The European Commission has launched a Call for Proposals under the 2009 work programme “People” of the 7th Framework Programme of the European Community for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration Activities (2007 to 2013), whose main objective is to support training and career development of researchers though Marie Curies Scheme, for EU Member States or Associated Countries.

The International Research Staff Exchange Scheme, FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IRSES Call for Proposals, aims at supporting and funding researchers exchanges between EU or Associated countries, and eligible third countries. For that purpose the European Commission will grant 30 M€ in 2009 for the Marie Curie International Research Staff Exchange Scheme action.

This financial instrument aims at strengthening research partnerships through short period staff exchanges and networking activities between European research organisations and organisations from countries with which the Community has an S&T agreement or are in the process of negotiating one, and countries covered by the European Neighbourhood policy.

Compared to existing Marie Curie actions under the specific working programme “People”, which provide mobility possibilities to individual researchers, this new action will provide support to research organisations to establish or reinforce long-term research cooperation through a coordinated joint programme of exchange of researchers for short periods.

A staff exchange programme can apply for Community support for a period of 24-48 months. The maximum duration of the individual staff exchanges will be 12 months, which can be split into several exchange periods within the total duration of the programme. Very short stays in the eligible Third countries, other than for the attendance of workshops and seminars specifically organised as part of the joint collaboration programme, will not be covered by the Community contribution.

For each member of staff from an EU MS or AC staying in an eligible Third country partner organisation, the Community will pay a subsistence allowance of €1,800 per month, expected to cover the costs for the staff exchange, including travel costs. Partner organisations from eligible Third countries are supposed to cover themselves the costs for their "outgoing" staff.

Applications may be submitted up to March, 27th, 2009 (17:00, Brussels local time), through the Electronic Proposal Submission Service (EPSS). Further details for this Call for Proposals, as well as all the relevant documents can be found at the FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IRSES page at Cordis website.