The "People" Programme

Clarisse Faria-Fortecoëf

This programme brings together and consolidates the Marie Curie Actions which represent real opportunities of funding for young researchers and career development in Research.

In the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), the “People” Specific Programme has a significant overall budget of more than € 4,7 billion over a seven year period until 2013.

The overall objective of this programme is: strengthening, quantitatively and qualitatively, the human potential in research and technology in Europe, by stimulating people to enter into the profession of researcher, encouraging European researchers to stay in Europe, and attracting to Europe researchers from the entire world, making Europe more attractive to the best researchers.

The “Marie Curie Actions” implemented in the “People” programme come under five headings:
- “Initial training of researchers”
- “Life-long training and career development”
- “Industry-academia pathways and partnerships”
- “International dimension”
- “Specific actions” to support removing obstacles to mobility and enhancing the career perspectives of researchers in Europe.

A concise booklet (pdf) gives a description of each action :
- action definition,
- who can apply ?
- which research topics are supported ?
- how does it work ?
- what does the funding cover ?
- how to apply ?