Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Postdoctoral Fellowships 2026

MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships are the European Union’s flagship funding scheme for researchers who already hold a PhD, run under Horizon Europe by the European Commission. The 2026 call opened on 9 April 2026 with a budget of 399.05 million euros and closes on 9 September 2026 at 17:00 Brussels time. It is expected to fund close to 1,600 projects, which makes it one of the largest single research funding competitions in the world.

For international researchers, the standout feature is that there is no nationality restriction whatsoever. Researchers of any nationality can apply, which is genuinely rare among major European schemes and puts this within reach of applicants from countries that are shut out of most national funding. What replaces the citizenship condition is a mobility rule, and this is where most people trip up: you must not have resided or carried out your main activity in the host country for more than twelve months in the thirty-six months immediately before the call deadline. Check this against your own record before you invest any time, because it disqualifies people who are otherwise ideal candidates.

There are two formats. European Fellowships place you in an EU Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country for twelve to twenty-four months. Global Fellowships send you outside Europe for up to two years with a mandatory one-year return phase to Europe, running to thirty-six months in total. Either way, the application is made jointly by you and a host beneficiary, so securing a supervisor and an institution willing to back you is the real bottleneck. This is not something to begin six weeks out. Many universities run their own internal MSCA support schemes with earlier expression of interest deadlines, and contacting a host’s research office is usually more productive than cold-emailing individual academics.

The award is a proper employment arrangement rather than a stipend. The host recruits you for the full fellowship period, and funding covers a living allowance, mobility allowance and, where applicable, a family allowance, alongside dedicated money for research costs, training and networking. On a CV it functions as one of the clearest available signals of independent research capability, widely recognised across European hiring and grant panels. Two rules changed for 2026 and are worth noting: resubmission restrictions now apply to applications that scored below eighty percent the previous year, so a rushed first attempt carries a real cost, while proposals scoring eighty-five percent or above that cannot be funded receive a Seal of Excellence, which some national and regional funders honour with their own money.

• Open to researchers of any nationality, which makes this one of the few major European schemes with no citizenship restriction at all.
• You must hold a PhD at the call deadline. Candidates who have successfully defended but not yet formally received the degree are also eligible.
• A maximum of eight years of full-time equivalent research experience counted from the date of your PhD award, with career breaks and time outside research excluded from the count.
• The mobility rule is the one that catches people out: you must not have resided or carried out your main activity in the host country for more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before the deadline.
• Applications are made jointly by you and a host beneficiary in the academic or non-academic sector, so you need a supervisor and institution committed before you can submit.
• European Fellowships are hosted in an EU Member State or a Horizon Europe Associated Country; Global Fellowships place you outside Europe with a mandatory one-year return phase to Europe.
• Open to every scientific field, including Euratom research, which carries some additional specific conditions.
• From 2026 onward, resubmission restrictions apply to applications that scored below 80 percent in the previous year, so a weak first attempt now has a real cost.

• A living allowance, mobility allowance and, where applicable, a family allowance, paid at rates set by the European Commission and adjusted by country.
• Dedicated funding for research costs, training and networking, so the fellowship supports the work and not only the salary.
• The host institution employs you for the full fellowship period, which means an employment contract with social security rather than a bare stipend.
• One of the strongest signals available on an academic CV, widely recognised across European hiring and grant panels as a mark of independent research capability.
• Global Fellowships let you spend up to two years outside Europe before returning, which builds a genuinely international network rather than a single-country one.
• Applications scoring 85 percent or above that cannot be funded receive a Seal of Excellence, which some national and regional funders honour with their own money.
• The 2026 call expects to fund close to 1,600 projects, so the absolute number of awards is large even though the competition is severe.

• Proposal submitted jointly with your host organisation through the EU Funding and Tenders Opportunities Portal.
• Full research proposal covering excellence, impact and implementation, written to the MSCA template and page limits.
• PhD certificate or formal evidence that you have successfully defended your thesis.
• Curriculum vitae detailing research experience, publications, and any career breaks you are claiming against the eight-year limit.
• Evidence supporting the mobility rule, showing where you have lived and worked over the previous 36 months.
• Letter of commitment from the host institution, and from any secondment or associated partner organisations.
• Ethics and security self-assessment sections, which are mandatory parts of the proposal rather than optional annexes.

• Find and secure a host supervisor first. This is the real bottleneck and the reason most people miss the deadline, so start six months out rather than six weeks out.
• Check the mobility rule against your own record before doing anything else, since 12 months in the host country during the previous three years disqualifies you outright.
• Use the hosting offers published on EURAXESS and institutional job portals to find supervisors who are actively looking for MSCA candidates.
• Many universities run internal MSCA support schemes with their own earlier expression of interest deadlines, so contact the host's research office and ask.
• Write the proposal around the MSCA evaluation criteria of excellence, impact and implementation, and treat the training and career development plan as a scored section rather than filler.
• Submit through the Funding and Tenders Portal by 17:00 Brussels time on 9 September 2026, and do not leave the upload to the final hours.
• Results are notified to applicants around February 2027, with grant agreements signed from about April 2027.