ITN supports a network of trainings in research and / or joint doctoral programmes, which are implemented through partnerships of universities, scientific and research institutions, research institutes, business entities and other socio-economic partners from Europe and beyond.

The programme is based on clearly defined comparative advantages of partner institutions and enables exchange of knowledge, networking activities and organization of conferences and workshops.

Early stage researchers are, in terms of this call, persons who are in the first four years (full-time equivalent research experience) of their research careers and not yet have been awarded a doctoral degree at the time of recruitment by the host organization.

Beneficiaries are the legal entities from academic or non-academic sector that sign the Grant Agreement and contribute directly to the implementation of the research, transfer of knowledge and training activities within the project by recruiting, supervising, hosting and training researchers.

The ultimate goal is to improve the careers of early stage researchers, by monitoring the progress envisaged in the Career Development Plan, which is why special attention in the project is focused on the needs of the researchers, the quality of the proposed training and the quality of mentoring. Through the project, grant beneficiaries should improve cooperation and knowledge sharing between sectors and disciplines, improve the quality of training programmes and doctoral programmes and create networks of partners that will contribute to strengthening internationalization.

There are three types of ITN projects:

» European Training Networks – ETN are networks that have the objective of training highly-skilled early-stage researchers and stimulating entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation in Europe. A consortium should be composed of at least three beneficiaries established in at least three different EU Member States or Associated Countries.
» European Industrial Doctorates – EID imply involving the non-academic sector in doctoral training so that skills gained by early stage researchers better match public and private sector needs. A consortium should be composed of at least two beneficiaries established in at least two different EU Member States or Associated Countries. At least one consortium member should come from the academic sector and at least one member from the non-academic sector, primarily enterprises (small and medium-sized enterprises).
» European Joint Doctorates – EJD have the objective of promoting international, inter-sectoral and multi/inter-disciplinary collaboration in doctoral-level training in Europe through the creation of joint doctoral programmes, leading to the delivery of joint, double or multiple doctoral degrees. A consortium should be composed of at least three beneficiaries entitled to award doctoral degrees from three different EU Member States or Associated Countries.

The deadline for submission of project proposals for this call expires on 15 January 2019 at 17:00:00 (Brussels time).
More details on this call and the accompanying documents and application forms are available here: http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/opportunities/h2020/topics/msca-itn-2019.html

Guides for applicants for the ITN call are available here: http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/other/guides_for_applicants/h2020-guide-appl-msca-itn_en.pdf