The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) 2026 call for co-funding of regional, national, and international programmes (COFUND) opened on 16 December 2025, with a submission deadline set for 8 April 2026. Through this initiative, the European Commission will allocate €105.5 million to support institutional, regional, national, and international training and career development programmes for researchers. The funding aims to strengthen existing doctoral and postdoctoral programmes or create new ones, facilitating the recruitment of researchers and the attraction of international talent. Organisations benefiting from COFUND support are expected to co-finance a significant portion of the programme costs, and synergies with cohesion policy funds are strongly encouraged.
COFUND projects can take the form of doctoral programmes, offering research training activities to develop and broaden candidates’ skills while leading to a doctoral degree, or postdoctoral programmes, providing advanced research training and career development fellowships. Programmes can be open to any research discipline but may also focus on specific areas, particularly when aligned with national or regional Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialisation (RIS3). A single organisation based in an EU Member State or a Horizon Europe associated country is eligible to apply, with additional implementing and associated partners, such as government entities, universities, research organisations, and enterprises, able to participate in recruiting researchers, hosting secondments, and providing training. Implementing partners must be established in eligible countries, while associated partners can come from anywhere.
COFUND promotes the MSCA’s best practices by fostering high standards in researcher selection and recruitment, excellent working conditions, and sustainable training. The initiative encourages international, interdisciplinary, and inter-sectoral mobility, aiming to train researchers and innovators in academia and beyond, expand professional networks, facilitate knowledge sharing, and enhance creativity, entrepreneurship, and employability. Organisations can also leverage these programmes to attract international talent, strengthen their research and innovation capacity, and contribute to local, regional, or national socio-economic development, thereby enhancing their overall attractiveness.
Funded programmes are expected to incorporate key elements, including research excellence, open science, effective communication and dissemination of results, community engagement, entrepreneurship, gender equality, ethics, and high-quality supervision. The indicative timeline for the call includes the launch on 16 December 2025, proposal submission deadline on 8 April 2026, notification of results in September 2026, grant agreement signatures in December 2026, and the start of EU-funded projects in the first semester of 2027.
