The European Commission has launched a call for proposals under the Work Programme "People" 2010 of the Specific programme "People" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities, which will fund the exchange of research staff across Europe and third countries.

The Official Journal of the European Union of November 25 issues the call for proposals FP7-PEOPLE-2010-IRSES for Marie Curie International research staff exchange. The call is under Specific programme "People" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme.

The Marie Curie International Staff Exchange Scheme is a new type of action first implemented in 2008, that aims to strengthen research partnerships through staff exchanges and networking activities between European research organisations and research 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, 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.

The total budget for this call is 30 million €, and deadline for submitting proposals ends on March 25, 2010.