MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships
Contacts: Emrah Göker, Oya Gül
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) are under Horizon Europe’s “Excellent Science” pillar (along with ERC). One of the schemes included in MSCA’s Work Programmes is the “Postdoctoral Fellowships” call, which is the updated version of the previous “Individual Fellowships” scheme under Horizon 2020 (2014-2020). During Horizon 2020, Koç University was the most successful higher education institution in Turkey with 19 Individual Fellowships projects.
Under the MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2021 call, 2 fellows; and under the 2022 call, 1 fellows was funded, hosted by Koç University.
The goal of the MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships program is to support the mobility of creative and innovative researchers holding a PhD degree and help them acquire new research skills and thus enhance their career development. The most significant change in the fellowship scheme is its new eligibility rule, limiting applications to researchers who are at the early stages of their career: For the 2023 call, researchers who have received their PhD degree within 8 years prior to the 13 September 2023 deadline are eligible.
As the Sponsored Research Office (SRO), we offer matchmaking between candidate fellows and supervisors, and also support applicants’ proposals until the deadline.
If you are seeking to procure evaluation services from consultant firms and persons for your proposal, TUBITAK is offering a financial support scheme. You can review the application procedure, which is open until 28 July 2023. You can also contact TUBITAK’s MSCA National Contact Points Tuğba Arslan Kantarcıoğlu and Şeyma Sayımlar for your queries about the fellowship program.
Fellowship Types
- European Postdoctoral Fellowships: Fellows from any nationality can move from a non-European country to a European country (including Turkey) or within Europe. Project duration is between 12-24 months. Mobility rule: Applicants must not have resided in the country of the beneficiary for more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before the call deadline.
- Global Postdoctoral Fellowships: Residents in Europe (+5 years) or European citizens (including Turkish citizens) can move to a non-European country. 12-24 months of the project has to be run at the non-European country, and there is a 12-month mandatory return phase back to the European host organization. Mobility rule: Applicants must not have resided in the country of the target non-European organization for more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before the call deadline.
Fellowships may be prolonged up to 6 months through a placement in the non-academic sector at the end of the project.
2023 Call and Documents
MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships (PF) 2022 call is closing on 13 September 2023. For general information, click here and for the official call page where you can start your electronic submission and download call documents, here.
We recommend that you begin reviewing the call with the “Guide for Applicants“.
Once a candidate matches with a Koç University faculty for a European PF application, they can contact us (sro@ku.edu.tr) and receive a specialized SRO package of guides and support documents.
Finding a Supervisor
Those researchers who wish to develop a MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships application with Koç University as the host need to collaborate with a faculty whose research topics match with theirs. We can offer matchmaking support to applicants via sro@ku.edu.tr.
For Global Postdoctoral Fellowships applications, applicants need to identify a supervisor both at Koç University and at their target non-European institution.
Attracting a Researcher to Your Group
Koç University faculty can contact us (sro@ku.edu.tr) to publish a hosting offer via our platforms at EURAXESS and https://jobs.ku.edu.tr/ if they are interested in supporting a postdoctoral researcher within their group, lab, center or infrastructure.
If there are applicants who contact you directly and you agree to supervise their proposal, introduce them to us and we will support their application.
Current European PF Hosting Offers
We will update active hosting offers at Koç University here.
SRO Services
As SRO, we offer the following services to MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships candidates:
- We can act help the matchmaking between a European Postdoctoral Fellowships candidate and relevant Koç University research units.
- We share our repository of official and unofficial guides, internal proposal analyses and presentations with matched applicants.
- We provide text suggestions for certain sections of the proposal offering explanations about Koç University services and facilities and offer feedback to your proposal drafts.
- We meet you online to help with the electronic submission.
Please contact us via the email addresses offered at the start of this page or at sro@ku.edu.tr.