DN: How will RAISE projects be managed?

These projects will be managed by REA and the budget will be based on unit costs.

DN: Will fellows under RAISE be labelled as MSCA Fellows?

Fellows will not be called MSCA fellows but RAISE DN fellows because this is a second chance for projects that would not be funded otherwise (similarly to the ERA Fellows).

PF: Is Doctorate of Business Administration (DBA) considered equivalent to a PhD for the MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships call?

If the degree in question is recognised by the local authorities of the Member State / Associated Country where the beneficiary is located as equivalent to a doctoral degree, then REA will consider it as an equivalent of a doctoral degree for the purposes of eligibility to the MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships call.

PF: What is the difference between inadmissible and non-valid non-academic placements (NAPs) in Postdoctoral Fellowships?

Inadmissible placements are considered NAPs when the placements fulfill all the requirements to be considered as a valid NAP (duration of 6 months after the standard duration of the fellowship and organisation located in EU Member States or Associated Countries), but the organisations are academic instead of non-academic. A non-valid NAP is when one of the requirements is not fulfilled. Assessment is done based on the validation status of the organisation at the time of call closure, with further checks during grant agreement preparation.

PF: Is it just a strong recommendation that proposals should be submitted by a representative of the beneficiary (e.g. supervisor of the proposal) or does the submission system prevent the researcher from submitting the proposal themselves?

On p. 5 of the MSCA PF Guide for Applicants it is stated that indeed the proposal should be submitted by a representative of the beneficiary. This should be read as a strong recommendation. Technically however, the researcher can also submit the proposal in the portal as in previous years.

PF: Would it be acceptable for the supervisor to be employed by the host institution only from the start of the project, i.e. joining the institution at the same time as the fellow?

Yes, it is acceptable.

PF: Could the supervisor be the same person who supervised the applicant during their PhD?

Yes, it is possible.

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.