What is an ITN, Initial Training Network?
ITN aims to improve career perspectives of researchers who are in the first 5 years of their career, in both public and private sectors, thereby making research careers more attractive. This will be achieved through a trans-national network aimed at establishing high quality training schemes for researchers.
The ITN is divided in 3 sub-programmes:
Multi-partners ITN, Innovative Doctoral Programme (IDP) and The European Industrial Doctorates (EID).
How does an ITN work?
A consortium (average size 9 partners) under the lead of a coordinator (located in an EU27 member state or associated country) sets up a project. In case of funding, the partners can hire the early stage and experience reseachers from around the world.
What is funded in an ITN?
Salaries & allowances of recruited researchers are covered:
For an early-stage researcher (ESR): Monthly Living allowance (i.e. gross salary): € 38 000/year x country coefficient
ESR are recruited for a duration from 3 months up to 3 years for Multi and Mono ITNs.
For an experienced researcher (ER) Monthly Living allowance (i.e. gross salary): € 58 500/year x country coefficient.
ER are recruited for a duration from 3 months up to 2 years in the Multi-ITN.
Additional allowances (for both ESR and ER)
Mobility allowance (monthly): €1000 x country coefficient for researchers with family; €700 for researchers without family
What is the duration?
The usual duration of an ITN is 4 years from the start of the grant agreement.
What is the "life cycle" of an ITN?
How long does it take from the moment you write your proposal until the moment your project can finally start (in case you get funded by the European Commission)?
Count roughly 12-14 months before starting your project:
Stage 1: After the Call for an ITN has been published, the consortium has about 4 to 5 months to prepare and submit a proposal until the deadline.
Stage 2 : A panel of experts will evaluate the proposals (2-3 months)
Stage 3: Applicants whose proposals have been successfully evaluated in Stage 2 will be invited by the EC to negotiate (2-3 months)
Stage 4 : If the negotiation with the EC has been successful, it will take another 2-3 months to prepare the contract
Stage 5: Start of the project.
What are the evaluation criteria for an ITN?
S&T Quality: 30%
Training: 30%
Implementation: 20%
Impact: 20%
Who can apply?
ITN is a host driven action, i.e. applicants are research organizations: universities, public and private research centers, non-profit organisations, large companies, SMEs, etc.
Multi-ITN networks comprise at least 3 partners, IDP one participation only and EID 2 participants (one private and one public) form different countries.
Which research topics are eligible?
As for the other Marie Curie Actions, ITN follows a bottom-up approach, i.e. the research topic is chosen freely by the applicant(s). Proposals are classified under 8 major panels: chemistry, social & human sciences, economic sciences, information & engineering, environment and geosciences, life sciences, mathematics and physics.