FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
The programme “Widening Participation & Strengthening of the European Research Area” offers funding opportunities for fellows as well as for the legal entities acting as their supervisors:
- ERA Fellowships (HORIZON-WIDERA-2023-TALENTS-02): This action builds on the MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships. It offers an additional funding opportunity aimed at host organisations located in Widening Countries. In order to apply for the ERA Fellowships call, applicants need to submit their proposal to the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions (MSCA) Postdoctoral Fellowships. The application to the (MSCA) Postdoctoral Fellowships will be automatically resubmitted to HORIZON-WIDERA-TALENTS call in case the proposal fails to reach an adequate place in the ranking to be funded. Please see all 52 funded projects here.
- ERA Talents (HORIZON-WIDERA-2024-TALENTS-03-01): A staff exchange scheme aiming to boost interoperability of careers and employability of research and innovation talents across sectors, with a centre of gravity in widening countries. Cross-sectoral talent circulation and academia-business collaboration for knowledge transfer is key component of this call.
- Hop On Facility (HORIZON-WIDERA-2023-ACCESS-06-01): Foresees the possibility for legal entities from low R&I performing countries to join already collaborative R&I actions from Pillar II and EIC Pathfinder, subject to the agreement of the respective consortium and provided that legal entities from such countries are not yet participating in it. The list of eligible calls eligible is available here. The next cut-off is on September 28th 2023.
GRANTS OFFERED BY THE NCP_WIDERA.NET PROJECT
The NCP_WIDERA.NET project offers a cascade grant facility for the benefit of applicants coming from Widening countries. It comes in form of:
- Travel Grants to facilitate networking at Horizon Europe brokerage events as well as within dedicated study visits to non-widening internationally leading organisations.
- Proposal pre-check services: The service will be available for coordinators and work package leaders from Widening countries and facilitated through a dedicated experts’ data base hosted at NCP_WIDERA.NET webpage: https://ncpwidenet.eu/
For more information on how to access travel grants, please contact your country’s National Contact Point for Widening Participation and ERA, available on Funding and Tenders opportunities Portal: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/support/ncp;sortQuery=country;functions=14
WHICH ARE THE WIDENING COUNTRIES?
According to the Horizon Europe regulation the less advanced countries in R&I performance, eligible for hosting the co-ordinator of widening actions:
- Member states: Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia
- Associated countries: Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kosovo 2 , Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey, Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, Morocco, Tunisia, Ukraine, Faroe Islands
- Outermost Regions (defined in Art. 349 TFEU). Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, Réunion, Saint-Barthélemy, Saint-Martin, the Azores, Madeira, Canary Islands


