umbrella organisation send a staff member on secondments when the staff member is hired by different organisations within the umbrella organisation?

The type of relationship between the seconded staff member and the sending organisation (i.e. employment contract, fellowship or other) is NOT relevant as long as:

− it complies with national law

− it complies with internal practices and

− during the secondment it confers legal authority on the sending beneficiary (or associated partner) that enables them to ensure compliance with the Grant Agreement obligations.

As regards staff having contracts with different entities within an umbrella organisation - if the umbrella organisation can justify that the fellow / staff member is assimilated to their own staff under national law or internal practices, then that individual can be considered as a staff member of the beneficiary and so be seconded.

If this is not the case, then the entity holding the contract may be added as an Associated partner linked to a beneficiary, provided the relevant conditions are fulfilled (legal or capital link – longstanding research agreement / collaboration going beyond the project duration).