Thirty years of investing in Europe’s researchers For three decades, the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) have helped researchers cross borders, disciplines and sectors. As the programme celebrates its 30th anniversary, two fellows from different generations reflect on how this unique European initiative shaped not only their research, but the way they think, collaborate and lead. When Marie Skłodowska-Curie left Poland for Paris in 1891, she began a scientific journey that would transform the world. The only person ever awarded Nobel Prizes in two different scientific disciplines, she came to embody curiosity, perseverance and international collaboration. Those same values continue to define the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), which this year celebrate 30 years of supporting researchers across Europe and beyond. Since its launch in 1996, the programme has become one of the European Union’s flagship investments in research talent. More than 150,000 researchers have benefited from MSCA funding, with alumni going on to lead universities, launch innovative companies and win prestigious scientific awards, including 23 Nobel Prizes. Unlike many research funding programmes, the MSCA places researchers - not projects - at its centre. Through international mobility, interdisciplinary collaboration and cross-sector experience, fellows develop
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Learning to embrace uncertainty
qPCR results are shown as amplification curves, where an earlier increase indicates more DNA in the environmental sample.
scientific expertise alongside leadership, communication and entrepreneurial skills. This people-centred approach is increasingly important as challenges such as artificial intelligence, climate change and global health demand researchers who can work across disciplines and borders. By investing in individuals, the MSCA creates an impact that extends far beyond a single project, strengthening Europe’s research and innovation ecosystem for the future.
For Stephanie Gauttier, now Associate Professor in Information Systems at Grenoble Ecole de Management in France, the MSCA was never simply a source of research funding. Looking back, she describes it as the beginning of a journey that fundamentally reshaped the way she approaches research, leadership and even uncertainty itself. Gauttier first joined the programme through the Innovative Training Network EDUWORKS at Trinity College Dublin, where she explored technology-enhanced learning while completing her doctoral research. Several years later, she returned to the MSCA through an Individual Fellowship, GLASNOST, at the University of Twente in the Netherlands, focusing on the ethics of human enhancement technologies in the workplace. Together, she says, the two fellowships became defining milestones in her career.
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Today, alongside directing the MSc Managing with AI, leading Grenoble Ecole de Management’s Information Systems research team and chairing its ethics committee, she continues to build on that experience. She has since secured European funding for initiatives supporting researchers’ mental health, including the Erasmus+ PeerPower project and the Researcher Mental Health Observatory COST Action, while her work in Q methodology earned her the Donald J. Brenner Award early in her career. “The projects themselves eventually end,” she reflects. “But the way they shape your thinking doesn’t.” For Gauttier, one of the programme’s greatest lessons had little to do with scientific techniques. Instead, it came from repeatedly placing herself in unfamiliar environments. Moving between countries, institutions and even research traditions forced her to become comfortable with uncertainty - something she now considers one of the most valuable qualities a researcher can develop. “When you constantly start over - in a new country, a new institution, sometimes even a new discipline - you eventually stop expecting everything to be predictable,” she says. “Instead, you learn that uncertainty is not something to fear. It’s something you can work with.” Equally transformative was the opportunity to experience different academic cultures across Europe. Each institution approached research through its own traditions, methodologies and assumptions about what constitutes good science. Instead of replacing one way of thinking with another, Gauttier says the MSCA taught her to move comfortably between them. “It creates new pathways in your brain,” she explains. “You realise there isn’t only one way to understand a problem.” This intellectual flexibility now shapes the way she leads research teams and teaches students. Some of the educational approaches she encountered during her time in Ireland and the Netherlands - particularly the emphasis on collaboration and shared responsibility for learning - have become central to her own teaching philosophy. “I don’t think we’re simply teaching students,” she says. “We’re creating a space where they also take responsibility for their own learning.” For Gauttier, however, perhaps the programme’s greatest strength lies beyond scientific excellence. Unlike many research grants that focus primarily on producing
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increasingly rare: the freedom to grow not only as scientists, but as people. “It changed the way my brain works,” she says. “It becomes part of how you approach every problem for the rest of your career.”
Building bridges between disciplines
A view of Aspergillus fumigatus, a species of fungus that is typically found in soil and decaying organic matter, through the microscope.
publications, the MSCA invests in the researcher as a whole. Fellows develop leadership, communication, project management and public engagement skills while building international networks that often last throughout their careers. “The MSCA is not really about building a project,” she says. “It’s about building people.” That investment often reveals its true value years later. Gauttier still collaborates with researchers she first met during her doctoral fellowship through European research projects and international initiatives. “The return on this investment happens gradually,” she explains. “You don’t necessarily see it immediately, but eventually these experiences influence every research team and every institution that former fellows become part of.”
While Stephanie Gauttier reflects on the long-term impact of the MSCA from the perspective of an established academic, Andi Hunklinger represents a new generation of researchers whose careers are only just beginning. Currently completing an MSCAfunded industrial doctorate between the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona and Bayer in Germany, they are working at the intersection of artificial intelligence, biology and healthcare, using explainable AI to better understand how deep learning models can support enzyme design and accelerate scientific discovery. Alongside their doctoral research, Hunklinger was recently a finalist at the Bio x AI Hackathon in Berlin and co-authored a perspective article in Nature Machine Intelligence exploring how explainable AI can be integrated into protein language models, reflecting their growing contribution to one of today’s fastest-moving fields. Although their research focuses on some of today’s most advanced AI technologies,
“Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions changed the way my brain works. It becomes part of how you approach every problem for the rest of your career.” The programme also changed the way she thinks about research leadership. Writing her Individual Fellowship proposal forced her to ask questions that extended beyond scientific objectives: What kind of researcher did she want to become? What contribution could she make to the community around her? Those reflections, she believes, laid the foundations for the leadership roles she now holds. Her commitment to improving research culture has become another lasting legacy of the MSCA experience. After witnessing talented doctoral researchers leave academia because of poor supervision or unhealthy working environments, Gauttier co-founded a mentoring initiative connecting early-career researchers with more experienced peers. That effort has since grown into broader European projects addressing researcher wellbeing and mental health. Thirty years after its launch, Gauttier believes the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions continue to offer something
Hunklinger’s path into science was far from conventional. After studying chemistry, biochemistry and computer science, they gradually realised that machine learning could become a powerful tool for understanding biological systems. Yet pursuing a PhD was never an obvious choice. Coming from a family where no previous generation had attended university, a research career felt largely unknown. “There wasn’t a clear roadmap,” they recall. “Everything was new - from studying abroad to thinking about what a research career could look like.” Their introduction to the MSCA came during their master’s studies, when they worked alongside several doctoral researchers funded through an earlier MSCA programme. Hearing first-hand about their experiences sparked an interest that eventually led them to apply for an industrial doctorate combining academic and industrial research.
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Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions 30th anniversary Celebrating 30 years of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
MSCA Objectives
Celebrating 30 years in 2026, the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) is a research and training programme that supports the career, skills development, and mobility of researchers at all stages of their careers and from all over the world. The MSCA does this by funding and co-funding excellent doctoral networks, postdoctoral fellowships, and R&I staff exchanges with a focus on international, inter-sectoral (between academic and non-academic organisations) and inter-disciplinary cooperation.
MSCA Information
• 150,000 researchers, including 23 Nobel Prize Laureates involved as fellows, supervisors or project coordinators • Around 50% of organisations taking part in the MSCA are companies, including SMEs • Nearly 45% of supported researchers are women • Over 40% of supported researchers come from outside the EU
Contact Details
Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions E: EAC-MSCA-COMMUNICATION@ ec.europa.eu W: https://marie-sklodowska-curie-actions. ec.europa.eu/ W: https://marie-sklodowska-curie-actions. ec.europa.eu/30th-anniversary
Stéphanie Gauttier Andrea Hunklinger Kopp
Stéphanie Gauttier is an Associate Professor at Grenoble École de Management, leading the Information Systems for Society team. A former MSCA ITN fellow at Trinity College Dublin and IF fellow at the University of Twente, she researches the ethics of emerging technologies. Andrea Hunklinger Kopp is trained as a chemist and computer scientist, and uses AI, especially explainable AI methods, to advance life science research and biomolecule design for pharmaceutical applications.
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The programme gave Hunklinger the opportunity to spend half of the fellowship at the Centre for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona and the other half at Bayer in Germany, complemented by a secondment at Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands. Experiencing both academia and industry, they say, transformed their understanding of how research creates impact. “In academia, publishing often feels like the end goal,” they explain. “In industry, that’s really just the beginning. You need to work with the people who will actually use what you’ve developed, understand their needs and keep improving it.” Rather than seeing the two sectors as separate worlds, Hunklinger believes
Those interactions gradually built confidence - both scientifically and personally. Meeting internationally recognised researchers through conferences and training events made academia feel more accessible and encouraged them to reach beyond their immediate network. Another unexpected lesson was the importance of communication. Initially unsure why the programme emphasised public engagement, Hunklinger now sees science communication as an essential part of research. In 2025, they were selected as one of the MSCA ambassadors at the AI in Science Summit in Copenhagen, where they presented how industrial doctorates strengthen collaboration between academia and industry.
“You realise you’re surrounded by people working on completely different problems, but everyone is willing to share ideas. You learn just as much from conversations over coffee as you do during the lectures.” innovation happens where they intersect. Academic curiosity provides the foundation for discovery, while industry offers the opportunity to translate those discoveries into practical applications. Beyond the research itself, the fellowship encouraged a level of independence that proved equally valuable. Rather than being given a predefined scientific path, Hunklinger’s supervisors challenged them to shape their own research questions and think carefully about the broader impact of their work. “At first it was difficult because I wanted someone to tell me exactly what to do,” they admit. “But eventually I realised how empowering it was. You start thinking not just about solving a problem, but about why it matters.” The international nature of the programme also played a defining role. Regular doctoral schools, workshops and consortium meetings brought together researchers from different countries and scientific backgrounds, creating an environment where exchanging ideas became as important as formal training. “You realise you’re surrounded by people working on completely different problems, but everyone is willing to share ideas,” Hunklinger says. “You learn just as much from conversations over coffee as you do during the lectures.”
The event brought together leading figures in AI, including Turing Award winner Yoshua Bengio and Agata Laydon, who leads the Google DeepMind Impact Accelerator, highlighting the growing role of early-career researchers in Europe’s AI ecosystem. “I now understand why communication matters,” they say. “It creates opportunities for collaboration and reminds us that research is ultimately about benefiting society.” Asked what advice they would give prospective applicants, Hunklinger doesn’t hesitate: “If you’re excited by research, just apply.”
Looking ahead As Europe faces increasingly complex challenges, the need for researchers who can work across disciplines, sectors and borders has never been greater. For 30 years, the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions have invested not only in excellent science, but in the people behind it. The experiences of Stephanie Gauttier and Andi Hunklinger show how the programme builds confidence, fosters collaboration and prepares researchers to translate knowledge into real-world impact. Its greatest legacy lies not only in the discoveries it enables today, but in the generations of scientific leaders it continues to nurture, strengthening Europe’s research and innovation ecosystem for the future.
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