MSCA Doctoral Networks

The Doctoral Networks (DN) are part of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions (MSCA). They to promote international, intersectoral and multi/interdisciplinary collaboration in Europe, with the objective of training highly-skilled doctoral candidates and stimulating entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation in Europe and beyond. DN are bottom-up projects, where the consortium is free to choose the research area, though there are administrative requirements, such as:

• Collaborative projects (participants from minimum three member states or associated countries), where all beneficiaries must recruit at least one doctoral candidate
• Recruited PhDs must comply with a mobility rule (max 12 months in the recruiting country in the last 36 months prior to recruitment)
• Duration of the project is 48 months, PhD’s are hired for up to 36 months
• All recruited doctoral candidates have individual research projects each contributing to the overarching aim of the network

MSCA DN types

• Regular Doctoral Networks (DN): Enrolls candidates in a doctoral programme and joint research project
• Industrial Doctorates (DN-ID): Go further by mandatory involvement of the non-academic sector. Recruited candidates must spend 50% of their time in the non-academic sector.
• Joint Doctorates (DN-JD): Go further than DN by creating joint doctoral programmes leading to the delivery of joint, double or multiple degrees (DTU only participates in double degrees).

Funding

The funding is based on unit costs corresponding to number of person-months of the recruited doctoral candidates. Unit cost contributions for recruited researchers (adjusted to country of recruitment) cover their salary, whereas institutional unit costs cover research, training and networking activities as well as management and indirect contribution.

You can find out more about MSCA-DN grants at the MSCA website, or contact us for more information