In this year's call for proposals, three Polish institutions submitted applications as coordinators. The European Commission recommended funding only for the Nicolaus Copernicus University project 'Marcello-Academia Copernicana Interdisciplinary Doctoral School', authored by prof. dr habil. Anna Bajek and prof. dr Bartosz Tylkowski from the Faculty of Health Sciences, NCU Collegium Medicum and prof. dr habil. Iwona Łakomska, Director of the Academia Copernicana Interdisciplinary Doctoral School.
The Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń is the only institution in Poland to have been included among those whose projects have been recommended by the European Commission for funding under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions COFUND 2026 call for proposals.
The European Commission has published the results of the MSCA COFUND 2026 call for proposals, which aims to support doctoral training programmes and the career development of researchers at the postdoctoral stage. Among the 29 projects recommended for funding, there is one coordinated by the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. This is a particularly good result in the context of the entire call for proposals – 141 applications were submitted in this round.
One of the three Polish proposals
In this year's call for proposals, three Polish institutions submitted applications as coordinators. The European Commission recommended funding only for the Nicolaus Copernicus University project 'Marcello-Academia Copernicana Interdisciplinary Doctoral School', authored by prof. dr habil. Anna Bajek and prof. dr Bartosz Tylkowski from the Faculty of Health Sciences, NCU Collegium Medicum and prof. dr habil. Iwona Łakomska, Director of the Academia Copernicana Interdisciplinary Doctoral School.
In this year's COFUND edition, the projects will be coordinated by institutions from 11 countries, with the highest numbers coming from France (11) and Spain (5). Poland has one project on this list.
Over 105 million euros to be distributed
The European Commission will allocate a total of 105.5 million euros to the implementation of the selected projects. Fifteen of these are doctoral training programmes, whilst 14 involve fellowships for postdoctoral researchers. The thematic scope of this year's selected projects is broad and includes, amongst others, life sciences, quantum physics, sustainable energy, environmental issues and space research. Ten of the 29 recommended projects are bottom-up in nature, meaning that they do not impose thematic restrictions on the research area and allow researchers the freedom to propose their own research topics.
The programmes funded under the MSCA COFUND scheme are designed to provide researchers not only with the opportunity to conduct research, but also to develop their skills and build international collaboration networks. Key elements of these programmes include open science, engagement with society, the use of research results, ethics, equality in research and innovation, and high-quality academic supervision.
In this year's COFUND edition, the projects will be coordinated by institutions from 11 countries, with the highest numbers coming from France (11) and Spain (5). Poland has one project on this list.