How MSCA Turned Research Mobility Into a Global Career Network

For three decades, the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) have helped change what a research career can look like. What began in 1996 as the Marie Curie Actions, supporting researcher mobility and training, has grown into the European Union’s reference programme for doctoral education and postdoctoral training. In 2014, the programme was renamed the MSCA as part of Horizon 2020.

The central change is not simply that more researchers travel internationally. It is that mobility has become a foundation for building careers across disciplines, institutions and sectors—including universities, companies, startups and government. The programme has supported more than 150,000 researchers since its creation, including 23 Nobel Prize laureates.

From fellowships to career infrastructure

The early model was relatively direct: help researchers work abroad, gain experience and pursue scientific excellence. Over time, the MSCA expanded that idea into a broader approach to researcher development. Its current remit covers training, skills development, international mobility and career progression across all disciplines and sectors.

That shift matters because research careers are rarely defined by one institution or one kind of employer. MSCA initiatives now include individual fellowships as well as doctoral networks and staff exchanges designed to connect academic and non-academic organisations. The European Commission describes the programme as supporting mobility between countries, disciplines and sectors, with knowledge transfer and innovation built into that model.

Under Horizon Europe, the MSCA has a budget of €6.6 billion for 2021–2027. The investment reflects a broader view of research training: scientific expertise remains central, but so do the skills, professional networks and cross-sector experience that help researchers apply knowledge beyond the university.

A global community that lasts beyond the grant

A fellowship can provide a period of funding, but a professional network can shape an entire career. The Marie Curie Alumni Association (MCAA) extends connections among MSCA researchers after their projects end. It currently has 41 geographic chapters worldwide.

That network gives the programme a durable international dimension. Alumni can remain connected to colleagues working in different countries and fields, exchange opportunities and contribute to conversations about research and innovation. The result is a community that is broader than a collection of individual grants: it is an ongoing network of researchers with shared experience of international and interdisciplinary work.

This does not mean that every MSCA fellow follows the same route. The programme does not guarantee an industry role, a startup or a public-sector appointment. Its deeper contribution is to make a wider range of routes visible and credible as forms of research success.

Why cross-sector careers matter

The modern researcher may move between academic research, private-sector innovation, public health, policy and entrepreneurship without abandoning research expertise. In practice, those transitions can help scientific methods reach new settings and audiences.

The MSCA’s cross-sector design supports this kind of movement by placing research training alongside collaboration and skills development. It also reflects the reality that major challenges—particularly in health, technology and public policy—often require people who can translate between technical and institutional worlds.

A cross-sector career is therefore not necessarily a departure from research. It can be another way of extending research’s reach: into products, services, evidence generation, public decisions and implementation.

Ornela Bardhi’s non-linear research career

Dr Ornela Bardhi offers a clear example of this broader career model. Her industrial MSCA doctorate focused on applying artificial intelligence in medicine, specifically cancer, and involved research across several countries.

Her subsequent work crossed several settings:

• She spent a year as a scientific adviser to Albania’s Minister of Health and Social Protection through the LEAD Albania programme.
• She co-founded two startups, adding entrepreneurship to her research and technical experience.
• She returned to data-science leadership and research in the private sector, working at Success Clinic Oy on health-related real-world data and evidence.
• She has also contributed to the researcher community through leadership in the MCAA, including work connected to the Western Balkans chapter and the association’s board.

Her trajectory connects applied AI, healthcare, entrepreneurship, government and industry. It also shows why mobility can be more than a change of location. Moving between countries and institutions can expose researchers to different problems, collaborators and ways of using evidence—experiences that later support work outside a conventional academic post.

The lasting legacy of MSCA

The MSCA’s 30-year evolution points to a lasting change in how research talent is developed and recognised. International mobility remains a defining feature, but it now sits within a larger framework of skills, networks, interdisciplinary work and collaboration with non-academic partners.

Bardhi’s career should be understood as an illustration, not a universal template. Not every researcher will become a founder, policymaker or industry data scientist. But her path demonstrates the programme’s broader legacy: research excellence can be sustained across institutional boundaries, and a successful research career can be international, non-linear and connected to real-world impact.