iCARE-2

iCARE-2 Program

iCARE-2 is an international fellowship program co-funded by the AIRC Foundation for cancer research (AIRC) and the European Union, under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action H2020-MSCA-COFUND-2017, grant agreement No 800924.

iCARE-2 is intended to promote the mobility to and from Italy of experienced scientists working in the field of cancer research.

With iCARE-2 funding scheme AIRC reinforces its commitment to reach the European Commission’s objective of creating an open and attractive labour market for researchers worldwide, favouring the mobility and recruitment of high quality scientists.

iCARE-2 offers different types of 3-year fellowships:

• Outgoing Fellowships, for researchers of any nationality who have worked in Italy for more than three years, interested in a research experience in a scientific institution located in a country other than Italy.
• Incoming Fellowships, for non-Italian scientists interested in a research experience in a scientific institution in Italy.
• Reintegration Fellowships, for Italian researchers who have worked in a country other than Italy for at least two out of the last three years, and who wish to return and work in a research center in Italy.

The excellence of the research program:

• iCARE-2 has a bottom-up approach: candidates are free to choose the destination (country, research institution and supervisor) and the topic of their research, as long as it is focused on cancer.
• The selection of fellows is carried out with an internationally acknowledged, fair and transparent peer review process. Applications are judged on the basis of their relevance for cancer, the quality of the Hosting Institution and training, the curriculum vitae of the candidate and the scientific merit of the research project.
• A strong policy to promote research ethics and research integrity throughout all the phases of the program.
• A continuous interactions of AIRC with iCARE-2 fellows and their Hosting Institutions during the duration of the fellowship, to timely identify and solve potential problems arising during the fellowships, thus improving the quality and the impact of iCARE-2 training and research outcomes.

Benefits

Awardees are offered optimal working conditions with employment contracts that include all social security coverage and benefits.
The 3-year fellowships awards are supplemented with a travel allowance, to cover expenses for relocating.
Hosting Institutions receive a Research/Dissemination cost contribution, to be used for scholarly open access fees and other research expenses, and a training cost contribution, to cover costs associated with the participation of the fellows to international meetings or to training events.

About AIRC

Founded in 1965, AIRC is a leading charity in Italy, providing at least 40% of all research funds invested in cancer research in Italy.

Our mission is:

• to support research on cancer through individual and collaborative research grants targeting researchers at different stages of their careers;
• to complete the training of young researchers in Italy and abroad with fellowship awards;
• to educate the public and raise awareness of the progress in cancer research.

Funds are raised through national or local outreach campaigns, and are received in the form of membership fees and/or donations from individuals as well as from public and private organizations. Grants and fellowships are awarded after a merit-based selection process.

For more information please visit the AIRC website

About H2020

Horizon 2020 is the EU research and innovation program investing almost €80 billion over 7 years (2014-2020). It aims to lead to more breakthroughs, discoveries and world-firsts by taking great ideas from the lab to the market.

Excellent Science pillar

Activities under this Pillar aim to reinforce and extend the excellence of the Union’s science base and to consolidate the European Research Area in order to make the Union’s research and innovation system more competitive on a global scale.

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

MSCA provide excellent and innovative research training as well as attractive career and knowledge-exchange opportunities through cross-border and cross-sector mobility of researchers to best prepare them to face current and future societal challenges.

COFUND

The MSCA offer additional funding to regional, national and international programs for research training and career development. COFUND programs encourage the movement of researchers across borders and provide good working conditions. The scheme can support doctoral and fellowship programs.

Previous Editions

AIRC received two awards within the FP7 COFUND program: FELCARES (GA N. 245506), concluded in 2014, and iCARE (GA N. 609284), concluded in 2018.

The key features of these two programs were similar to iCARE-2:

• Mobility of researchers worldwide, with outgoing, incoming and reintegration fellowships to and from Italy
• Bottom-up approach, with freedom of choice of the research to be pursued, with a focus on cancer
• Integration of research activities with training in complementary skills and participation to scientific meetings
• Merit-based selection process

From FELCARES to iCARE-2 a number of new features have been introduced, in order to improve the researchers' employment and working conditions, provide them with more comprehensive training and networking opportunities, and enhance their competitiveness in the job market.

FELCARES (2010 – 2014)

30 fellowships were awarded within this program: 19 Outgoing, 6 Incoming, 5 Reintegration. For this program the success rate, calculated as n. awarded fellowships/n. submitted proposals, was 35%.

iCARE (2014 – 2018)

30 fellowships were awarded within this program: 16 Outgoing, 4 Incoming, 10 Reintegration. A complete list of awardees is available here. This program ended in September 2018. Due to the increased number of applications compared to FELCARES, the success rate of this program was 24%.