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The European Commission has officially published the results of the 2025 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Staff Exchanges call under the Horizon Europe programme, allocating €97.7 million to support international research cooperation projects.
The 2025 MSCA Staff Exchanges call received 363 proposals, involving 2 757 organisations from 134 countries at the submission stage A total of 81 proposals were selected and proposed for funding out of 363 eligible submissions, resulting in a 22.5 % success rate in a highly competitive call.
The MSCA Staff Exchanges action aims to boost knowledge transfer and innovation by facilitating short-term, international and intersectoral secondments of research and innovation staff between academic and non-academic organisations. Selected projects involve extensive international partnerships, with 1,093 participating organisations from 95 countries, including universities, research institutions, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and other entities across Europe and beyond. Coordination roles in the selected projects are spread across 21 countries, with leading representation from organisations based in Italy, the United Kingdom, Greece, Türkiye and Germany.
Western Balkans Participation — Only One Coordinator
Organisations from the Western Balkans region did participate in the Staff Exchanges call (7 proposals submitted in total by Serbia and 3 by North Macedonia), however only one organisation from the region is listed as a coordinator in the funded projects. This reflects a broader pattern of modest leadership roles for Western Balkans institutions in highly competitive MSCA calls, despite participation in consortia. Participation from the Western Balkans nonetheless remains important: researchers and institutions from the region continue to contribute to collaborative MSCA projects as partners. However, increasing the number of projects where Western Balkan organisations take on coordinator roles is recognised as a strategic objective, requiring stronger institutional support, proposal preparation capacity and international networking. For reference, in the 2024 MSCA Staff Exchanges call, the Western Balkans saw a total of 14 participating organisations — 1 from Albania, 2 from Montenegro, 2 from North Macedonia, and 9 from Serbia — with two organisations acting as coordinator. This underscores both the ongoing involvement of the region in Horizon Europe collaborations and the continued need to strengthen leadership and coordination capacity for future calls.
Next Steps and Future Calls
Successful applicants have received letters from the European Research Executive Agency (REA) with instructions on the next steps towards grant preparation. Projects are expected to begin activities in mid-2026, once grant agreements are finalised.
Meanwhile, the 2026 MSCA Staff Exchanges call is already open for submissions, with a deadline of 16 April 2026. Researchers and organisations from Europe and beyond are encouraged to engage in the next round of competitive proposals.
The 2025 results underscore both the sustained interest in internationally collaborative mobility projects and the need for targeted measures to enhance Western Balkans’ leadership and visibility in future Horizon Europe MSCA actions