UCT Prague successful in the prestigious MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships call
In an exceptionally competitive call 2025, UCT Prague obtained one MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship (MSCA PF) and one ERA Fellowship from the additional budget dedicated to widening countries (countries with lower participation in the EU-funded Horizon Europe programme), including the Czech Republic. The two-year grants, funded by Horizon Europe, enable talented postdoctoral researchers to carry out their own excellent research project at a host institution under the supervision of an experienced researcher, facilitated through international mobility. Emphasis is placed on postdocs´ career development and mutually beneficial cooperation.
Dr. Marc Morant Giner received an MSCA PF grant thanks to an evaluation score of 96.6% for his project “Controlling the morphology of carbide MAX phases/MXenes through the starting carbon source (MorphoXene)”, which will be implemented at the Department of Inorganic Chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Zdeněk Sofer. Dr. Morant Giner from the Universitat de València in Spain joined UCT Prague in February 2025 thanks to his previous MSCA PF proposal from 2023, for which he obtained funding from the OP JAK programme (Chemfells VII project).
Dr. Nandini Nataraj received an ERA Fellowship for her project “Halogen-Axially Coordinated Cu–N4 Single-Atom Catalyst as a Self-Standing Electrode for Scalable CO₂ Reduction Reaction (CuCATCO₂)”, with a score of 95.8%. Dr. Nataraj is currently working at the National Taipei University of Technology in Taiwan, where she also obtained her PhD. Dr. Rui Jorge Coelho Gusmão will be the supervisor of her project at the Department of Inorganic Chemistry.
In the Chemistry panel, a total of 2 358 projects competed for funding, with the success rate of 7.2%: a minimum score of 96.4% was needed to obtain the grant. In 2024 – just a year earlier - the same panel received 1 428 projects, with a success rate of 15.83%, and funding was awarded to proposals scoring at least 93.6%. Overall, the 2025 MSCA PF call received a record 17 066 proposals, 64.6% more than the previous year, with higher average evaluation scores.
At UCT Prague, two MSCA PF projects from the 2023 call are currently underway (ManCoProc by Dr. Emilie Jakubowská under Prof. Štěpánek at the Department of Chemical Engineering, and TSRA by Dr. Yirong Zhao under Prof. Sofer at the Department of Inorganic Chemistry), along with 16 MSCA PF proposals funded through OP JAK (Chemfells VI and VII projects). OP JAK funding has now been confirmed for additional 17 incoming mobilities from the MSCA PF 2024 call (Chemfells VIII), which will soon begin at the Departments of Inorganic Chemistry; Polymers; Informatics and Chemistry; and Physical Chemistry. Until now, the condition for OP JAK funding was at least a 70% score in the MSCA PF call.
More on the results of MSCA PF 2025:
https://www.horizontevropa.cz/cs/aktuality/yiifnews/3975/eu-podpori-vyzkumne-pobyty-44-postdoku