The Irish Research Council Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) COFUND Postdoctoral Fellowship Programme entitled CAROLINE – ‘Collaborative Research Fellowships for a Responsive and Innovative Europe’ provides experienced researchers* with an opportunity to undertake a prestigious research mobility and career development fellowship. CAROLINE fellows carry out research either in Ireland or abroad and gain inter-sectoral and interdisciplinary exposure through this programme.

CAROLINE supports experienced researchers from any discipline to conduct research relevant to the themes of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for shared economic prosperity, social development, and environmental protection. The 17 goals within Agenda 2030 are relevant for researchers across all academic disciplines and will be of interest to researchers with diverse career objectives in mind, including those within academia, civic society, and industry.

A key feature of the programme is collaboration between the academic sector, non-governmental organisations and international organisations. The scope of potential organisations for inter-sectoral collaboration in terms of their mission is intended to be broad, and will speak to one or more of the goals under Agenda 2030. Potential partner organisations are not limited to ‘development-orientated’ NGOs or those working in support of developing countries.

The Irish Research Council has funded 19 projects in 2017 under this scheme. Fellows conduct research at Irish higher education institutes, while partnering with a range of public and private organisations.

The complete list of awardees and their projects can be found here.