Seal of Excellence: Unipd invests over a million euros in research
28.05.2021
“For the fourth consecutive year, we are funding high-level research projects to Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions applicants awarded with the Seal of Excellence certification from the European Community,” says University of Padua Rector Rosario Rizzuto. “We were the first European university to make funds available for research applicants of the MSCA Individual Fellowship project and who earned the prestigious recognition, an additional sign of the importance that funding research plays a crucial role in the growth of our university.”
Starting with the 2016 Horizon 2020 call for the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Individual Fellowship, the European Commission has awarded the Seal of Excellence to individual research proposals with a total score equal to or higher than 85%, but due to budget limits, funding was not available. By awarding the Seal of Excellence, the European Commission recognizes the level of excellence of the evaluated projects from the highly competitive selection process to encourage researchers to seek alternative funding from other bodies including national, regional, and local funding.
The University of Padua was the first European university to make funds available to research applicants of the MSCA Individual Fellowship project awarded with this prestigious mark of recognition.
The MSCA Seal of Excellence @UniPd 2021 Edition includes an investment of more than one million euros to 10 researchers awarded with the MSCA Seal of Excellence as part of the MSCA - Individual Fellowships 2020 call. The funding offer for each researcher awarded with the Seal of Excellence @UniPd includes a research grant contract along with funds to cover research, training and networking expenses with a total of 50,000 euros per year for the duration of the project presented to the European Commission.
The University has renewed and will increase the amount allocated by 50% for the 2022 edition of the MSCA Seal of Excellence @ UNIPD call. For 2022, the projected total funding offer for Seal of Excellence awardees of the 2021 Horizon Europe - MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship call with the University of Padua as its host organization is 1.5 million euros.
