SE: A researcher owns 65% of a SME but does not hold a direct employment contract with the company. Instead, he is employed by a university. Could such a person, despite not being directly employed by the SME, be considered eligible staff for a secondment?

The link between an entity and its owner exists and the person is eligible under MSCA Staff Exchanges, as far as they play a role within its structure (CEO, Chairperson, CFO, president or other) and they comply with all other conditions of eligibility (for example, that they are linked to R&I activities at the SME).

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.

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.

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).

SE: Is it possible to involve volunteers from NGOs in Staff Exchange secondments?

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.

Volunteers’ contracts generally do not fulfil the required condition of eligibility as the person is not assimilated as ‘staff’ under national legislation and the entity is lacking the legal authority to ensure compliance with Grant Agreement obligations.

If the entity can prove that the staff eligibility condition is fulfilled, then the fellow / staff member can be seconded in MSCA Staff Exchanges.

All Actions: Applicants that have one PIC number (one legal entity), but have offices in different countries, how should they proceed with regard to eligibility and budget?

Staff Exchanges:

For the case of SE, please see footnote 101 on p. 88 of the Work Programme 2026-2027 which states:

“Secondments to and from branches and departments without separate legal personality that are part of legal entities established in EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries can take place with entities established in any country other than the country where they are physically located and the country of their mother legal entity.”

Doctoral Networks:

As mentioned in footnote 74 on p. 72 of the MSCA Work Programme 2026-2027:

“In exceptional cases, where a beneficiary is established in a country different from the place where the recruited researcher is hosted, the country correction coefficient of the hosting entity is taken into account during the grant agreement preparation process, in order to ensure the correct budget calculation.”

However, this exception should not be used to circumvent the Horizon Europe rules for participation.

Postdoctoral Fellowships:

As mentioned in footnote 84 on p. 78 of the MSCA Work Programme 2026-2027:

“In exceptional cases, where a beneficiary is established in a country different from the place where the recruited researcher is hosted, the country correction coefficient of the hosting entity is taken into account during the grant agreement preparation process, in order to ensure the correct budget calculation.”

However, this applies only to applicants with offices in EU Member States and Horizon Europe Associated Countries. Offices based in Third Countries will not be eligible.

SE: Can USA organisations participate in Staff Exchanges and receive funding?

USA entities can participate in Staff Exchanges projects by receiving and sending staff during the project. However, no funding is allocated to them.

Depending on an internal agreement of the consortium, USA participants can receive some budget from the coordinator, but this is not very common. Another option is to request exceptional funding due to their participation being considered essential for implementing the project.

All actions: What is the difference between academic and non-academic organisations in MSCA?

The non-academic sector includes, but is not limited to:

- Industry and businesses (spin-off, start-ups, SMEs, Mid-caps and corporations).

- Private companies, including Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs).

- Non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

- Hospitals (there may be exceptions).

- Museums (there may be exceptions).

- Public authorities.

- Other entities not primarily focused on academic research or education (associations, platforms, etc.).

The academic sector includes the following types of legal entities:

- Public or private higher education establishments that award academic degrees.

- Public or private non-profit research organisations.

- International European Research Organisations (IERO).

SE: Does a seconded person need to physically be at the secondment organisation for a full month for it to be eligible? Can they go to a conference in another country during this time?

Secondments are aimed at ensuring transfer of knowledge between two organisations through the implementation of the research and innovation activities established in the Annex 1 of the Grant Agreement.

Therefore, the participation in a conference is eligible for funding only if it is ancillary to an ongoing eligible secondment and only if it forms an integral part of the training and transfer of knowledge activities planned for this secondment.

As the duration for participation in a conference is limited to 1-2 days, it can be accepted as part of the ongoing secondment if it is in the country of the institution hosting the secondment or in another country.

SE: Can the categories of seconded personnel be changed during the implementation of the project without an amendment?

It is difficult to change the categories of seconded personnel during implementation. The Project Officer should be consulted.

SE: Are all fields mandatory in the table “Researchers involved in the proposal“ in Part A of the MSCA Staff Exchanges application?

Applicants can leave some fields blank when completing the “Researchers involved in the proposal” table such as nationality, reference identifier, type of identifier, etc., but there are other fields such as email that are mandatory. It will show an error when validating the form if they are not filled in.

SE: Since Indian partners can be eligible for the Indian co-funding mechanism (by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)), does that mean the coordinator should insert zero for the Indian partner in the budget table? Should they describe the proposed contribution by the additional secondments to be funded directly by India in part B?

As the MSCA Staff Exchanges proposal is part of the application for the CSIR funding, the secondments from India to Europe need to be described in the proposal in Part B. The CSIR entities participate as ‘Associated Partners’. This detailed document can be consulted.  

SE: Does each same-sector secondment need to be interdisciplinary to be eligible or are all same-sector secondments (which are limited to 1/3 of all secondments) considered eligible, as long as the project as a whole is interdisciplinary?

Any secondment between two or more academic organisations in the same sector within EU and/or AC needs to be interdisciplinary.

SE: Can Associated partners linked to a beneficiary host secondments?

Associated partners linked to a beneficiary cannot host secondments in the sense of legal/ contractual link – they cannot handle funding allocated for seconded staff – this is the responsibility of the beneficiary they are linked to.

However, associated partners linked to a beneficiary can host secondments in the sense of the actual work carried out in the premises of such associated partners. Funding for research (etc.) carried out by staff seconded to such associated partners is channeled through the beneficiary they are linked to.

SE: Which researchers should be included in the table “Researchers involved in the proposal” on page 8 of 17 of the Staff Exchanges application form?

Applicants should include in this table the researchers who will actually work on the proposal writing, and if possible, the names of those who will participate in the project. No administrative staff should be included here.

SE: Can PhD candidates and Postdoctoral fellows be seconded in Staff Exchanges if they do not receive salaries from the sending organisation?

REA requires some sort of reassurance that the PhD candidate is legally connected to the sending organisation; a supplementary agreement can be signed as evidence of a legal link between the sending organisation and the PhD candidate.

The fact of being a registered PhD candidate is considered enough proof of an established ‘link’ with the sending organisation. However, this alone is not enough for the PhD candidate to be considered eligible, as all the other conditions of eligibility need to be fulfilled, namely:

- being under the supervision of the sending organisation,

- being committed full-time during the secondment, i.e. being seconded on a full-time basis,

- having the correct profile for the task to be implemented, and then

- having all obligations met (where applicable) regarding the Specific Rules listed in Annex 5 of the MGA for unit grants; for example, ensuring that the seconded staff are covered by an adequate medical insurance scheme, etc.

In summary, a PhD candidate may be seconded if they have a contract/agreement allowing them to work full-time on the R&I-related activities of the action during the secondment under the instructions of the sending beneficiary.

As for the Postdoctoral fellows, they are not entitled to participate in a secondment if they don’t have a salary. Indeed, the MSCA top-up allowance must not replace the salary.

SE: Is there a ‘typical’ number of secondments within a Staff Exchanges project?

A proposal’s optimality is not the number of secondments but its excellence, provided that the eligibility criteria are met.

The average project budget is around 1M EUR, but projects might have higher or lower budgets. The maximum number of person-months that can be funded in a Staff Exchanges project is 360 corresponding to a maximum funding amount of EUR 1.65 million.

SE: Should the number of person-months by Beneficiary and by Associated Partner eligible for funding be indicated separately in the scientific Work Package?

In Part B, it should be specified the number of person-months allocated per Beneficiary and Associated Partner eligible for funding, detailing the activities they will perform in each Work Package.