Association to Horizon 2020 is governed by Article 7 of the Horizon 2020 Regulation. This article sets out criteria for association to the Framework Programme: good capacity in science, technology and innovation; good track record of participation in EU research and innovation programmes. It limits association to countries geographically close to Europe – the enlargement, neighbourhood and EFTA countries. Association to Horizon 2020 takes place through the conclusion of an Association Agreement.
Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions are part of the Horizon 2020 programme for research and innovation and governed by the same rules.
Legal entities (Universities, Companies, Research Centres, International European Interest Organisations, etc.) from Associated Countries are encouraged and can participate in the MSC actions under the same conditions as legal entities from the EU Member States.
As of 29 April 2016, the following countries were Associated to Horizon 2020: Iceland, Norway, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Turkey, Israel, Moldova, Switzerland, Faroe Islands, Ukraine, Tunisia, Georgia and Armenia.
Until the end of 2016, only 16% of the submitted proposals and 10% of the funded proposals under MSC actions came from Associated Countries.
The campaign “From association to participation” aimed to help the Associated Countries, especially those that recently signed the association agreement, to improve their participation in submitted and successfully evaluated proposals. It consisted of series of lectures held between December 2016 and April 2017, which explained principles of participation in the MSC actions, provided advises for application and presented examples of successful projects with participation of institutions from Associated Countries.
At the event organized in Belgrade (Serbia) on 13th of December 2016, the project A_MADAM was presented as a success story of a project coordinated by an institution from the Associated Country (Serbia), with participants from both the Associated Countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and European Union (Croatia and Italy). The complete program of the event may be found at the website of the event, which also contains the presentation of the A_MADAM project made by Prof. Dr. Zlatan Šoškić from Faculty of Mechanical and Civil Engineering in Kraljevo.