SE: A Doctoral Candidate’s scholarship ends in Month X, while the thesis defence will take place in Month Z. According to internal organisation rules, the person retains Doctoral Candidate status until the thesis defence. During this period, however, Doctoral Candidates no longer receive a scholarship, although they may undertake missions funded through their supervisors’ research funds. Will a secondment of such a Doctoral Candidate be considered eligible and reimbursable in MSCA Staff Exchanges?

Being registered as a PhD candidate in a concrete country/organisation is sufficient to be considered as a staff member, so they are eligible, even if they do not have a working contract.

Furthermore, this organisation must be in the consortium, must have signed the MSCA-Staff Exchanges Grant Agreement, and must send their staff (i.e., PhD candidate) within the project duration.

On the specific issue of thesis defence pending, the PhD candidate must still be a staff member of their sending organisation while on secondment.

‘Staff’ means there is a contractual link that gives the sending organisation the legal means in terms of control, supervision, and instructions to impose on the secondee compliance with the Grant Agreement obligations (e.g. full-time work for the activities of the project, IPR, visibility of EU funds, confidentiality, etc.).

Beneficiaries should also consider all other eligibility criteria mentioned in the relevant and applicable Work Programme.

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.

Se: Is it possible to travel from a country other than the beneficiary’s country of origin?

In general, yes, staff can travel either from their place of origin or from the country in which they are located.

Staff can also move from one place to another place according to the secondment plan without the need to return to their place of origin: e.g. Argentina-Italy (first secondment), then Spain (second secondment) and finally Argentina (return).

As for the tickets, dates can be different, and the mobility can be combined with holidays. Beneficiaries encode the date of the secondments where the staff member was active in the R&I activities of the project (travel day of departure included).

Please note that in case of audit, beneficiaries must provide supporting documents as evidence of the mobility, staff eligibility, and R&I activity in the project.

SE: How should the mobility declaration in MSCA Staff Exchanges be submitted in case of long-distance trips where airfare prices are more favourable for trips longer than 30 days? How many days of deviation can be accepted as part of that 1-month secondment?

For MSCA Staff Exchanges grants, beneficiaries encode the date of the secondments only (not the unit cost or duration).

For deviations, the project coordinator is advised to contact their project officer to discuss the specific case.   

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.

All Actions: Is it possible to edit the already submitted critical risks statements, or should the coordinator delete and replace them in the tab if changes are needed?

The risks have been already indicated at the Grant Agreement Preparation phase and, therefore, are automatically displayed in this tab. No more risks can be added at this stage of the flow.

However, in the continuous reporting module, the coordinator should update the risk section (materialisation / mitigation). If a new risk has occurred, they would need to add an Unforeseen risk.

All Actions: If there is a deviation during the implementation period that has resulted in an amendment, should this be reported as a deviation in the periodic report as well?

If an amendment took place, it is no longer considered as a deviation.

SE: Can a project manager of a Staff Exchanges project be sent on a secondment in their project manager role?

If they are involved in R&I activities at the institution and in the project, they can go on secondment. If the activities foreseen are purely administrative, the secondment is not eligible. The activities carried out in a Staff Exchange secondment should always be R&I-related.

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.