09 Feb 2026
MSCA awards €404.3 million to postdoctoral researchers
The European Commission will award €404.3 million to 1,610 postdoctoral researchers to work at top universities, research centres, private and public organisations and small and medium-sized enterprises under der Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) programme of Horizon Europe.
The European Research Executive Agency (REA) received 17,066 applications for this call, of which 16,836 were eligible and were evaluated. 1,610 projects were selected. This result corresponds to a 9,6% success rate.
The selected applicants represent nearly 80 nationalities. They will work in 45 countries in Europe and the rest of the world.
The Commission will award
- €343.7 million to 1446 researchers through European Postdoctoral Fellowships, allowing them to carry out their projects in the EU or countries associated to Horizon Europe
- €60.6 million for Global Postdoctoral Fellowships, allowing 164 researchers to carry out research outside the EU or countries associated to Horizon Europe, mostly in the United States, Canada and Australia, before returning back to Europe
Projects will be coordinated by organisations in 27 countries in the EU and countries associated to Horizon Europe. Recipients of the MSCA Global Fellowships grants will carry out part of their research projects in organisations based in 18 countries worldwide not associated to Horizon Europe. They will then return to their organisations based in the EU and Horizon Europe associated countries. The projects selected span all scientific disciplines
An overview of the evaluation results, cut-off scores and statistics has been published on the MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2025 call page of the Funding and Tenders Opportunities Portal. A list with all funded projects and coordinating organisations is available in CIRCABC.
41 additional fellowships will go to excellent researchers to carry out their fellowships in Widening Countries under the European Research Area (ERA) Fellowships Action of the WIDERA programme.
The Commission also highlights the fact that 2026 marks the 30th anniversary of the MSCA programme. Since 1996, the programme has played a crucial role in advancing research and innovation, supporting over 150,000 researchers, including 23 Nobel Prize winners.
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