The EU has opened 2025 calls for postdoctoral fellowships for grants aiming to improve the creative and innovative potential of researchers holding a PhD, with a budget of EUR 404.3 million.
The Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Postdoctoral Fellowships offer researchers holding a PhD the opportunity to acquire new skills through advanced training and international, interdisciplinary, and inter-sectoral mobility.
The call will help researchers acquire new skills, develop their careers, and gain international, interdisciplinary, and inter-sectoral experience by working in another country. They are seen as a stepping stone in researchers’ careers, allowing them to strengthen research cooperation with leading scientific teams and figures worldwide.
MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships are open to applications in any scientific field, including Euratom research. They are open to postdoctoral researchers from all over the world, of any nationality and at any career stage, with a maximum of 8 years of research experience after their PhD.
Fellowships include European Postdoctoral Fellowships, open to researchers of any nationality to carry out a personalised project in the EU or countries associated to Horizon Europe for up to 24 months; and Global Postdoctoral Fellowships, open to EU and Horizon Europe associated countries nationals or long-term residents wishing to work with organisations in third countries for a period of 12 to 24 months, before returning to Europe for 12 months.
The scheme encourages researchers to gain experience beyond academia by giving them the opportunity to request an additional six months at the end of their fellowship to undertake a placement in a non-academic organisation in Europe.
Some exceptions and specific conditions apply, for instance for Global Postdoctoral Fellowships.
Researchers must develop an application with their prospective supervisor and apply together with their future host organisation, which can be a university, a research institution or facility, a company, small or medium-sized enterprise, a government, public institution, or body, a museum, hospital, or NGO, or any other organisation based in an EU Member State or Horizon Europe associated country.
Swiss entities are also able to apply, as of January this year, and be evaluated under the same conditions as other countries associated to Horizon Europe. Successful proposals will however no longer be treated as established in an associated country if the association agreement does not apply by the time of the signature of the grant agreement. Morocco and Egypt also benefit from transitional arrangements at the call opening.
Researchers applying to Global Fellowships will need to seek the commitment of an organisation based in a third country, as they will carry out their research there for a period of between 12 and 24 months.
The call is open to researchers wishing to reintegrate in Europe, to those who are displaced by conflict, as well as to researchers with high potential who are seeking to restart their careers.
