Services

Services & Expertise

The MSC Actions are an important and unique part of Horizon Europe. They deserve a proper place in your organisation’s funding strategy. I can help you develop and implement such a strategy. Marie Curie projects are of course about excellent science, but also about training and supervision, career development of researchers, dissemination, public engagement and project management. Kwintessence offers training to (future) project coordinators, supervisors and applicants, to explain the objectives and rules of the programme. I also can support you with proposal writing (COFUND) and proposal proofreading and editing. Please note that a ‘package’ of services can strengthen your strategy and results.

Advice for the strategic use of the MSC Actions

As a university or research institution, and as a research group within a university of research institution, you will focus on science but you also need to have a research funding strategy that works in the short term and in the longer term. I can discuss with you how the MSCA programme can be part of such a funding strategy. Rather than submitting ad hoc proposals to the MSCA programme, a strategic approach will lead to better results in the medium and long term. Together with you, we can discuss how the current strengths of your organisation and its staff members can be used to submit strong MSCA proposals. We can also discuss how the MSCA programme can be used to strengthen parts of your organisation and how they it can be employed to support the career development of your current and future staff members.

Proposal writing, proofreading and editing

Competition in the MSCA programme, in all its Actions, is fierce. High scores for all parts of the proposals must be obtained during the evaluation process for the proposals to be funded. This is where your core scientific expertise may be complemented with my core expertise in the non-scientific parts of the MSCA proposals.

Depending on your needs, I can perform a one-off, in-depth review of your proposal. I can also accompany you throughout the entire proposal preparation process through multiple sessions: from discussing the design of your project, through proofreading and editing subsequent versions of your proposal to making the proposal ready for submission. We will have regular talks through video-conferencing. I will look at your proposals through the eyes of the evaluator, providing you with questions to focus your text, tips to rewrite and edits, in order to optimize your proposal.

This service includes writing a full proposal for the COFUND Action.

Training

Marie Curie proposals are not like any other research proposal. It is therefore important to understand the objectives and expected impact of the Actions, and to be able to apply this to your proposal. Tailor made trainings, workshops and masterclasses for all MSC Actions can help you and your PI’s to write better, more competitive MSCA proposals. Please click here for an overview of Proposal writing courses. There is more to the MSCA programme than just the writing of the proposals. We therefore offer a suite of modules for specific groups, such as supervisors, EU staff and project managers.

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Over the last 20+ years, I have regularly engaged in other activities related to the MSCA programme, such as acting as invited expert at meetings, chairing workshops at EU MSCA Conferences, providing support for MSCA Grant Agreement Preparations, and supporting the European Commission as Independent Observer during MSCA ITN evaluations.