Talking of Marie Curie...

I attended an interesting session on the Marie Curie Fellowships last week at the UKRO Conference. It was interesting to get some insights into how the UK's done with these. Here are some stats, with the overall success rates for all countries first, and then the success rates for the projects that involve the UK second:

• Initial Training Networks (ITNs): Overall: 7%; UK: 16%
  
• Intra-European Fellowships (IEFs): Overall: 24%; UK: 30%
  
• European Reintegration Grants (ERGs): Overall: 65% (!); UK: 57%
  
• International Reintegration Grants (IRGs): 67% (!!); 78% (!!!)
  
• Industry-Academia Partnerships & Pathways (IAPPs): Overall: 16%; UK: 20%
  
• International Outgoing Fellowships (IOFs): Overall: 20%; UK: 29%
  
• International Research Staff Exchange Scheme (IRSES): Overall: 65%; UK: 66%
  
• International Incoming Fellowships (IIFs): Overall: 15%; UK: 18%
  
• Co-Funding of Regional, National & International Programmes (COFUND): Overall: 66%; UK: 100% (though that was one application out of one).

One other interesting stat (and apologies for sounding like I'm obsessed with numbers here): for the Intra-European Fellowships, which fund movement between member states within the EU, the UK hosts 37% of all fellows, and yet sends out only 4%. Is this down to the UK being a world class centre for academic research, or just down to our poor language skills? I'll let you decide...