The European Commission has published the Excellent Science external evaluation study. The study is part of the mid-term evaluation of Horizon Europe, the EU framework programme for Research and Innovation for 2021-2027.
The study assesses the contribution of Horizon Europe to excellent science, focusing on the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions’ (MSCA) as well as other actions.
MSCA is praised for several aspects
The study highlights that MSCA is crucial to strengthening human capital in research and innovation, boosting research talent and supporting Europe’s competitiveness. Several aspects are praised. For example, the bottom-up nature of the actions and the freedom for researchers to pursue their own research agenda.
The downside of success
MSCA attract a high number of excellent projects, which is also a downside to the success. The current budget is not enough to fund all excellent projects. An additional 6 billion euros would be needed to fund all high-quality proposals received in 2021 and 2022. Despite its limited budget, MSCA is the Horizon Europe programme which most stimulates mobility of researchers across countries, both within the EU and beyond.
Want to know more about the study?