"Seal of Excellence" programme

The MSCA Seal of Excellence programme of Sorbonne Université includes a salary and a lump-sum for research costs for two years, similar to the MSCA projects (€170,000 including €150,000 salary and €20,000 environment).

The Fellows selected will be offered a postdoctoral contract at Sorbonne Université (or a research contract depending on their experience) for a period of 24 months. The list of successful projects will be announced in May 2025.

ERC submission: The post-doctoral fellow will commit to submit an ERC proposal with Sorbonne Université as Host Institution within three years of the contract start date.

Priority for first-time Supervisors: Supervisors who have never obtained European grants are strongly encouraged to participate in the Seal of Excellence programme, and their fellows will be given priority.

This programme is part of Sorbonne Université new Marie S. Curie strategy to attract talented young researchers from all over the world, which also includes a call for expressions of interest to identify projects and candidates in advance, and their invitation to a training Master Class, followed by personalized support.

What are the eligibility criteria?

• Any MSCA-PF project submitted at the 2024 MSCA-PF – European Fellowships with a Supervisor in a research unit at Sorbonne Université
• Regardless of the Host Institution (Sorbonne Université, CNRS, Inserm or any other joint institution of a research unit)
• The project was evaluated by the European Commission’s expert evaluators and received a score of at least 85/100 leading to the Seal of Excellence label but was not funded by the European Commission
• The project can be implemented in a SU research unit with the research programme planned in the proposal

Caution: Global Fellowship projects are not eligible.

What are the selection criteria?

• If the Supervisor is a first-time awardee of a European grant since 2014 (H2020 or Horizon Europe), the project will be given priority
• The scores will be ranked based on the ratio between the score obtained and the threshold of the panel where the project was submitted in order to take into account inter-panel variations
• The allocation process is overseen by a Steering Committee, which will determine the number of contracts available based on the number of applications received, and allocate them according to the above ranking.

In the event of a tie, the committee will base their selection according to additional criteria of age, gender and/or under-represented disciplines.

How to apply?

Each applicant is invited to submit an online application through the Supervisor by sending the full application before April 14th, 17h, to the e-mail address msca-pf@sorbonne-universite.fr.

The application must include:

• Fellow's name, current position and contact details
• Supervisor's name, research unit and contact details
• List of European grants obtained by the Supervisor since 2014 (or absence of funding)
• Seal of Excellence certificate (if available) – 2024 project
• Evaluation Summary Report – 2024 project