MSCA-PF: LaTeX Template

Note

This is an unofficial template based on the templates provided by the MSCA-PF program (originally in the RTF format). Proposals based on this template have been successfully submitted in 2022 and 2024 (to my knowledge). Newer versions of this template are available and reporting any discrepancies is highly appreciated!

LaTeX class and template for Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellow grant applications.

• Details and original template is provided here (calls are updated each year).

• For the official editable version of the template, you must start the submission process. The template will then be available on the left-hand side in a section named "Download Part B templates".

• For a similar template for the Doctoral Network see msca-dn.

Fonts

The official MSCA guidelines require the Times New Roman font on Windows or macOS and the Nimbus Roman font on Linux. When using PDFLaTeX this package uses the mathptmx font. When using XeLaTeX or LuaLaTeX, we try to load the Times New Roman font and, if it is not available, the Nimbus Roman font.

If these do not work for you, you can load fonts yourself using e.g.

% on PDFLaTeX
\usepackage{newtxtext}
\usepackage{newtxmath}

% on XeLaTeX / LuaLaTeX
\setmainfont{Times New Roman}

Building

The resulting PDF files are included for easy viewing, but it is recommended to build the two parts with e.g. latexmk as follows

latexmk -pdflua msca-pf-part-b1-template.tex
latexmk -pdflua msca-pf-part-b2-template.tex

Functionality

This packages provides the msca-pf class that is based on the KOMA-script scrartcl class and accepts any options meant for it. It can be used as

\documentclass[11pt,layoutgrid,draftproposal]{msca-pf}

% ... preamble ...

\begin{document}

% ... content ...

\end{document}

The class has two options meant for drafting:

• layoutgrid: overlays a grid on top of each page to check margins and other alignment issues.
• draftproposal: adds helpful drafting options, such as line numbers and a time stamp.

It also provides a few useful commands that can be used in the proposal. The following commands are mandatory:

• mscaidentifier: the call identifier, e.g. HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01. This should be set to the appropriate version by default.
• mscaproject: the acronym for the project.

Additionally, there are also some commands to help constructing the CV and other little tables in the submission:

• mscaorgoverview: an environment (wrapper around tabular) that defines the table template from Section 5.1 for participating organisations. This is a fixed 6 column table.
• mscaorgcapacity: an environment (wrapper around longtable) that defines the table template from Section 5.2 for participating organisations. This is a fixed 2 column table.
• cvitem: an environment to define a nicely aligned CV item.
• \cventry{dates}{name}{details}{location}: a generic entry in the CV. Use \cventryitem to get one already wrapped in the cvitem environment.
• \cvpub{date}{authors}{title}{journal}: a publication. Use \cvpubitem to get one already wrapped in the cvitem environment.
• \cvdetail{name}{description}: a additional description for an entry. This must be added in the same cvitem environment as the entry itself to use the same alignment.

The CV commands can be used in the following fashion:

% examples for a general entry
\begin{cvitem}
\cventry{DD/MM/YYYY DD/MM/YYYY}{Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering}{University Name}{Location}
\cvdetail{Title}{Title of my Ph.D}
\cvdetail{Advisor}{John Doe}
\end{cvitem}

\begin{cvitem}
\cventry{DD/MM/YYYY DD/MM/YYYY}{Job Title}{Company / University}{Location}
\cvdetail{Description}{Job description in short}
\end{cvitem}

% example of a bare entry (same as above without the details)
\cventryitem{DD/MM/YYYY DD/MM/YYYY}{Job Title}{Company / University}{Location}

% example for a publication
\begin{cvitem}
\cvpub{DD/MM/YYYY}{John Doe, Jane Doe}{Title of the Paper}
                  {Journal Name, Vol. XX, pp. XX--XX}
\cvdetail{Description}{Main findings of the paper}
\cvdetail{URL}{DOI or arXiV URL}
\end{cvitem}

% example for a bare publication (same as above without the details)
\cvpubitem{DD/MM/YYYY}{John Doe, Jane Doe}{Title of the Paper}
                      {Journal Name, Vo. XX, pp. XX-XX}

A Gantt chart must also be provided in the proposal. There are some LaTeX packages, e.g. pgfgantt, that can be used to create such charts. However, you can also just use a third party application, export the chart as a PNG or PDF, and include it like that.