The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Postdoctoral Fellowship is the European Union's flagship grant for postdoctoral researchers. It is competitive, procedurally strict, and career-defining: a successful MSCA-PF signals independent mobility, international training and the ability to write a Horizon Europe proposal. This guide covers who qualifies, how the eligibility rules are actually calculated, and what a competitive application contains. Call-specific figures below refer to the 2026 call, which is currently open; always confirm details on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal.
What the MSCA-PF is and who it's for
MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships fund an individual researcher to carry out a personalised project at a host organisation in another country, gaining new skills through advanced training and international (and often inter-sectoral) mobility. The call is open to all scientific fields.
There are two types:
- European Postdoctoral Fellowships: the project is carried out at a host in an EU Member State or a Horizon Europe Associated Country, for 12 to 24 months. Open to researchers of any nationality.
- Global Postdoctoral Fellowships: an outgoing phase of 12 to 24 months in a non-associated third country, followed by a mandatory 12-month return phase at a host in an EU Member State or Associated Country. Open only to nationals or long-term residents of an EU/Associated Country.
In both cases, fellows can request an additional 6 months at the end for a placement in a non-academic organisation in Europe. The grant covers a living allowance (€6,350/month under the 2026–2027 Work Programme, before the country correction coefficient), a mobility allowance, research costs, and an overhead contribution to the host, with family and special-needs allowances where applicable.
For the 2026 call, the EU has allocated roughly €399 million, expected to fund around 1,600 fellowships.
Eligibility: the 8-year research-experience rule and how it is calculated
Two conditions sit at the centre of eligibility, both assessed at the call deadline:
- You hold a PhD (or have successfully defended your thesis, even if the degree has not yet been formally awarded).
- You have at most 8 years of full-time-equivalent research experience, measured from the date your doctoral degree was awarded.
The 8-year figure is not simply "years since your PhD." The following do not count toward the maximum:
- years of experience outside research;
- documented career breaks, for example parental leave, military service, long-term illness, clinical training, or caring responsibilities;
- for researchers reintegrating to Europe, research experience carried out in third countries (for nationals or long-term residents of an EU/Associated Country).
Calculate it precisely. The European Commission publishes official Guidelines on the calculation of the 8 years of research experience and a self-assessment tool. Miscounting this is one of the most common reasons applications are ruled ineligible. Run the tool before you invest months in a proposal.
The mobility rule, explained plainly
The mobility rule prevents the fellowship from simply funding a researcher to stay where they already are. The requirement:
You must not have resided or carried out your main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country of your host for more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before the call deadline.
A few points that trip people up:
- "Host country" means the beneficiary country for a European Fellowship, or the outgoing-phase host country for a Global Fellowship.
- Both residence and main activity are assessed, and the 12-month limit applies to each independently. Working remotely for an organisation in country B while living in country A can affect your status in both.
- The clock counts from the dates you arrived and left a country, which may differ from your contract dates.
For the 2026 call, with a deadline of 9 September 2026, the reference window is the 36 months before that date.
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Explore CompassFinding a host institution and supervisor
You cannot apply alone: the host organisation submits the proposal on your behalf, and your prospective supervisor effectively co-authors it. This makes host selection one of the highest-leverage early decisions.
- Search the EURAXESS database of hosting offers and the MSCA matchmaking platform for institutions actively seeking applicants, often in specific research fields.
- Approach supervisors 4–6 months before the deadline. Strong supervisors with MSCA track records receive many requests and need time both to agree and to iterate on the science with you.
- The host commits, in a letter, to the project, infrastructure and training, and for Global Fellowships to the return-phase placement. The host's grant office will check eligibility, mobility-rule compliance and budget, so engage them early.
Structure of Part B: Excellence (50%), Impact (30%), Implementation (20%)
Part A is administrative; Part B is where the fellowship is won or lost. It is split into two documents:
- Part B1 (maximum 10 A4 pages) contains the three evaluated sections: Section 1. Excellence; Section 2. Impact; Section 3. Implementation.
- Part B2 (no strict page limit) contains your CV (5 pages), the capacity of the participating organisation(s), and ethics.
The three criteria are weighted, and you should write to the criteria, not as a free-flowing essay:
| Criterion | Weight | What it assesses |
|---|---|---|
| Excellence | 50% | Quality and ambition of the research, the training-through-research, the supervision and the two-way knowledge transfer |
| Impact | 30% | How the fellowship advances your career and the wider impact, dissemination, communication and exploitation of results |
| Implementation | 20% | The work plan, feasibility, risk management and the capacity of the host |
Each criterion is scored out of 5 (in half-point steps). There are quality thresholds per criterion and overall, and in practice funded proposals score very near the top: a passing score is far from a fundable one. Impact is frequently the section that separates strong proposals from funded ones, so do not treat it as an afterthought.
The Gantt chart and risk-mitigation section
These live inside Section 3, Implementation, and reviewers read them closely as a test of whether the project is realistic.
- A Gantt chart lays out work packages, tasks, secondments, training, and the timing of milestones and deliverables across the fellowship. It should be legible on a single view and consistent with the narrative: dates and dependencies that contradict the text undermine credibility.
- A risk-management table identifies the main scientific and practical risks, their likelihood and impact, and a concrete mitigation or contingency for each. Naming real risks and credible fallbacks reads as maturity; pretending there are none reads as naïveté.
Keep both tight: they earn Implementation points only if an evaluator can grasp the plan quickly and believe you can deliver it within the timeline and budget.
Timeline from call opening to result
The cycle runs roughly the same way each year. For the 2026 call:
- Call opens: 9 April 2026
- Deadline: 9 September 2026 (17:00 Brussels time)
- Evaluation: remote, by independent experts, about five months
- Results: expected February 2027, with an Evaluation Summary Report (ESR) for every proposal
- Grant agreement & start: preparations follow the results; the project start date must not be later than around 1 September of the year after the grant agreement is signed
Because the application takes most candidates several months to prepare (finding a host, developing the science, and refining Impact and Implementation with the host's grant office), work backward from the deadline and start early. If a proposal is not funded, the ESR is your most valuable input for a resubmission at the next call.