MSCA Doctoral Networks: More Than a Funding Call
By Roger Horam, CCG EU Funding Expert, Written 25th September 2026
UK universities should perhaps stop asking:
“Do we have an MSCA Doctoral Network proposal?”
And start asking:
“Where should we be building European doctoral networks?”
That distinction matters.
MSCA Doctoral Networks are easily viewed as another Horizon Europe funding opportunity – a mechanism for funding PhDs through an international consortium.
But their strategic value is potentially much greater.
A strong Doctoral Network creates an international research and training ecosystem: universities, businesses and other organisations working around a shared research challenge; doctoral candidates undertaking interconnected research projects; mobility between countries and sectors; and relationships that can continue long after the project ends.
Today’s Doctoral Network partners can become tomorrow’s Horizon Europe consortium.
For UK universities, this opportunity deserves particular attention.
The 2026 MSCA Doctoral Networks call closes on 24 November 2026, while the next call is expected to close on 23 November 2027.
These should not simply be seen as two deadlines.
They offer two strategic horizons.
For research groups with mature concepts and established European partnerships, November 2026 presents an immediate opportunity.
For others, November 2027 provides something potentially more valuable: time to build properly.
Time to identify areas of research strength. Time to deepen European partnerships. Time to engage industry and other non-academic organisations. And time to design an integrated doctoral programme rather than assemble one around a funding deadline.
The starting question should therefore not be:
“What could we submit to MSCA?”
It should be:
“What important research challenge could we investigate significantly better by training a cohort of doctoral researchers across several countries, disciplines and sectors?”
Imagine ten interconnected doctoral projects addressing different dimensions of healthy ageing, climate adaptation, AI-enabled science, energy transition, democratic resilience or another major challenge.
Each researcher develops specialist expertise, but collectively they create something considerably greater: a European research community.
The Industrial Doctorate model adds another dimension, enabling universities to build programmes with businesses and other non-academic organisations around future research and skills needs. Joint Doctorates offer the potential for even deeper institutional relationships between European universities.
The 2026 RAISE Doctoral Networks for AI in Science pilot creates another opportunity, particularly where universities can bring AI expertise together with researchers from health, engineering, environmental science, materials, agriculture and other disciplines.
But competitive Doctoral Networks are not primarily writing exercises.
The difficult questions come first:
Why this challenge? Why a doctoral network? Why these partners? Why these doctoral projects? Why does international and intersectoral mobility add value? What will exist afterwards that does not exist today?
Answering those questions requires academic leadership, institutional coordination and, where necessary, specialist support in European funding, consortium development and proposal architecture.
The opportunity for UK universities is therefore bigger than another November deadline.
MSCA Doctoral Networks can help build research capacity, doctoral talent, industry relationships and European partnerships simultaneously.
Perhaps every university should therefore ask its research community one question:
If we could build a European network to train the next generation of researchers around one major challenge, what would that challenge be – and who would we want around the table?
That is where the Doctoral Network should begin.