The European Union's Marie Curie Actions programme, which provides funding for some of the world's best young researchers, is closing year 2010 with a very special milestone which is having funded its 50,000th beneficiary. This figure was at the centre of the Conference celebrated early December where presidents of the Commission and Parliament highlighted that this Programme allows to produce brilliant researchers, who are at the heart of the knowledge-based economy Europe is aiming for.

Since its launch in 1996, the Marie Curie programme has supported training for researchers of 100 different nationalities working in 70 countries. Until now, the Programme has provided support to 50,000 researchers who have received Marie Curie grants to date, 40% of whom were women.

Nearly 6,300 universities, research organisations and companies worldwide, including 5,140 in the European Union, have participated in the programme since 2007, a Programme which now has a  budget of 4.7 billion Euro for the Marie Curie scheme in the period 2007-2013 with 80% of the funding dedicated to training researchers who are under 35.

The countries hosting the highest number of Marie Curie researchers since the programme's launch are the United Kingdom, followed by Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands and Italy. However, interest in the programme is increasing all over Europe. The total number of grant applications has increased by 65% in the past three years, beating a record in the number of applications for Marie Curie research grants in 2010. The number of Marie Curie researchers is expected to hit 90,000 by the end of 2013.

Several Nobel Prize winners are actively involved in training the EU-funded researchers. In the past five years, they have included Françoise Barré-Sinoussi (2008 Nobel Prize for Medicine), Albert Fert and Peter Grünberg (Physics, 2007), and Jean Marie Lehn (Chemistry, 1987). Several researchers involved in current or recent Marie Curie projects have received recognition for their work.

The Marie Curie Actions are part of the Specific Programme People within the EU's 7th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development. In 2011, the Marie Curie Actions will have a budget of 772 million Euro and are expected to create 7,000 new jobs. In additional to individual fellowships, the Marie Curie Actions also support doctoral candidates, partnerships between academia and industry, short-term exchanges and the reintegration of researchers returning from abroad.