University and research groups have urged the European Commission to preserve the bottom-up nature of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), after a recent proposal to use the programme to target European Union political priorities.

Widely considered to be one of Horizon Europe’s biggest successes, the MSCA supports training, career development and knowledge exchange among researchers. In a joint statement released on 24 June, the Young European Research Universities Network (YERUN), the Coimbra Group and the research institution alliance EU-LIFE said the initiative’s “non-prescriptive model” was central to its success.

The European Commission’s proposal would see the introduction of targeted funding calls, as well as the use of “top-up funding” from other areas of the successor to Horizon Europe, known as FP10, to fund researchers in “strategic” areas. This new directionality “would fundamentally alter the MSCA’s well-proven model towards a more top-down structure”, the umbrella groups said in response.

“[MSCA] has enabled breakthroughs in strategic areas such as AI, quantum, health, and climate, often well before these areas were politically prioritised,” the groups said in a statement. “The programme is already delivering on EU priorities without the need for top-down thematic focus. What it requires now is more support and funding, not redefinition.”

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“There is no need to put energy into changes and new features in a programme that everyone is happy with – that is both popular and works well according to all stakeholders – with one exception, the continued low success rates,” Coimbra Group director Emmanuelle Gardan said. “In a nutshell, do not change a winning concept.”

Marta Agostinho, executive director of EU-LIFE, added: “The MSCA is a gold standard because its bottom-up, non-prescriptive model gives researchers the conditions to drive innovation where it matters most.”

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Arguing that targeted funding calls would not help to close the skills gap in key sectors – as skills shortages would likely have shifted by the time new talent could emerge – the umbrella bodies said the proposal “fundamentally misdiagnoses the core challenges”, adding: “Europe suffers from persistent structural shortcomings in research careers, such as precarity, insufficient career progression pathways, limited mobility and lack of long-term investments in research.”

“We need to stop reacting to challenges when it is too late. We need strong, long-term strategies to support Europe’s talent and research careers,” said Silvia Gómez Recio, secretary general of YERUN.

The European research sector has expressed alarm about the possible increase of directionality in FP10, with the suggestion that it could be folded into a broader “competitiveness fund” the cause of particular concern before commission president Ursula von der Leyen’s recent conformation that it would remain a self-standing programme.

However, the framework programme will still be “tightly connected” to the proposed competitiveness fund, said von der Leyen, prompting the League of European Research Universities (Leru) and the Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities to call for “clarity on what this connection entails and how it will be implemented”.

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emily.dixon@timeshighereducation.com