Seventh EU Framework Programme Ireland

The international dimension

The following four Marie Curie Actions make up the "International Dimension" activity of the People programme:

• International Outgoing Fellowships for Career Development (IOF)
• International Incoming Fellowships (IIF)
• International Reintegration Grants (IRG)
• International Research Staff Exchange Scheme (IRSES)

These actions all have the common objective to increase the quality of European research by attracting research talent from outside Europe and fostering mutually beneficial research collaboration with researchers from outside Europe.

The International Outgoing Fellowships for Career Development aim to reinforce the international dimension of the career of European researchers by giving them the opportunity to be trained and acquire new knowledge in a third country, high-level research organisation. Subsequently, these researchers will return with the acquired knowledge and experience to an organisation in a Member State or Associated country.

The objective of the International Reintegration Grants is to reinforce the attractiveness of Europe by encouraging European researchers who have carried out research outside Europe for at least 3 years to reintegrate in a Member State or in an Associated country in order to contribute to European research and transfer the knowledge they have acquired in a third country, by offering them the opportunity to capitalise in Europe on their experience.

Finally, the Marie Curie International Research Staff Exchange Scheme is a new implementation modality aiming at strengthening research partnerships through staff exchanges and networking activities between European research organisations and organisations from countries with which the Community has an S&T agreement or are in the process of negotiating one, and countries covered by the European Neighbourhood policy. Compared to existing Marie Curie actions, which provide mobility possibilities to individual researchers, this new action will provide support to research organisations to establish or reinforce long-term research co-operation through a coordinated joint programme of exchange of researchers for short periods.

Details of these schemes can be found on the FP7 - People website on CORDIS in the section dedicated to the International Dimension.