Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowships 2026 – Eligibility, Deadline and How to Apply

Status: Closed — the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Postdoctoral Fellowships 2026 call closed on 9 September 2026 at 17:00 CEST. Results are expected on 9 February 2027. This article was checked against the official European Commission MSCA page on 14 November 2026, and the official source is linked at the end so you can confirm the result date and the next call. If you hold a doctorate and want to carry out research in Europe, the MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship is the largest and most competitive postdoctoral scheme in the European Union — and understanding its rules now will put you ahead for the next call.

The MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships are part of Horizon Europe, the European Union’s key funding programme for research and innovation. They support researchers holding a PhD who wish to carry out research activities abroad, acquire new skills and develop their careers. A fellowship is not a job at a university and it is not a grant to fund a whole laboratory. It is a personal fellowship: it funds you, the researcher, to work on a project you have designed, with a supervisor and a host institution that you choose together. The scheme is known for its mobility rule, its emphasis on training and career development, and the size of its budget: the indicative budget of the MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2026 call was 434 million euros.

Projects in the 2026 call were expected to be funded from that budget, with an indicative number of about 1,600 projects. That sounds like a lot, and it is, but the scheme is also one of the most competitive in Europe, because it is open to researchers of any nationality, in any field, and it attracts applicants from around the world. Getting funded is not a matter of luck; it is a matter of a strong project, a strong host, and a clear case for why the move matters for your career.

Two kinds of fellowship: European and Global

There are two types of MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship. A European Postdoctoral Fellowship lasts between 12 and 24 months, and it is carried out in a Member State of the European Union or a country associated to Horizon Europe. A Global Postdoctoral Fellowship lasts between 12 and 24 months in a third country — a country outside the EU and outside the countries associated to Horizon Europe — followed by a 12-month return phase in a Member State or an Associated Country. The return phase is compulsory for a Global Fellowship, because the scheme wants the knowledge and the skills you gain outside Europe to come back to Europe.

For a researcher from Pakistan, this matters. You can apply for a European Fellowship with a host in, for example, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Sweden or any other EU or associated country. You can apply for a Global Fellowship with a host in, for example, the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan or any other third country, on condition that you spend the 12-month return phase in the EU or an associated country afterwards. Both types are available to researchers of any nationality, and there are no quotas by country of origin.

Who is eligible

The MSCA rules are precise, and they are the first thing to check. Applicants must be in possession of a doctoral degree at the time of the call deadline. In addition, the scheme applies an experience rule: at the deadline, applicants must have a maximum of eight years of experience in research, from the date of the award of the doctoral degree. There are allowances for career breaks and for periods of work outside research, and the official guidance explains how those are taken into account, so if your career has not followed a straight line, read that guidance before you rule yourself out.

The mobility rule is just as important. To be eligible, the researcher must not have resided or carried out their main activity — work, studies and so on — in the country of their host organisation for more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before the call deadline. This is the rule that makes MSCA a mobility scheme: it funds you to move to a new country, to a new institution, and to build new connections, not to stay where you already are. If you have already been living in the country of your proposed host for more than a year, you will not be eligible for that host, and you should choose a different host country.

Your proposal must also show that the project is feasible in the time available, that the host institution is appropriate, and that the move will help your career. MSCA is not only about research; it is about researchers. The training, the supervision, the secondments, the career development plan and the long-term impact of the move on your career are all part of how proposals are judged. A strong project with a weak career case is as likely to fail as a weak project with a strong career case.

What the fellowship provides, and what it does not

MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships are funded through unit costs, paid to the host institution, which cover your salary and the costs of the fellowship. The funding includes a living allowance, a mobility allowance, a family allowance where applicable, and contributions to research, training and networking costs, as well as management and indirect costs for the host institution. The exact amounts are set in the Horizon Europe Work Programme and depend on the country where you work, because the living allowance is corrected for the cost of living in that country. That means a researcher in Denmark will have a different corrected allowance from a researcher in Portugal, and you should check the current unit costs in the Work Programme before you rely on a figure from another year or another country.

What the fellowship does not do is fund a permanent job, and it does not fund a whole research group. It funds the fellow, and the research costs that are directly linked to the fellowship project. It does not fund your dependants’ cost of living beyond the family allowance that the scheme provides where it applies, and it does not fund teaching that is unrelated to the project. The fellowship is also time-limited: once the 12 to 24 months are over, the funding ends, and you must plan what comes next — whether that is another position, a new fellowship or a return to your home country — before it ends.

The 2026 deadline and the result date

The MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2026 call opened on 9 April 2026 and closed on 9 September 2026 at 17:00 CEST. Applications were made through the Funding and Tenders Portal of the European Commission, and the proposal was prepared jointly by the researcher and the host organisation. The call closed after that deadline, so no new proposals can be submitted for the 2026 call. The European Commission states that the outcome of the evaluation will be known on 9 February 2027, and that the recommended starting date for the selected projects is in the grant agreement.

The Evaluation Support Service, together with its contractor GOPA and its partners, helps the European Research Executive Agency in the evaluation of proposals. Do not contact that contractor about your proposal, and do not read a result before the Commission announces it: the evaluation takes months, and the result date is the only date that matters.

How to prepare for the next call

If you were not able to apply in 2026, the time to prepare for the next call is now. Work on three things. First, your project: it must be clear, original and feasible, and it must be explained so that an evaluator who is not a specialist in your sub-field can understand why it matters. Second, your host and your supervisor: find a supervisor who fits your project, who will write a strong letter of support, and who can offer the facilities and the connections to make the project work. Third, your career plan: the MSCA scheme wants to see how the fellowship will change your career, what you will learn, and what you will do after it ends. Start those conversations now, while there is no deadline pressure, and write the proposal in good time, with drafts that a colleague can read and criticise.

Remember the mobility rule when you choose a host, and keep records of where you have lived and worked, because the 36-month rule depends on those dates. Check the official MSCA page and the Funding and Tenders Portal for the next call, and read the Work Programme when it is published, because that document sets out the rules for evaluation, the deadlines and the funding in detail.

Official source

Verify the deadline, eligibility and application route on the official MSCA page: https://marie-sklodowska-curie-actions.ec.europa.eu/funding/msca-postdoctoral-fellowships-2026. This article was checked on 14 November 2026; programme details can change, so the official page is the final authority.