MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2027: Call Budget Figures Differ, Deadline 8 September 2027 (TBC)

MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2027: Call Budget Figures Differ, Deadline 8 September 2027 (TBC)

The European Commission’s MSCA page describes the 2027 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowships call as forthcoming. It gives 7 April 2027 as the planned launch and 8 September 2027 as the proposal deadline, both marked “TBC.” The EU Funding & Tenders listing gives the same opening and closing dates, with a deadline time of 17:00 CEST. The call has been announced, but it is not accepting applications yet; the Portal topic and submission forms are the place to confirm the live submission window and final instructions when it opens.

There is a material budget mismatch between official Commission sources. The MSCA call summary page currently lists EUR 388.57 million (TBC). The adopted Horizon Europe 2026-2027 MSCA Work Programme gives the 2027 call an overall indicative budget of EUR 459.70 million, split into EUR 390.74 million for European Fellowships and EUR 68.95 million for Global Fellowships. This page reports the Work Programme figure as the detailed call budget and preserves the discrepancy instead of presenting the summary-page figure as settled. Both remain indicative and the live Portal topic should be checked before relying on a budget estimate. The 2026 round closed on 9 September 2026; its final conditions should not be assumed to replace the 2027 work programme.

At a glance

The Work Programme and public call summary do not present the same total budget, and the summary page labels its figure TBC. The 2027 dates are also presented as indicative in the MSCA page and Work Programme. The Funding & Tenders listing currently shows the forthcoming topic deadline as 8 September 2027 at 17:00 CEST. Confirm the final topic entry, time zone, budget, templates, and conditions in the Portal before submission.

What the fellowship supports

MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships support experienced researchers who hold a PhD and want to develop their careers through international mobility, advanced training, and new research skills. Proposals are built around a research project and a concrete career development plan. The work may be in any scientific field, subject to the specific restrictions and conditions that apply to certain Euratom research areas.

This is a joint application. A researcher develops the proposal with a beneficiary organisation, which becomes the main host and, if the project is funded, recruits the fellow for the fellowship period. Eligible hosts can include universities, research institutions, businesses, small and medium-sized enterprises, public organisations, museums, eligible international organisations, charities, foundations, and other bodies. The host must be established in an EU Member State or a Horizon Europe Associated Country for the standard fellowship arrangement. A prospective supervisor and the host’s research support office should be involved early enough to shape a realistic project, not only to sign off on a nearly finished document.

The call is intended to strengthen both the research and the researcher. A convincing proposal explains what the fellow will learn, how supervision and training will work, why the host is suitable, and how the planned mobility will benefit the fellow’s longer-term career. A strong research question alone does not answer those questions. Applicants should connect the work plan, training, host environment, dissemination, and future career direction in a way that can be assessed as one coherent project.

Choose between the two fellowship types

European Postdoctoral Fellowships are open to researchers of any nationality. The project takes place in an EU Member State or a Horizon Europe Associated Country, with the researcher moving to Europe from anywhere in the world or between eligible European countries. The standard duration is 12 to 24 months. Researchers should confirm that the host country and planned mobility satisfy the current call rules.

Global Postdoctoral Fellowships are for nationals or long-term residents of EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries. They combine an outgoing phase of 12 to 24 months at an organisation in a non-associated third country with a mandatory 12-month return phase at a host in an EU Member State or Associated Country. Applicants need to establish a credible relationship between the outgoing host, the return host, and the project. The Global route has extra host coordination and eligibility requirements, so contact both organisations well before drafting the final work plan.

Both formats may include short-term secondments, subject to the work programme conditions. They may also include a placement of up to six months in a non-academic organisation at the end of the fellowship. These are distinct arrangements: decide which one serves the project, confirm the applicable conditions, and explain the tasks and added value in the proposal. Do not budget or schedule an activity based only on a description from an older call.

Eligibility checks to complete early

The standard scheme guidance says that applicants must hold a PhD by the application deadline. Someone who has successfully defended a doctoral thesis but has not yet formally received the degree may also qualify. The final call documents determine how to demonstrate this, so retain the defense record and check the relevant instructions when preparing the application.

Applicants generally need no more than eight years of research experience from the date the PhD was awarded. Years outside research and career breaks are excluded from this maximum. For eligible nationals or long-term residents seeking to reintegrate into Europe, research experience in third countries may also be excluded. The guidance is technical: use the European Research Executive Agency’s self-assessment tool and calculation guidelines, and keep records that support every deduction. If your eligibility depends on a career break, a change in research activity, or a reintegration provision, resolve the calculation before investing heavily in the narrative.

The mobility rule limits time spent in the destination. A researcher must not have resided or carried out their main activity, such as work or study, in the country of the European Fellowship beneficiary for more than 12 months during the 36 months immediately before the call deadline. For a Global Fellowship, the relevant test concerns the organisation hosting the outgoing phase. The precise reference period will be calculated from the final deadline, so verify it against the final 2027 call details rather than projecting from the indicative date today.

The Global route additionally requires the relevant nationality or long-term residence status. Euratom topics may have further nationality, residence, and host conditions. The standard scheme description is a useful first screen, not a substitute for the call-specific rules. Applicants should ask their National Contact Point or host research office to review unusual cases while there is time to change route or host.

The 2026-2027 Work Programme sets a specific resubmission bar for this call: a proposal involving the same individual researcher and the same recruiting organisation (and, for a Global Fellowship, the same outgoing-phase associated partner) that was submitted to the previous MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships call and scored below 80% must not be resubmitted the following year. It also allows only one proposal per researcher in a call; if more than one is submitted, only the last one is considered eligible. Applicants who submitted in 2026 should retrieve the result and ask the research office to check the researcher-host pairing before carrying material forward.

How the funding works

The published 2027 call page gives a total indicative budget, not a guaranteed personal award amount. MSCA funding is calculated through unit contributions to the beneficiary. Support includes a living allowance, a mobility allowance, and, when relevant, family, long-term leave, and special needs allowances. The host also receives contributions for research, training, networking, management, and indirect costs. The beneficiary recruits and employs the researcher for the fellowship.

This means the headline call budget is not a salary figure and should not be divided by the number of applicants to estimate an individual grant. The living allowance is an employer cost and applicable country correction and employment charges affect the amount reaching the fellow. Ask the prospective host’s research office or human resources team to explain the applicable rates, payroll treatment, and any institutional deductions for the country and appointment. Use the detailed unit contributions and country correction tables in the 2026-2027 Work Programme for financial planning; do not reuse an older per-month figure without checking that it still applies.

A practical preparation sequence

The 2027 call has been announced but has not opened. Use this preparation period to develop the proposal with the host; applications cannot be submitted until the Portal topic opens.

1. Check the scheme and your eligibility. Read the current Postdoctoral Fellowships guidance, calculate research experience with the REA tool, and map your residence and main activities against the mobility rule. Record uncertainties for the host office or National Contact Point.
2. Find the host and supervisor. Identify an organisation that can support the project scientifically and administratively. Agree on supervision, facilities, access to data or equipment, training, and how the host will employ you if funded. For a Global Fellowship, align the outgoing and return hosts before drafting around their contributions.
3. Shape a feasible project together. Build a work plan with clear objectives, methods, milestones, risks, and suitable alternatives. Explain the value of the international and, where relevant, intersectoral or interdisciplinary experience. Tie training to the skills the project requires and the career direction it supports.
4. Read the 2027 call package. The adopted 2026-2027 Work Programme already specifies the 2027 call, its European and Global indicative budgets, eligibility provisions, and a 10-page application limit excluding annexes. When the topic opens on the Funding & Tenders Portal, download the active proposal template, applicant guide, evaluation guidance, and submission instructions. Confirm required annexes, ethics and security questions, budget fields, and any final topic conditions in that package.
5. Draft and review against the award criteria. Ask a scientific reader to assess the research and a knowledgeable research support colleague to check compliance and readability. Make the career development plan specific: name the skill, activity, timing, supervisor or provider, and how it supports the fellow’s next step.
6. Submit through the Portal after it opens. The researcher and beneficiary prepare the application jointly and submit it through the electronic service linked from the official topic. The current published schedule points to a deadline of 8 September 2027 at 17:00 CEST, but check the live Portal entry for the authoritative cutoff and any updates. Submit early enough to check the generated proposal, correct errors, and replace the submission if needed before the portal closes.

The official MSCA preparation guide organizes the process into six steps: understand the funding, check eligibility, find a host and supervisor, draft, get feedback, and submit. It directs researchers to the Work Programme, the REA applicant guide and common-mistakes guidance, templates, evaluation materials, and National Contact Points. For this cycle, use the 2026-2027 Work Programme for requirements already published and the live Portal package for final forms and any updates. The generic preparation guide still describes the 2026 submission date, so do not treat that date as applying to the forthcoming 2027 round.

What to prepare with the host

Start a shared checklist with the supervisor and research office. It should cover the researcher’s CV and PhD evidence; the host’s administrative and legal details; the scientific work plan; the training and career development plan; the host’s facilities and supervision; the mobility calculation; and any documents specific to the chosen fellowship type. A Global proposal also needs coordination between the outgoing and return phases and may require host commitments specified by the final call documents.

The proposal should make the division of responsibility clear. Explain which organisation provides each environment, who supervises each phase, how the fellow will gain access to expertise or infrastructure, and how progress will be reviewed. If a secondment or non-academic placement is planned, identify its tasks and timing and show how it fits the objectives. If it does not contribute to the project or the researcher’s development, adding it only for appearance can make the plan less convincing.

Check the final template before deciding what belongs in each part. Portal data and forms may require information that is not repeated in the narrative, and a required host or ethics declaration may sit outside the main research text. Keep names, dates, duration, budget assumptions, and organisation details consistent across all sections. Have someone who did not write the application follow the instructions and confirm that each requested file is attached in the correct place.

Common avoidable weaknesses

A proposal can be ineligible or lose clarity because the PhD timing, eight-year calculation, mobility period, host country, or Global Fellowship status was misunderstood. These checks should happen before a full draft. Another common problem is an underdeveloped host relationship: a generic support statement cannot replace a detailed explanation of the facilities, expertise, supervision, and training that the host will actually provide.

Scientific ambition also needs a feasible plan. Break the project into work packages with evidence of progress, identify dependencies and risks, and describe alternatives that preserve the central research question. Explain how the project advances beyond the fellow’s previous work and how the host setting contributes something the researcher could not obtain in the same way at their current institution. Do not write impact as a list of broad promises; name the audiences, outputs, and plausible routes by which they may use the results.

Finally, treat the final submission as a compliance task as well as a research task. Follow the active form’s page limits and formatting instructions, check every required upload, validate the portal-generated version, and leave time for host approvals. Keep a local copy of the submitted package and confirmation. The precise process and permissible updates are governed by the Portal instructions for the 2027 topic.

Official resources

• MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2027 call page
• Horizon Europe Work Programme 2026-2027: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (PDF)
• MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships scheme rules and funding overview
• Six-step application preparation guide
• European Research Executive Agency MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships resources
• Funding & Tenders Portal

The official 2027 MSCA call page provides the public timetable and its EUR 388.57 million TBC summary figure; the adopted 2026-2027 Work Programme provides the detailed call conditions, 10-page limit, eligibility and resubmission rules, and EUR 459.70 million overall indicative budget. The official Funding & Tenders listing currently shows the call as forthcoming with a 17:00 CEST deadline. The scheme page and preparation guide explain the general structure and application workflow, although the guide’s submission dates currently refer to the 2026 call. Recheck the live 2027 Portal topic when it opens, especially for any update to the budget, deadline, templates, and requirements.