MSCA Doctoral Networks 2026: The Final Month — What Still Moves Your Score Before 24 November

Recorded e-Course | Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Doctoral Networks 2026

Prepare your MSCA Doctoral Networks 2026 proposal for the final submission stage with practical, evaluator-focused guidance from Dr. Nikolaos Floratos, an experienced European Commission expert evaluator.

Based on the live webinar, The Final Month: What Still Moves Your Score Before 24 November, this recorded e-course explains how to identify and address common proposal shortcomings that can cost valuable evaluation points. With the MSCA DN 2026 deadline approaching, discover how to strengthen your proposal's Excellence, Impact and Implementation sections through targeted improvements, clear evidence and careful consistency checks.

What you will learn:

• Understand the 2026 call changes: Review key updates affecting eligibility, evaluation thresholds, secondments, formatting and the application process.

• Strengthen your Excellence section: Audit mandatory template subheadings, sharpen research objectives, define measurable KPIs and demonstrate scientific ambition and integration between doctoral candidate projects.

• Improve your training and supervision plans: Make network-wide training activities concrete, clarify supervisory responsibilities and demonstrate the contribution of academic and non-academic partners.

• Make your Impact section convincing: Define measurable career outcomes, demonstrate non-academic sector involvement, strengthen dissemination and exploitation plans, and explain the magnitude and importance of expected impacts.

• Build a credible Implementation plan: Align work packages, deliverables, milestones, risks, person-months and doctoral candidate projects across the application.

• Avoid common evaluation shortcomings: Learn how evaluators assess proposals and identify vague claims, missing information, inconsistent figures and formatting errors before submission.

• Apply a final-month checklist: Prioritise practical improvements that can make your proposal clearer, more consistent and more competitive.

Who should take this course?

This recorded e-course is designed for MSCA Doctoral Networks 2026 coordinators, proposal writers, research managers, university support teams and consortium partners preparing or reviewing an application for the 24 November 2026 deadline.

Your trainer: Dr. Nikolaos Floratos

Dr. Nikolaos Floratos has been a European Commission expert evaluator since 2003, covering MSCA, Cluster calls, the EIC and Widening. He is the founder of Funding Expert Academy and the OpenCosmos community platform.

Learn at your own pace

Access the recorded session and revisit the practical recommendations as you refine your MSCA Doctoral Networks proposal. Use the guidance to identify weaknesses, prioritise final improvements and prepare a more coherent, evaluator-ready application.

Please note: This course provides practical proposal-development guidance. It does not guarantee funding or a successful evaluation.

Questions?

Email info@keyinnovations.eu