 Good morning, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, my name is Ernest Aite and I am the Secretary General of the African Research Universities Alliance. I'm very, very pleased to welcome you to this morning's Arua Guild Info session. I guess this morning is aimed at providing a detailed presentation of the European Union funding calls for applications currently or soon hoping that may be of interest to Arua and the Guild universities, where we focus on doctoral training funding opportunities between African and European universities. We have talked about Erasmus, Capacity Building in Higher Education, and the Maryscova Dutel Curie actions. During the Info session, you have the opportunity to ask questions to staff from the DG Education, Youth, Sport and Culture, and then the research executive agency. I'm very pleased that you found time to join us. Now that we know why we are doing this, let me talk briefly about Arua and the Guild, what we have been doing together. Indeed, we began our collaboration in 2018 simply because we do find common areas of interest. We find a strong interest in trying to build up higher education in the region. We find a strong interest in research innovation as a part of the European Union and African Union partnership. The two things that are driving us, the fact that for most of Africa, the research that is used by governments, the research that is used by various agencies, comes from the public universities, about 60 to 90 percent of that's coming from the public universities. So Arua and the Guild have a strong interest in supporting the European Union and the African Union to achieve the agenda 2063, built on the understanding that knowledge is what is going to make the realization of this possible. We have, through our collaboration, published a position paper and also a concept note. We have contributed in very significant ways towards our understanding of what is happening in the area of research in Africa and how the European Union has been supporting this. All of this contributed to the development of the ARISE program, which today has become the flagship initiative to support research in Africa. Besides, we have been working on the developing doctoral education in the region. We have supported or we plan to support 20 doctoral schools for up to 100 doctoral students each year with support from the African Union and the EU partnership. So clearly, in doing this, in having this event, we are focused on how we can support the African Union and the European Union in their partnership to build a much more elaborate knowledge society in Africa. That's what I've got here today. I'm very happy that our program allows us to talk to many of the people who are key to making this happen. I'm very happy that in the program that we have today, therefore, some minor changes that have been made to it will be listening to Deirdre Lennon, who will be speaking to us on capacity building higher education and about the ARISE course, who will be listening to staff from the MSC. And I'm very pleased that we will be listening to be represented largely by very non-Yabu people in this particular area. Apart from Deirdre, we'll also be paying attention to Nancy, Nancy Ijokutu, Pominye. Nancy is going to be addressing us on the research initiatives that are available. We also have, indeed, after Deirdre, the second to speak will be Claire Mora. And after Claire, we have Nancy. And then after Nancy, Ijokutu, Pominye will have Audrey Afi and then finally Julie Lepretu. So this is the order in which they'll be speaking. And I'm very pleased to invite Deirdre to address us. So thank you very much, Ernest. And my name is Jan Pamoski, Secretary-General from the Guild. So I'm Ernest's colleague, Ernest in Arua, and I'm doing the same thing for the Guild. And Deirdre, yes, I mean, if we can maybe start with your presentation. You've been your policy officer for cooperation with Africa. It'd be great to hear from you some more details around the new sort of Erasmus course and how they relate to capacity building and high education. I would ask all those listening to join in the conversation to already begin asking questions in the Q&A sections of the Zoom function. So if you have questions, do start asking them now. We'll really do our best to really go through these questions in the Q&A session. There's a good 20 minutes, 25 minutes that we have for that. So please do go ahead and engage as we go along. So Deirdre, the floor is yours. Thank you very much. I would like to highlight today. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, colleagues from both continents. I'd like to highlight the opportunities that are available for universities and research organisations to support doctoral education through Erasmus. Today's presentation, I'm going to briefly explain what is Erasmus Plus and I'm going to focus on two of the actions in particular, international credit mobility and capacity building and higher education. And then I'll provide you with some further information resources, links, etc. Just to summarise very briefly, for those of you who don't know Erasmus Plus, Erasmus Plus is the EU's programme to support education, training youth and sport in the European Union but also beyond and for cooperation across the world. The programme provides funding for programmes, for projects, scholarships and mobility. And it's our main instrument in the field of education and higher education in particular for fostering cooperation between EU and notably Africa. We are now entering the new phase of the programme, so the previous phase was 2014-2020 and now we are looking ahead for the next seven-year period. And in this new phase of the programme, there are a series of overarching priorities which you will see reflected in the different actions, quite significantly, excuse me. There is focus on quality in education, the roles of teachers, very strong focus on higher education on the European universities. Inclusion and gender equality, that was one of the issues that came up in the evaluation of the previous phase. We need to reach out more to underrepresented groups in the programme. The green and digital twin transitions focus very highly in the new phase of the programme and the geopolitical dimension of the programme. We want to be able to offer, alongside the programmes that our member states are offering, means for a cooperation between Europe and the partners, our partners across the world and notably Africa. And in that context, I refer also to the Secretary-General's introduction, Erasmus is one of the ways to support the partnership between the African Union and the European Union. Support also the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals contribute to Africa's agenda 2063. And to bring a coherent approach to our support and interventions in across Africa and to build up, how can I say it, a stronger engagement in the next phase of the programme. Just to give you a picture here, in the previous phase of the programme, Sub-Sahara Africa was significantly underfunded. We did not advertise so strongly. Sorry, can I just interrupt briefly? We're getting quite a lot of comments about the black box that's visible. And just to explain that we weren't able to do anything about that in the tests for this in the run-up to this session. So, Deidre, I think it's... We'll be leaving the slides. We can share the slides afterwards, presumably, and we can send it around to participants that you will have the full original version. I've tried to move the people, the panellists, the side as much as possible. I'm not sure if that works, but yes, we'll give you all the information and there'll be further information sessions also available for participants. Sorry, Laura, did you have anything else to say? Sorry, is it better now? It's better now, so that's good. Apologies. Thank you. Over the previous phase of the programme, as I was saying, Sub-Sahara Africa was significantly underfunded. Here you have a picture, a snapshot of the different regions of the world, and the western Balkans and the neighborhood region were very much the focus of the funding. And whilst there was demand across Africa, we weren't able to fund a sufficient number of projects with African universities, and I'm very pleased. In the next slide, you'll see that Sub-Sahara Africa has become the highest funded region in the world. So the biggest budget that'll be available in the next seven years of the programme will be for Sub-Sahara Africa. North Africa will continue to have the comfortable and high budget it had previously, but now Sub-Sahara Africa will be able to contribute much more significantly. The actions that are particularly interesting for today's conversation on doctoral education are the exchanges of university students and staff at all levels. So PhD fellows, staff, academic and administrative, can exchange with universities in Europe. And the other action that I want to elaborate a bit on is capacity building in higher education, which are partnerships between universities on both sides. And just to give you an idea again in terms of budget, we aim to achieve 105,000 mobilities by 2027. Now in the previous phase of the programme, 35,000 students and staff from Africa came to Europe. In the next phase of the programme, we'll be funding up to 70,000 staff and students from Africa to come to Europe. And in terms of capacity building projects, in the past programme, we were able to fund approximately six projects a year for Sub-Sahara Africa. Now we'll be able to fund approximately 40 projects a year. So you can see that there's a significant increase and we really need you to take this opportunity up and to help use this funding. I'm going to be using some terminology during the presentation and I'd just like to clarify this. In the programme in Erasmus Plus, we have what we call programme countries. So the programme countries are basically the member states and the countries of third countries such as Turkey, Liechtenstein, Iceland, North Macedonia etc. which are associated to the programme. So you have those countries on one side and then you have what were called the partner countries which are in fact the non-associated third countries across the world and Erasmus functions between these two. So programme countries, partner countries and the new terminology which you see in this slide. The first action I want to talk about where the exchange is the mobilities of staff and students. So this is called international credit mobility and this action is based on bilateral arrangements between a university in Africa and a university in a programme country. So let's take the example of a university in Italy, Rome, a university in Rome. So these two universities will set up an agreement by which they're going to share exchange students and staff across a period of time. If I give you some more details here, the partnership between these two universities can last between two or three years and basically it allowed students at all levels to undertake study periods or traineeships in Europe for a maximum of one academic year and it allows for staff mobility for teaching or retraining purposes between five and 60 days. The grant provides support for the organisation of this mobility, the travel, the visas and then support for accommodation, food subsistence etc during the period when the person is abroad. The mobility is arranged in the framework of a bilateral agreement between the two universities and it lays out very clear learning agreements and expectations, learning outcomes that will be acquired by the students, how will these be recognised, credited by the home institution, mobility agreements for staff, purpose, accompanying measures etc etc. This quality framework which is applied in Europe already also applies for these arrangements between European and African universities. As I mentioned, there is support provided for the mobility, quite generous support and the universities will receive an organisational support amount which is a lump sum basically depending on the number of people that are moved. Now if you want to take part in this action, this action is actually managed by each of our member states. So the National Erasmus Agencies in Italy in this case, the University of Rome, my example, the University of Rome will submit an application to the Erasmus office in Italy proposing to undertake an Erasmus partnership with the University of Ghana. Under this proposal, they will move X number of people in various disciplines for certain purposes and then the Erasmus office in Italy will allocate the funds to the University of Rome who can then sign the agreements with the University of Ghana and begin implementing the mobility. So the application will be made by the European University directly to their Erasmus office. Here I give you the link to the list of National Agencies and they will be providing the universities in Europe all the necessary support for them to do their application. The other action is the capacity building in higher education action which are partnerships which basically allow universities to support increasing enhancing relevance, quality modernization and accessibility of higher education in this case in Africa, helping it to contribute to sustainable and social and economic development. These projects can undertake curriculum development, introduce new teaching methodologies, support university enterprise corporations, set up technology transfer, arrangements across the university, support international relations but they can also do activities such as creating doctoral schools, introducing new research facilities now. The action will not support the applied research itself but basically can support the university to build up its research capacity. So I thought this action would be particularly interesting for universities in Africa which really want to work on the research environment and the context in which young researchers will be working in African universities. Compared to the previous, those of you who know the program, compared to the previous phase will be putting more emphasis now on the overarching priorities of the program, so on green sustainable recovery and development, digital skills, inclusion and diversity and the action will be aligned to regional needs. So for Sub-Sahara Africa, for for instance the next two years, there will be priority areas which are very very wide in fact and which sort of help universities focus their interventions and increase impact. The novelties here is that we're going to have three types of projects. The first project is for newcomers in particular but not only but the smaller projects which will allow universities to test and try to do pilot measures to get used to international cooperation if they're not engaged in it yet and to provide support for initiatives. These projects will generally last two to three years and will be funded up to 400,000 euro and then we have the classical type of projects like in the previous phase which are called partnerships for transformation. These projects are focusing on innovation and innovation university business governance and I think these are the ones where Alua's constituency will probably find their place and these partnerships will also last two to three years and can be funded up to 800,000 euro. Then we have the structural reform measures. These are projects which are working at systems level and must involve the ministries. So for instance when I was talking about the establishment of doctoral schools an example could be a country which wants to introduce new legislation, wants to support the process in the universities of setting up the country's first doctoral schools could do this with the support of an Erasmus project. So here projects can go up to four years and up to a funding amount of one million euro. We've simplified the financial funding mechanisms and one last thing here is that we have also some targets for sub-Saharan Africa. We need to ensure that countries, at least developed countries and countries which have benefited less from the program in the past have opportunities here. So I'd encourage Alua's constituency to partner up with other universities in the region and bring them along with you in the process and we'll also have to ensure that no single country will get all of the funding basically. So there are several kind of additional mechanisms which have been introduced so that we can ensure that. Here you need to have at least two different EU member states involved in the project and you need at least two universities from a single country in Africa or several countries in Africa involved in the application and you can apply yourselves. If the universities in Africa wish to apply directly they can do that and here you'll be applying to Brussels, to the headquarters, here to our executive agency which is in charge of this action and I've given the details there and I'm going to quickly just give you some information, some additional information which is useful. Sorry just to say that the call for Erasmus is going to be published in the last week of October, first week of November so it's always around that period. It's one call with all the actions are published and then the deadlines for these actions for submitting proposals will be around February, February, March depending. I'm going to skip this and go straight to this slide. Please check if you're registered for if you want to participate in Erasmus projects you will need to register your organization that gives you kind of an identity card for Erasmus and for all the other programs, European programs so you could already start by doing that is to make sure that you are registered in the Fundings and Funding and Tender Opportunities Portal. If you'd like to see projects that are underway already in Africa or in any other region you can go to our Erasmus Plus project results website and just call up countries, types of projects, if you already know names of projects you can do a search there and see the types of activities that they have undertaken and we'll start rolling out materials and information campaigns, webinars and such like as soon as the call is published at the end of October. Thank you very much. Thank you so much for this really wonderful and informative presentation it's fantastic to see that so much more support is now available for universities both for kind of one-to-one exchange and collaboration and for broader regional collaboration. So I already have a number of questions here but I also see that people are already introducing themselves to each other in the chat. It's wonderful to see of course many of our members both from Urugu and the Guild participating in this chat but it's also wonderful so a warm welcome also to those who are from universities who are not our members. It's also really wonderful that you're there, this is not meant I mean even though the the invitation was sent primarily to our members it's this is not meant to be an exclusive gathering here. So there are already some people here who are already indicating kind of collaborations that they're searching that's also really very welcome. I have one question from Tomi which is about whether the funding can be used for policy reform on the regional level. So I guess this is a question really I guess about impact. Yes it can and in fact I'm hoping that universities in Africa will use the Erasmus Plus to support the harmonization gender across Africa and so for instance universities in East Africa or in Southern Africa can get together to support their regional integration processes so yes definitely that's and will be encouraging in fact projects that involve several countries several African countries together in the in the applications. Great further a question another question now from Annetta Scroft at Hansen who's from history and global studies at Orhus University in Denmark so and she's asking really around this issue of building of capacity building so will there be any support for number one access to database and library resources and B is our number two will there be support for the sustainability of university's retention potential so she's not necessarily referring for salaries to new staff but but some other types of support. Yes perhaps and well on the first one yes indeed the capacity building action does support access to databases and libraries so when we say we're basically supporting the upgrading of facilities and everything that that entails so that's that's possible and in terms of sustainability for university's retention the staff costs for universities that are involved in these projects is covered by the project so for the duration of the three four years that you're engaged all the people that are engaged in the efforts can you know are financially supported from the project obviously once the project has finished the university will then have to integrate you know the services within the normal staffing and will have to in fact explain also how they how they plan to address that the sustainability issue in the application up front. Actually Claire on that point I think that's a really important question do you have some good examples I mean maybe off the top of your head of kind of best practice or place the ways see that that sustainability has really worked very well where these universities really have managed very successfully to kind of build on that initial period of funding. I think the projects that involve you know that develop a business model from the very start and that for instance will engage in the private sector or the wider environment even the public the local authorities and such like and where they kind of build up a dynamic where by the university is offering a service to the community or to the sector and such like they generally have no problem afterwards. It can be from just offering you know traineeships for students in the enterprises getting you know getting the companies providing input into the curriculum such like you know these kind of introduce these elements into the project and I think there's a stronger chance of sustainability afterwards. Great can I just say on a practical note of terminology so the question that that Deirdre is addressing I'm clicking dismissed and that's simply so that they go into the other box it's not that it's not meant to be dismissive or derogatory it's just it's just the easiest way of doing it so I just wanted to make that clear. Mark has a question I think that fits in quite nicely which is really about whether the project can have a specific focus for instance climate change or was that indeed something you would encourage? Yeah in fact we'll be announcing the priorities for sub-Sahara Africa and I very much expect that green transition will be one of them and so we will expect for instance universities to be focusing on climate change some projects might we see a lot of them already are already working for instance in the field of renewable energies other projects might be working on agriculture so yes that's exactly it but what we want now is that projects do not only focus on the contents so the teaching program I want to develop a teaching program in but to really work on the ecosystem so not you know work on the on the place the intentions why this curriculum is intended what is expected locally and nationally regionally and to build all that into the project proposal thank you. Thank you so then there's a further question on whether the credits for so how are the credits from modules taken acquired and I have to say I'm not I'm probably you yeah just yeah and this so in the framework of the exchanges that the study periods that students will be doing in Europe for instance at the end of the study period the student will receive a certain amount of European credits for the for the study period but beforehand the two universities will have elaborated how the African university intends to recognize that in terms of equivalence so when the student then returns to their home country that credit acquired in Europe becomes either is recognized as such or is integrated into the student's learning path and then the student continues their their their academic program at home so yes it's a question of equivalence you know and that needs to be laid out at the very beginning of the project so that the students know how that is going to function when they return home after this after the study period. Thank you. A question from Evans or Zabouyan and I hope that I'm pronouncing these names correctly but so does the Russell's Plus support a PhD program hosted like at a university like Macquarie from the development to its implementation sorry that's the wrong question sorry is the is it are the course only devoted to doctoral studies and research so it's presumably it's all there are also other types of mobility that this funds I think this is the first part of your presentation I think sorry yes and the the study the study periods the mobility and basically can be for students at a bachelor master or a PhD level now bear in mind that you won't be doing a full fellowship under Erasmus because Erasmus supports only up to one year maximum okay so you'd hear more about that in Marie Curie the doctoral training programs will be explained after here it would be in the context of the PhD the fellow could do part of the assignment in Europe and so that that's what's offered under Erasmus and then there's a question here about from Christopher Francis who's completing his masters and is it possible for him to apply directly for PhD study in Europe under Erasmus? No so this will be Marie Curie which you'll hear about after so this is yeah and so basically and otherwise if he if he doesn't it's not through the Marie Curie program then it's really around it's really it would be involving an exchange between his home university Cape Town and apartment university Europe yes and and there's other funding for instance France Germany etc many of our member states offer opportunities for these for that kind of support. Then there's Saint Kizito Omala who's asking whether Erasmus plus supports a PhD program hosted at say Macquarie University from its development to its implementation? Yes so from development all the way to implementation but not the actual research that's undertaken in the framework of the program so if you know you can you can develop the PhD program under the framework of Erasmus but then after that the running and the operating of this program is up to the university to undertake and Erasmus doesn't go beyond the development up to its implementation. And thank you and then Peter Marsen from Oslo University asks whether it's it will be encouraged to connect projects funded by Erasmus plus to to connect those two projects funded in the framework of the Africa initiative of Verizon Europe? Definitely definitely and we're hoping to capture this in fact to a certain extent in the Africa EU in innovation agenda whereby we can kind of explain that depending on the direction you're coming from Erasmus, Marie Curie, Horizon are all parts of this this joint agenda between the two continents for supporting for supporting higher education research and innovation. And yeah great and Mark before I get to your question I've got to ask this question from the anonymous S&D which kind of jumps at me as a as a humanist so is the program for science-related courses alone? No not at all we have some good answer yeah we have some beautiful projects an Ethiopian one with Ireland and not because I'm Irish I'm just saying it just happens to be in music and dancing and so really everything's possible but of course you'll have to see what are considered priority for sub-Saharan Africa and bearing in mind that it's sufficiently large I think for everybody to find a place humanities are there that the you know there's a place for everybody. So Mark is just asking about really the options for multilateral projects so and he's giving an example and and in fact Mark this is an example that Ernest R&T and us have thought about this as well in terms of the Guild Euroka collaboration which is precisely the question around the the Erua centers of excellence that already exists so for he's giving the example for instance on climate change where you have Cape Town, Ghana and Nairobi universities already joined up so could this be an opportunity for that center of excellence to really build on collaborations? Yes definitely definitely and obviously I'm afraid you're stuck with the Europeans though because Erasmus is European so you must include also Europeans in this project but otherwise yes definitely please do. Great and so and Jonathan Akinwal is also then going back to the individual research issue so I guess the individual researcher would apply through their institute through an institutional one-to-one agreement is that is that a fair way of yeah under Erasmus everything is arranged by the universities so the researcher the fellow excuse me will be talking to the university and it's in that framework that is taking place under Marie Curie and they'll explain that more there are different actions and depending on the actions the the the fellow is either autonomous to the university or you know it's no in fact I prefer that they explain that but under Erasmus it's through your university that you're going. And then David Akinwal-Mida is asking really around whether Erasmus can fund PhD studies on urban planning and I will really state in urban planning in African universities and I presume that kind of depends on the universities how they choose to apply and set their priorities right? Yes and well first of all I should clarify that we wouldn't fund the PhD studies of the individuals but we could fund the development of this study program and then yes it depends on the universities priorities do they intend developing programs in those areas and in that case they can submit an application. We are beginning to get more and more questions around the postdoctoral research side so Ben Abikoia just be a patient just for a few more minutes and then we'll get right onto that. Are there any more questions really on what Deirdre has has presented? Any more questions both around the collaborative capacity building call that will open up and the opportunities really for institution to institution partnerships? Anything let me just check in the so I've just looked at the Q&A but I haven't seen anything further in the chat. So I think that's probably it for now Deirdre thank you very much I have to so I have to say you know for somebody who is who is not just Secretary General of the Guild but is also part of British of a UK university I mean I thought your presentation was an incredible reminder of what we've lost as it were by no I mean because it is I mean the added value of of Erasmus in in having this kind of framework that institutional institutions institutions and research centers can just slot into I think it's just an incredible opportunity and just just phenomenal so thank you very much and thank you very much to you and your colleagues for setting up these opportunities and really for fighting for the kind of budget that is now allowed allowed this opportunity to be there for us and for our benefit so thank you very much thank you for that and I'm I'm moving on to Claire Morel and Claire if you could so Claire Morel is Head of Units of the Marie Sklodowska-Curie actions and Claire it's wonderful that you can be here you've been a long-standing sort of supporter of of EU-African relations and we've we've had many exchanges with you on this so thank you very much for joining us and thank you for taking the time Flo is yours thank you very much Jan you can hear me well yes yes okay thank you very much so thank you very much for inviting us because I'm not alone here I'm with my colleagues from not only from the research executive agency to present the opportunities which are offered in the framework of the Marie Sklodowska-Curie action so MSCA in short and I think this seminar comes at a really good time because we are we have a number of ongoing calls and this week we're launching we are launching two new or two new calls so indeed I think it's it's it's quite the right time if you're interested in applying for the MSCA so I'll do a general introduction and then two of my colleagues will concentrate on two actions which are particularly I think interesting for our African partners one is the doctoral networks and the other one is our staff exchange action but I will briefly mention that there are other actions and the MSCA so if we go to the next next space so in fact the MSCA so the Marie Sklodowska-Curie action is a program under the Horizon Europe program which is the EU program for research and innovation and it's under what we call pillar one excellent science it's the pillar which funds a excellent science frontier research breakthrough scientific ideas and it also allows teaming up of excellent researchers from Europe and beyond and it equips them these researchers with with new skills and gives them is also access to excellent research infrastructure so the budget for the next seven years is 6.6 billion euros just for the MSCA if we look at the next slide you will see some key figures from the past seven years so in the past seven years the MSCA have funded 65,000 or have supported 65,000 researchers at all stages of their career and it includes 25,000 PhD candidates it has developed more than 1,000 doctoral programs so sometimes MSCA is seen as a program sort of a response for researchers but it's much more than that because really it funds the development of new doctoral programs it's a program as well which is very international almost 40% of our researchers are from outside the EU and it's a program as well which promotes strong links beyond academia so you see that in the past seven years 4,500 companies have been supported through the program and it's also a program which supports women to research and contribute to achieving a equal access of women in science in research and innovation in the next slide yes these are key figures from the past seven years so the I mean we have a number of African researchers but you see that it's it's it's still limited so we really hope that under Horizon Europe there will be an increased participation of African researchers and organization in MSCA so you see here the number of projects, participations and the type of organizations from Africa which have joined MSCA half of them are universities but we also have companies research centers and also public bodies next slide yes in these slides I mean this is a slide explaining what are the main features of the program so as I said it's a program which funds researchers at all stages of their career so it starts with the doctoral level and it goes into let's say supporting more advanced or more experienced researchers it's a program which focuses on skills on career development of researchers and their training it promotes as well not only that it has a positive impact not only on individuals but also in institutions joining the program so we see really that there is a the program allows these organizations you know to have a bigger or stronger visibility a stronger global attractiveness it's a bottom up program which means that it is open to all scientific disciplines I mean we do not organize targeted calls or covering specific fields it's really open to all scientific and all research areas and the projects are selected on the basis of their excellence the their impact and the quality of their implementation and of course it's a program which has a strong and very rich scientific impact the program supports the international mobility of of researchers but also their cross sexual mobility so mobility between academic and non-academic sector you will see that we are introducing even some financial incentive to promote this intersectoral mobility and interdisciplinary cooperation I mentioned it's a program which is open to researchers from all over the world and we want this really to continue to be the case and arise in Europe and it's a program as well which promotes attractive working and employment conditions so all our researchers are recruited and their employment contracts with guaranteed social security coverage even when they are early early state researchers and they receive monthly allowances to cover their living their mobility but also their family costs now if we look at the next slide you will see the different actions so today we will concentrate on two of them the doctoral networks and the staff exchanges but we can provide the afterwards more information on the other actions so MSCA funds five types of actions which are quite complementary to to to each other and they cover different types of needs so our biggest action it's half of our budget goes to these international doctoral networks and it includes the traditional let's say doctorates but we also fund industrial doctorates and where you know PhD candidates are supervised both by academic and non-academic partners and we also fund joint doctoral programs and for these doctoral networks you will hear that they need to be implemented by consortia of universities but also of any organization that can play a role in doctoral network so there can be also non-academic partners and they can be established anywhere in the world and then they offer fellowships to students from all over the world who want to be enrolled in MSCA doctoral programs and all these doctoral programs must publish widely the the doctoral positions on the uRACSES which is the portal the EU portal for for researchers and and using other channels of communication then we have the postdoctoral fellowships for more experienced researchers and it's for researchers who are interested in doing their research in Europe but also for European researchers interested in doing their research outside Europe and it's open to excellent researchers of any nationalities so the second one the postdoctoral fellowships and the hosting institution can be universities but they can also be research institutions gain businesses SME and any other organizations can be a hospital museum whatever and there is novelty under the new program is that we grant an additional period of six months for researchers who intend to spend part of their fellowship in the non-academic sector I forgot to say that the duration of these fellowships is between one and two years then we have the staff exchange action which is maybe the easiest one to enter and it's the most international one so if you're interested in applying for the MSCA maybe the the the entry point could be the staff exchange one because it's less competitive and it's the most international one and it supports the let's say the funds short-term international and intersectoral staff exchanges of any staff any type of staff involved in research and innovation activities in fact we are launching a new call today so you're right on time and and usually these I mean consortia applying for this staff exchange action are extremely international and are covering really partners from all over the world then we have a co-funded actions where we co-fund existing of future or new doctoral programs and postdoctoral fellowships and our last action that is limited to Europe it's it's a public outreach outreach event it's called European Research as Night and it takes place once a year everywhere in in Europe my in my last slides I will see that I have two examples of projects in the yes the next one this is an example of projects involving partners from Africa it's a staff exchange project on digitalization towards sustainable development so it was selected two years ago the coordinator is a German organization institute and it involves as you see partners from different organizations in Europe but also five partner partners in in different regions of the world including one from South Africa Stelenbosch University and the these partners are connecting with each other I mean they are exchanging researchers dealing with sustainability and digitalization and the next slide is an example of an existing doctoral program combining competencies in anthropology human security african studies so you see that the the type let's say of research areas is extremely wide and it's coordinated by a partner in danmark and it has 20 partners outside outside Europe and you see instances of organizations from from Kenya for example South Africa and we have of course lots of similar projects and maybe my colleague Julie who really uh intervene a little bit later in the discussion can tell you where you can find example of such projects so that's all for my for my introduction and I will now leave the floor I think to um unless there are questions but maybe questions can be asked at the end of all the presentation on the msca wonderful thank you so much Claire and if I can maybe now ask surface Nancy and then Audrey to take the floor so Nancy Joe Cotto and Audrey RV are both from the European Research Executive Agency and they really deal with with the msca course and with with making msca work and so it's wonderful that you're here and it'd be great if you yeah if you could Nancy if you could start Nancy if you can switch on your camera and your mic yeah perfect thank you can you hear me yes we can't see you yet yeah I have a message saying that the host has asked you to start your video okay I think I press push the button yeah that's fine okay so I will start by sharing my screen just one second yeah can you can you see the presentation yes perfectly thank you okay um just one second because I'm not very used to please just just ask to go to the next slide I will be doing it Nancy yeah can you see it now yes okay I will start so my name is Nancy Jocoto-Pomenia and I work at the European Research Executive Agencies and today I'm going to give you a presentation on the one of you funding scheme which is the staff exchanges under the framework of Marie Sordowska's Curie Actions so I will first focus on the main features of the program and then provide you with some information in case you want to submit a proposal and I'll end my presentation by providing you with an example of a project that is being funded under the program so let's first start with the main features of the program as you can see from the slide the staff exchanges program has four objectives the program mainly supports the mobility of researchers in three dimension being international intersectoral and interdisciplinary through these exchanges knowledge transfer is being provided between participating organizations and collaboration between academic and non-academic sectors is being strengthened thus leading to strengthened cooperation across the globe so in terms of the added value of the program for staff members and for organizations I think that one of the key feature that is highly appreciated by R&I organizations is that it's a bottom-up approach so what's in for staff members first of all it's an excellent experience to acquire new skills and competencies through interaction with a wide range of stakeholders staff participating in the program usually confirm that it has helped them to increase their employability and career prospects what did they gain international exposure as well as capacity to enhance their perks and their visibility lastly for organization as you can see from this slide they can benefit from transfer of knowledge strength and collaborative networks and R&I capacity for both staff members and organizations what's his interested thing is that ideas can be converted into products processes and services so who can be eligible in the in the program as you can see from the slide staff exchanges proposals should be presented by a consortium of several participating organizations in both the academic and the non-academic sector by academic sector we mean for instance higher education or an entities and research organization and by non-academic we mean for instance companies including SMEs other entities such as museums and foundations or NGOs while there's no maximum amount of participants there's a minimum there is a need to have participants in three different different countries two of which needs to be located in a different EU member states or in an associated country if organizations are from the same sector there must be at least one organization from a third from a non-associated third country so let's now drift into the eligible exchanges I won't go into much detail because I think that you will be given the presentation at the end of this presentation but I want to maybe focus on the fact that for third countries the second ones need to be sent the I mean the staff members being sent need to go to an EU organization I mean not being non-academic or academic in one EU member state or in one of the associated countries so now we'll see who is eligible for the program so any type any type of staff involved in R&I activities mostly researchers but also administrative managerial technical staff are eligible I insist on the fact that they need to be involved in research and innovation activities researchers are also eligible at any stage of their career meaning that they can be either at an early stage of their career or they can also be more experienced what is also important to know is that they need to be actively engaged in research and innovation activities for at least one month prior to the secondment three key principles in terms of eligibility are important to know first of all secondments last between one and 12 months second staff needs to be fully involved in the program full time and then they need to return to their sending institution to enable for the transfer of knowledge so now we are going to look at the the budget as you can see the budget is one unit cost per person per month so the amount of the unit cost is 4600 split it half for the staff member and for the organization the staff member has an amount of 2300 which is a kind of allowance meaning that they still manage to touch their salary the organization receives the 2300 which is split between research training and networking as well as between management and indirect costs which are covered up to 1000 euros so in in a summary there are four key aspects of the program first the program is for a duration of four years and 360 p.m per project secondments last between one and 12 months per staff and interdisciplinary secondments need to be in the same sector within europe and they should constitute one third of the program as i said before the unit cost is 4600 half for the staff allowance and half for the organization and one call is usually of an amount of 75.5 million euro so in case you are interested to participate in the staff exchanges program i will now expose you with the key the way to submit proposals and explain you what are the evaluation criteria for the program so all calls are published on the funding and tender opportunities portal applications or applications are submitted through the portal everything is online so first of all you need to search and find your call then you sign in to the portal and register your organization and you get what we call a pick then you can find your partners and of course then you are ready to apply for more information you can see the link in the hyperlink at the end of the slide here you can see a table with very detailed information on the evaluation criteria but i won't go into detail so mainly you have the criteria of excellence impact quality and efficiency to implementation so now i will give you a little tip on successful staff exchanges project so successful staff exchanges project are need to combine excellence in research and innovation activities and the quality and efficiency of the implementation you should in particular pay attention to implementation plans and to the link between outputs and the different work packages as you can see excellence and implementation are closely interlinked so now i would like to now indicate to you that actually this workshop is very timely because today there is a call that is actually being open and which is actually ending on the closing sorry on the 9th march 2022 the amount is 72.5 then in 2022 you will have another call starting more or less around the same time on 6th of october which will close around the 8th of march 2023 and the amount will be slightly increased and will be of 77.5 million euros so here are a few tips and tricks but yeah since our time is limited i won't go into those details and you can have a look on the presentation and my presentation by providing with an example of a project so this project is called rubicon 690850 it's the amount of the project is 607 and 606 sorry 607 and 500 sorry and it aims at increasing participants knowledge um underlying the diverse connective tissue disorders as you can see the consortium is of 10 participants composed of 10 participants five from europe's and five from third countries so i'll end my presentation here i thank you for your attention and if you want to have further information please don't hesitate to contact us thank you thank you thank you very much we have orgy who's trying to connect but i think she's she's got some connection issues so we um we're trying to uh uh make that work um uh so we'll with um orgy we'll try and reconnect again but i wonder while all orgy's are trying to reconnect with a second with with her part of the presentation whether we can actually um uh look at some questions answers um uh already because there's been a lot of there's been a lot of engagement on the on the chat and in the q&a a section and one of the things um and i don't know um claire or dirge or who whoever wants to answer this but i thought there was a really um so so there was a you know um uh nancy talked about the the importance about linking sort of product you know linking i of turning ideas into products and services and and i just and there's a really interesting um question here which is really about how we sort of rethink um the structures and the topics and the the the subjects of our university so how we for instance bring in bring together science and social science and so therefore we think what the university does i presume not you know in teaching and research um is that is that possible through through msca is would that be a kind of application that one can also uh imagine don't know if it means the under-arasmus it's possible sorry your your your sound your sound is still yes now we can now we can hear now yes yes yes um i'm not sure i understood completely the question as i said the msa is is is open to all scientific disciplines so any any i mean any field of research and innovation any disciplines i mean there they can be what we call hard sciences or as you mentioned human sciences i mean can be can be covered i mean are are can be covered by the program so i have the although i'm not sure i understood completely the question but i have the impression that yes um we the program is is is really open to the kind of topics that you mentioned so i guess it's about it's so i i guess i i i presume part the question partly comes from this perspective that um in addition to thinking about intersectionality and so forth and and and business and so forth actually you know it a real important concern of science is of course also interdisciplinary in how to reframe what it is that we do and i guess the next generation of scholars is in a particularly good position to to do this and the question is whether in a sense msa could be a kind of interesting um support for that kind of for those kinds of questions as well i i think i think completely i mean interdisciplinarity i mean we've seen it now i mean solutions can to complex problem and to to the societal challenges can only be uh sold and and and addressed through uh interdisciplinarity so yes i mean this is something that we're pushing very much for yes and perhaps just to add from the erasmus point of view like um leslie's question i think was um also whether you know they can rethink uh the university and the functioning of the university so experimental schools for instance that could be financed under erasmus capacity building very well yeah wonderful so so thank you very much for for coming in um audrey wonderful that you could uh that that we managed in the end so that's fantastic it's great to see you welcome and uh there there's a i think you want to go continue right from uh uh when i'm left off so maybe um the floor is yours okay thanks a lot back to the question and afterwards okay perfect thanks a lot and sorry for for for this uh technical issue um okay perfect so you're you're showing the slides already uh so uh following Nancy's presentation i will now uh give you an overview of the doctoral networks uh msa doctoral networks under as a new framework program horizon europe uh and i will uh not give you as many details in terms of uh tips and tricks on the submission but i would be happy to to give you more information afterwards so uh next slides please so the main main objective of those uh networks of doctoral researchers again as Nancy mentioned and claire previously msa is a fully bottom program meaning that those networks are open to any uh fields of research and we don't have any restrictions on that the objective is also to expose the recruited researchers in those networks to both the academic and the non-academic sectors so to have this intersectional aspect and to offer them some uh innovative training not only in research but also giving them some other competencies that would be relevant in terms of innovation and long-term employability there is in those doctoral networks also a strong focus on research and transferable skills we also encourage the the recruited fellows to have second months in different sectors to have a career development plan for each recruited fellows in a network the supervision is also very important so as a principal investigator if you want to be part of a doctoral network you as a supervisor you will have also to describe your experience in the proposal and international aspects are also a key a key element in those doctoral networks so i will now give you some more information if you're interested in doctoral networks as an organization the next slide please so if you want to apply as an organization you will need to know a bit of the different modalities that we have in the doctoral networks so those networks are multi-beneficiary actions and the the objective is to set up a research and doctoral program then within those programs you will be able once the project is selected for funding you will be able to recruit doctoral candidates to implement the research and doctoral program there are there are three different modalities as Claire mentioned previously so you can decide to be part of an industrial doctorate program that will offer a training in both academia and industry or the non-academic sector with a joint supervision of the recruited researchers you can also decide to be part of a joint doctoral program that will offer some joint or multiple doctoral degree to the recruited researchers with a joint selection and supervision and also the pre-agreement for the joint or double degrees that is already required at the proposed stage or you can also decide to be part of a more standard doctoral network that can offer training in academia and or the non-academic sector and you will see that we have some different eligibility conditions depending on the modalities that you will select next slide please so in terms of the different features of the doctoral networks so the size can also vary from one modality to the other and each doctoral network standard doctoral network can request up to 360 person months which represent approximately 10 recruited researchers doctoral candidates for three years and if you want to be part of a joint or industrial doctoral program you can request more and up to 540 person months in total so which means I'm on average 15 fellows for a recruited first three years so the duration of those projects is of maximum 48 months usually you will be recruiting the doctoral candidates for minimum three months and maximum 36 months and of course since these are doctoral programs we always encourage the beneficiaries to recruit the researchers for the maximum duration they will the researchers will be also entitled to go for second months a bit anywhere in the world and it will be limited to one third of their fellowship duration in case you want to be part of an industrial doctorate we you will need also to pay attention since fellows will have to spend minimum 50 of their time in the non-academic sector and this intersectoral stay between academia and non-academic organization can be in the same country so this is also a novelty compared to the previous H20 program next slide so who can apply in those doctoral networks so as an organization usually in the networks we have consortia of universities research institution or businesses including SMEs or any other social economic actors and we need at least three independent legal entities each established in a different member state or country associated to horizon Europe with minimum one beneficiary from a member state this is also a novelty for horizon Europe and on top of this minimum what is important to know for you is that any entity from any third country can participate as as beneficiary or as associated partner and I will tell you more in in the next slide about that and you will have also to check some specific eligibility conditions for the industrial or the joint doctorate modalities the next slide will show you the different types of participants in terms of countries so we have the member states to your countries and we have the non-EU countries including the associated countries to horizon Europe and the low and middle income countries and you have the full list of those countries available in the horizon Europe program guide you have the link on the slide and in this list you have many countries from from Africa for example and those countries can benefit directly and receive directly EU funding and in doctoral networks they can fully participate as beneficiary as long as the minimum conditions and requirements are fulfilled so minimum three beneficiary from member states or associated countries and one member state then if your country is not in this list it means that you may be able to to participate but may maybe not as beneficiary or in exceptional condition so meaning that if your participation is deemed essential and this is usually assessed by our expert evaluators then you will be able to participate and receive EU funding on the next slide so in terms of the different types of participants that we have so you now know more about who which country can participate and with which condition and as an organization you will be in two different sectors so the academic or the non-academic sectors and in msea what we include in the academic sectors in general is all the public and private higher education establishments the public of private nonprofit research organizations or the international european research organizations everything else should be in the non-academic sector so which will also widen a bit your possibilities to to be a non-academic entity for example if you if you are NGO or businesses or companies or small and medium enterprise then in those networks you have different profiles as well of participants so you have the fully involved participants which which we call beneficiaries and you have the associated partners that are part also of the activity of the project and fully part of the network but with a slightly lighter role and you will see the differences here in the table for example the beneficiary are signing directly the grant agreement they are also responsible of the recruitment of the the doctoral candidates and researchers and they will claim directly the cost to us whereas the associated partners can be involved in the training or hosting of secondary researchers they can participate in the supervisory board as well and in different dissemination activities of the project as well the next slide so you will see as well that as beneficiary you will have to respect some specific rules and one of them is for doctoral networks is that all beneficiaries must recruit at least one doctoral candidate so this is mandatory so if you want to be a beneficiary you have to recruit at least one researcher another rule that should be respected in each consortium is that no more than 40 percent of the requested EU budget may be allocated to beneficiaries in the same country so this was done also to to have a kind of balanced distribution in each consortium consortia so that we don't have always the same countries involved in one consortium or not the majority going to to only one country and for this you will always have a warning in the submission process in case you're reaching those those limits so if your project is selected for funding then you will have as a network to recruit eligible doctoral researchers and for this you they will have also to fulfill some eligibility conditions and one of them is that they should all be doctoral candidates meaning that they should not be already in possession of a doctoral degree at the date of their recruitment and they must be all enrolled in the doctoral program recognize at least in one EU member states or associated country to horizon Europe or at least two member states or associated countries for the joint doctoral program they can be of any nationality that we don't have any restrictions on that but they will have to fulfill the mobility rule meaning that they must not have resided or worked in the country of the recruiting beneficiary for more than a year in the last three years before their recruitment date as the next slides will show you will give you a full overview of all the eligibility conditions and minimum requirements for each modality of the doctoral networks at the end standard doctoral networks the ID industry doctorates and the gd joint doctorates i will not go into too many details but it's a good it's a good recap also to to have with you when when you start preparing your application so next slide it's about the budget structure so as mentioned already by Nancy in msa we have a unit cost funding mechanism so which is very simple for you as a future beneficiary as well so which means that one unit cost represents in our case one month of an eligible eligible recruited researcher the reimbursement rate is 100 percent for doctoral networks and the budget will be divided into different cost categories you will see in the next slide the different categories so you will have you will receive some some budget for all the allowances that will go to the researchers to the recruited doctoral candidates the living allowance that will be multiplied by a country correction coefficient then the fellow will also have to receive a mobility allowance a family allowance if it's applicable and then as the organization you will also receive some institutional budget covering all the expenses for your research training and networking activities but also to cover your expenses for management and indirect costs so for the first course under horizon europe we have currently our doctoral network for 2021 open and the closing date is on the 16th of november so approaching with a budget around 403 million euro for this first call and then next year we'll have a similar schedule for the 2022 call with a slightly higher budget and as also briefly mentioned by claire before in case you want to apply as an individual PhD candidate which could also be the case among the audience i don't know then it means that you will have to look for opportunities and vacancies in already funded msa projects so for the moment these are still the h2020 itn projects but maybe in the future as of next year you could also start looking for opportunities in msa dn funded projects and all those vacancies are published as already mentioned by claire on the your access portal under the job section you also have a daily update for all msa specific vacancies on the msa website and i thank you very much for your attention and if you have any questions i would be happy to reply now with together with claire and nancy thank you thank you thank you very much or that was a fantastic wide-ranging presentation and i would actually like to really encourage participants especially from outside the EU to really look at the your access portal because it also has some really interesting and important visa information you know so that the website is used a lot for that kind of information it's a really supportive instrument can i so i think one person that we haven't yet introduced is bertha with karamir who will also join in this q&a section so so bertha welcome also so can i first of all actually ask about the associated countries and third countries so and can i ask about europe here so we hope of course the uk will be an associate third country in switzerland soon but but if they were third countries what how would they be would it be possible to collaborate with partners there alongside africa and europe and the EU and ea i will reply for dr networks maybe so for for the uk i think as the agreement is is on track i would say but for switzerland it's true that it's a bit more blurry but we encourage you also to regularly check any updates about about the association to horizon europe the good thing is that we we all agreed to to to to wait until the the signature of the grant the last thing that of the grant agreement preparation in order to to to to check if the agreement and if the association is in place or not meaning that during the call and during the evaluation for the moment we will consider all potential countries associated to horizon europe who launch already their their process as an associated country and then we will double check when we will be at the stage of signing the grant agreement if the agreement is indeed in place let's let's hope but it will give give give us and they give everybody normally normally few few more months so that all the agreements and association are in place for switzerland again it's still it's it's still not clear but but in case a country would not be associated and would be considered as a third country not in the list of low or middle income countries then it means that they could eventually request exceptional funding if they can really justify and and show that they have an essential role in the project or they could also participate as associated partner that's very helpful thank you very much and so one question from mark which is that it seems that many of the re-career actions involve global partnerships could they be just about EU and africa yes of course i can if i can it's true that i gave it we gave example of global partnership but they can be as long as the minimum requirements are are fulfilled which were presented both by odrian nancy then it can be only between between europe and africa of course um and i'd like to say as well maybe if it was not clear that for individual researchers so for doctoral candidates i mean the nationality really doesn't count for the it's really open as you mentioned i mean on your access these positions of doctoral candidates are published and the program is open to researchers from all over the world without any i mean there is no limitation for organizations there are some limitations it means that the usually the organizations cannot receive direct funding from the commission or from the EU but then i mean there can be agreements between themselves and and just in the ballpark figure can you can you could you give us a kind of sense of how large how many participants you expect a network to have i mean typically i mean you were talking about minimum numbers but it might be quite helpful for people um it's a question also coming from mark yes on average under age 2020 we had nine beneficiaries in each network uh with approximately seven eight associated partners so this is on average um now with a slightly reduced size of the standard doctoral networks maybe we'll have a slightly lower average of beneficiaries per network but but yes it's between six and nine usually and is it possible to support this so this is from fabrice band or band is it possible to support the traveling network for the student who can who has access in one european lab but doesn't have any support for that at the moment so i guess you so you were outlined some of the costs that can be covered so is it really possible when they go to europe that in a sense the the traveling network can be supported yes uh yes there is a cost category covering all uh all expenses for research training activities but also conference attendance uh uh travel and accommodation cost in case of secondment to other beneficiaries or associated partner so this is uh this is a unit cost category also so we don't ask for a full breakdown of full detail of the expenses so there is there is some yes some many possibilities and and and there was just something again on on on one of an additional question on one of the slides so so the slides seem to suggest that students have to be enrolled in an EU member country is that right um or can they also be enrolled in a non-member country uh they can so they for standard doctoral networks and uh industrial doctoral rates they have to be enrolled uh in one uh EU member states or i mean in an organization based in the EU member state or associated country uh but but then if they want to also be enrolled in a in a country outside in a third country it would mean that it's a kind of double or or joint degree so okay so can i just add so next we jump straight to rebecca ackerman's um uh question which i think is probably quite important so it's an i know read out it's it's slightly longer but i think it's important so she she writes i'm currently an associated partner in an msca doctoral training network and co supervising a south african south african student is registered in coppenhagen i'm slightly confused here can the network be between african countries with the european partners with african institutions as beneficiaries meaning that african doctoral candidates from one institution can be trained in another african institution or can african doctoral candidates only be trained in europe so i guess it's really getting about the question about intra african collaboration and how that relates to the african european um collaboration um i i i see an institution in in in africa that uh would be in the list uh to receive directly automatically the EU funding could participate as beneficiaries they could recruit researchers um they could enroll them in their own doctoral program let's say but they will also have them to be uh enrolled in a EU member state or associated country this is uh this is a um this is a a change compared to to h 2020 where for example in in the standard etn european training networks we didn't have the mandatory uh doctoral uh enrollment so it was a a bit maybe uh more flexible uh so meaning that if you want to participate as a beneficiary in africa you you may think of this double degree and maraika from radboard university is asking whether so the enrollment of the phd candidates that should happen within the msca program once approved or beforehand as during i presume as part of the application uh no no uh no no they said during the program at the beginning of the program the one of the deliverable of the project will be that all uh recruited researchers are enrolled in the doctoral program and during the project implementation we make sure that this this is fulfilled uh the the obligation is to enroll is not to uh to uh to award the phd because we know that it's research as well and everything can happen but but the minimum conditions are checked during the project implementation um maybe if i can add something here um the um the organizations in the consortium need to publish the post so they do not know in advance who will apply it's once the program is approved then they publish the positions and candidates excellent candidates from all over the world and in this particular case for example for from africa can apply but they do not know once at application stage they i mean they have not yet selected the doctoral candidates there should be a transparent um let's say recruitment procedure yes but what we ask at the proposal stage is to have already uh as your the organization and all the arrangements more or less in place so uh whereas the potential candidates will be enrolled in in in the in the doctoral program um claire you've already you know so i know that you have to leave very slightly early ahead of time but but of course thank you very very much for for giving being so generous with your time input already can i maybe just ask you uh before i get back to some of the other questions um from your perspective what what is the thing that you maybe as as head of unit really hope this program will achieve most what what would you really advise from your own perspective from what you see uh what would you apply applicants or institutions to think about most as as they really sort of try and embrace this opportunity so i think that first of all a lot of um uh partnership and some strong partnerships have been established or developed in the framework of erasmus and erasmus i mean the let's say access to erasmus funds is much is much i mean it's it's less competitive it's much easier so i would really advise those organizations that have already developed networks have already worked together in the framework of of erasmus to start applying for for for for msca which is maybe the more i mean it's more difficult it's more um the there is more competition but they have already i mean they have all the let's say the the partnerships the projects that have developed together will help them really to apply for msca and i would say that's the first entry point that this in my view i mean the easiest one is through the staff exchanges which allows really organizations to work together concretely on their RNAI projects and then they can be ready for the next steps which is the doctoral networks which is probably i mean which is where there is more competition and the success rate are are lower but i think there is a lot of interests amongst european organizations to partner with organizations in africa what me what they probably miss especially i think in africa maybe it's the access to these networks so those that have been established in the framework of erasmus can really be interesting entry point for for msca so it's good that today we're presenting both programs and and there was a there was a question that um um to dergis dergis presentation which uh around the sustainability so what happens afterwards and and i guess um i mean would you would you kind of just join in her advice to really think about kind of um you the long-term perspective of of the network as well as part of the application no i i no yes i and i and it's part in fact i think of the the the overall assessment of the partnership i think the if there is a long-term vision if the the doctoral network or the staff exchange projects are part of the overall strategy of the university of its internationalization strategy if it's you know not one of uh application i think this has a strong weight as well great thank you very much especially talking about the development of doctoral programs where i mean once the program is uh is over it's true that the the the uh let's say the organization needs to think once when they apply what will happen afterwards so i think it's important to look in uh to have this uh uh more um i mean a long-term perspective and um it needs to be seen in the um institutional i mean in the institutional strategy of the different organizations yes thank you thank you very much uh claire that's that's uh that was very clear um i'll go back to the some of the questions so so there was a question that i've thought that that that that has been there for a while now so and then that's really about the participant identification code whether that's the same for institution irrespective of irasimus plus and msca oh is it the same across all programs basically it's the same it's the same one across um m a horizon and irasimus right um okay so so that was that was uh your your question yes sorry i pressed the button um is there an irasimus plus program for postdoctoral research applicants no there is not i mean this is part of of the msca and it's an action which we have not presented today because it was not really the focus of the discussions we could do it maybe during another event but i mean the i mentioned five actions today we presented two of these actions there is one for postdoctoral researchers but in fact there is an ongoing call which is closing next week so maybe for the next call we could organize a similar event yeah no absolutely and as i mentioned yeah now as i mentioned it's both for uh european researchers experienced researchers interested in doing their research outside europe and for for example african researchers to come and do their research or part of their research in europe and here the number of postdoctoral candidates who have successfully applied to the scheme from africa is very low so here i think that a dedicated event would be welcome so we're ready uh to to join if you're thank you very much we will we will take this up um so so and then there's a really interesting question from kennedy in tanzania around the offer of online doctoral programs and maybe in answering that maybe to think about how whether there is a possibility an opportunity to think about the the transformation in the way in which we do research and education now in terms of the in terms of online space because of course this is really effectively about physical mobility but but you know it's are you also you know presumably you know applicant applications would also include the online i mentioned right hello sounds yes i don't know if odre wants to to take it but for us it's important um i mean this let's say this physical mobility is a key feature of the msca so we still we still think it's very important for researchers to have the possibility to spend some time in a completely different um research environment cultural environments which remains an important feature of the program of course we have we are flexible and we were very flexible during the uh um covid the time and and if researchers could not travel or whatever we had to adapt and and we will continue to be flexible but i think it's the same for erasmus we believe that it's essential for the the research experience for for the researchers to be physically mobile and just maybe to to complement yeah okay okay um yes it's true that we also uh saw an evolution in terms of the doctoral programs that could be offered to all researchers in those networks and for example training programs are more and more online there are many virtual or remote training ways and and it's not a fully remote program per se as claire mentioned the physical mobility is still a key aspect of the program but through the the different trainings that can be offered we see a clear evolution and virtual mobility will also be accepted in the future for example for part of the the second months that will take place for the researchers wonderful um can thank you for the for this response my colleagues from the guild office have also put a a link into the chat about a recent report on the synergies between erasmus plus and msca that might be of interest in response to these questions and so so that that's i think really good further reading may i maybe just come now to the to to start to wrap up so first of all maybe julie le petre from the again from the from digi erak you've you've been working you've been kindly waiting for for your turn but also asking dear drabac to maybe just offer some some closing reflections on next steps and and useful tips floor is yours and thank you i'll start julie has agreed that this is not rebudging it and i just like thank you for this opportunity i think it was a great idea including erasmus and malichurri together because also in relation to what claire said is that really does this emphasis on you know the build up depending you know you can go in step by step into our programs and build up cooperation and build you know depending on the the type of of action available and our diversified so to say what what you intend doing across the two programs to really meet meet the different needs of your of your institution or organization and so i think that's very good it's considering the you know sort of the emphasis we want on to have impact at least um sub-sahara africa north africa it's a big region funds are to a certain extent limited even if we've had you know a significant increase networks in africa uh exist the regional sort of the regional integration processes are there our member states are there also with their own bilateral programs and i think if african higher education research organizations can really complement efforts and put all these different elements together there'll be much stronger i think in in in exceeding and you know accessing accessing the funding and that's what we want to see we want to we want to see an increase of participation and and use this money that's been made available i think that's very important judy um yes actually i had a good morning to all first of all because indeed it's uh it's it's my turn now to speak a bit but i will be very quick actually i just had a PowerPoint presentation i don't know if lora could eventually share it yes thank you thanks a lot i will be very quick as well actually i just wanted to uh to to to focus on to highlight again that indeed um you know in in under horizon europe we will really continue as we got the msc to to play a key role in uh in training highly skilled and adaptable and resilient researchers and i just wanted to to say also that actually we have a new motto under horizon europe which is developing talents advancing research and it is really meant to highlight the the essence of the msca meaning excellence research and development of skills um i will just to say a few words in kind of a not you know in a nutshell just to summarize a bit what was uh saved so if we can go to the next slide please thanks a lot so i won't go first into the details again because you you have heard about uh the doctoral networks and about static changes thanks to my colleagues which i will like actually to thank as well for their for their presentations but just here you have a summary uh a table which summarizes actually what can be uh the opportunities for uh african partners so uh just again in a nutshell here organizations from africa you can see that they can participate as uh beneficiaries are associated partners and actually uh african organizations can participate as associated partner to doctoral networks static changes postdoctoral fellowships and coven meaning all the actions that uh under the marisco deus cacferi program and as beneficiary only to doctoral networks i won't go back to this because it was already said before so if we can move to the next slide thank you as regards the uh individuals uh so individuals from africa can participate uh in uh the msca again in all the main actions i just will like here to highlight that for doctoral networks individuals apply to the program of their choice through the urexess job portal and you will see a slide just after that one uh with all the useful links for staff exchanges uh staff participate through the standing institutions these you have got the information thanks to uh my colleague nancy for doctoral fellowships as claire mentioned hopefully uh we'll have the possibility to address also that uh action uh in another maybe seminar or meeting uh so here researchers have to find a host organizations and for coven here as well individuals apply through the urexess job portal if we could go to the next slide you will see that uh we have of course ongoing course and we'll have some upcoming course so uh i believe that this presentation will be shared with you all so that you can have in mind what are the next steps as regards the msca so as claire mentioned and as well my colleague the call for staff exchanges opens today for the other one doctoral networks is still ongoing but you can see that in 2022 you'll have again some other opportunities for doctoral networks both doctoral fellowships and after staff exchanges as well so it's really important that you uh may uh follow these uh these calls to come and that you start preparing of course also uh by getting for instance trainings and this is the next slide if we can go to the next one it would be great the next one still because this one will be also shared yes thanks a lot so here i just would like to to highlight that actually yes it's important to prepare a bit in advance your your applications and for this you have here all the useful links uh you have a first the man has got a second actions website but you have also all the information as regard the the course and the the funding and tenders portal uh and as regard the training possibilities of a possibility sorry of getting some trainings or further information uh please keep in mind that you can use your access uh website to ask questions or to get further information and actually what is interesting is that there there will be now a new uh office for africa which will be uh fully implemented in 2022 but there is already uh some possibilities to to ask questions and we will like us to to um to get further contacts with the the the desk for africa in order to provide some further uh information seminars for each of the actions for you to to have uh very practical tips on each of the actions uh you can also rely on the Marie Curie alumni association which includes actually an african chapter so here as well you may find some interesting information and offers national contact points which are always very good help for for this for this for these actions um so i of course sorry just last one point if you have any further very practical question you have the research inquiry service where you can really ask questions about the ongoing course i will stop here because i didn't want to take too much time but just for you to to see that there are plenty of possibilities and opportunities also to get further information we'll be happy also to to help and really uh we are hoping for uh and encouraging actually for further participation of african organizations and researchers so i will stop here with these last words thanks a lot thank you thank you so much Julie thank you so much Deirdre thanks so much colleagues from from the commission for this fantastic overview um before um passing the word to Ernest for some closing remarks i just wanted to um um say that with your permission i think we've already said this in the chat with your permission colleagues we will we will um pass on the presentations to all the participants so that we can share the information that you've given us in detail as widely as possible Ernest um over to you um you've uh maybe we can sort of finish with some concluding reflections from your part uh thank you very very very much Jeanne and i'm very happy with the way everything has gone this morning um it's it's actually it's gone well beyond what i expected but an infosession i mean the the quality of the presentation has been very very high i believe that participants both from africa and from europe and elsewhere uh should be satisfied with the information they received uh today as a result of what we uh received uh we should be able to think in the most structured way about how as arua and the guild uh will be able to engage uh together and engage with the reverse repairing universities i'm very happy uh that uh the arua universities have embraced this i i do also see signs that i repair partners are very very much uh on top of sins let me thank uh the dgeak for the opportunity i mean they've been really helpful by making sure that uh uh this event will take place and give enough people to speak to us the same way with like thank the european research executive agency for the support uh i'm very pleased to listen to the other lennon uh in her presentation it allowed us to see how the european initiative is working uh we all got to see how eras was plus program now functions the expression that has taken place there are sources available at how we can all uh take advantage of it thank you very much theater uh we then went on to listen to claire claire morrell uh claire focused on the opportunities and msa uh the very broad introduction that allowed us to get a good insight into how msa functions as she was supported by nancy nancy joko to pomenia uh nancy focused on msa staff exchanges uh this clearly was also something that many of our participants are very interested in and we're looking forward to seeing an enhanced situation of staff exchanges within the region and between the region and uh europe uh already uh focus on the doctoral networks the msa doctoral networks um that gave us a fair idea of how these networks function we saw the expression of the industrial networks we saw the dimension of the standard networks we saw the joint doctorates and then the uh the what they call the industrial doctorates so it's my hope that uh having given us this overview of how these things are going to work uh many more people from the region will be participating and applying for grants uh julien has just given us a very good solid access to information how do we as the africans how do we as rive care partners work together what sort of information available to us i'm very happy on behalf of arua and the guild to thank everybody who has joined us today uh when we began there were about 105 participants i've seen that the numbers have gone down a little as we come to towards the end i thank all of you for making time uh to spend that time with us thank you for the questions that you raised those questions were clear indications that you've appreciated what we've been offered that you paid attention to all those things and i believe that the guild and arua will go again deeper into those questions and see how best we will answer them so as we come to the end let me thank all of you and do hope that you will take part in other activities that the guild and arua will be hand uh organizing in november uh we shall arua will host a third biennial conference in petoria and also participate virtually and then after that on the 22nd of november uh we'll have our joint event a conference also uh look at how best we can push forward our doctoral education programs and all that the other thing that we are interested in um very we want to be in a situation where we can support the european union and the african union in the push towards agenda 2063 uh so this conference will be about that this conference will be about how we can as researchers position ourselves to push this so we will bring it up for the higher education sector in both europe and africa to discuss this so on that note uh i'm very pleased on behalf of the guild and arua to declare our event formally closed thank you very much for your involvement