Marie Curie Fellowships - call now out

The latest Marie Curie Fellowships call is now out. The deadline for applications is 11th August 2011.

Marie Curie Fellowships are for postdoctoral research in any subject (not just cancer research - a common misconception). They pay your salary and other costs for up to two years. There is no specific cut-off in terms of experience, but applicants are usually fairly early on in their postdoctoral career. You don't need an existing academic job to be eligible to apply.

The most important characteristic of this scheme is that you have to move country. There are three ways in which you can do this:

* Move from one EU country to another. * Come from outside the EU into the EU. * Go from inside the EU to outside the EU (but come back for a year at the end - no running off forever to shiny America or sunny Australia).

Eligibility

You need to have at least a PhD or four full-time years of experience of doing research at an equivalent level. Nationality restrictions also apply in some cases:

* Moving from one European country to another: You can be any nationality to apply for an Intra-European Fellowship. However, you cannot have spent more than 12 months out of the last 3 years living or doing research in the country to which you wish to move. (Holidays and national service don't count in this 12 months.) * Coming from outside the EU into the EU: You can, again, be of any nationality - you just need to be coming from outside the EU. Again, however, the 12-months-in-3-years rule applies. * Going from within the EU to outside the EU: You need to either be a national of an EU country or to have lived and worked in the EU for at least the last 5 years (measured at the time of the deadline).

Returning from career breaks

A relatively new characteristic of the scheme is the 'career restart' option. This is open to people who had a research job for at least 12 months before taking their career break. 'Career restart' applications are considered under a separate panel to try and ensure equal opportunities.

Money

The scheme pays a salary, relocation costs (EUR 700 a month for someone without a family), and research and training expenses (EUR 800 a month).

Further information

* Call webpage (http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/dc/index.cfm?fuseaction=UserSite.FP7CallsPage)