Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
A researcher based in France, four years past PhD, applies together with a host university in Germany for a European Postdoctoral Fellowship -- a two-year, individually held EU grant funding their own mentored research project, paid as a living allowance plus mobility and (if applicable) family allowances directly tied to that one researcher's award, not a departmental budget line.
- Is an instance
A researcher who has spent the last three years working in Canada (a non-associated Third Country) applies for a Global Postdoctoral Fellowship: an 18-month outgoing phase continuing at a Canadian host institution, followed by a mandatory 12-month return phase at a European host organisation, both phases funded under the same single MSCA award held in the researcher's own name.
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
A four-country consortium of universities and companies jointly designs a structured training programme and each partner recruits one doctoral candidate who has not yet earned a PhD -- this is an MSCA Doctoral Network (the Horizon Europe successor to Innovative Training Networks), not a Postdoctoral Fellowship: the grant is held by the multi-partner consortium for pre-PhD candidates, not by one already-PhD-holding individual researcher and their single host.
- Not an instance
A university pays a postdoc's salary directly out of a principal investigator's Horizon Europe project grant, with no separate individually competed award in the postdoc's own name -- this is staff employment funded from a PI's grant, not an MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship, because the defining feature of the fellowship is that the award itself is individually held and portable, not that the funder is the EU.
Editorial commentary
An MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship is the Horizon Europe (2021-2027) individual-researcher action of the European Commission’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) programme. It funds a single, already-PhD-holding researcher to carry out a mentored research project at a host organisation, as an individually held, portable EU grant rather than an institutional salary or a consortium award. It is the direct successor to Horizon 2020’s Individual Fellowships (IF) — one of four MSCA action names renamed when Horizon Europe launched in 2021 (ITN became Doctoral Networks, IF became Postdoctoral Fellowships, RISE became Staff Exchanges; COFUND kept its name).
Eligibility
Applicants must hold a PhD at the call deadline (researchers who have defended their thesis but not yet formally received the degree may still apply), and must have no more than eight years of full-time-equivalent research experience measured from the date the PhD was awarded, excluding documented career breaks such as parental leave, illness, or national service. MSCA’s standard mobility rule also applies: the researcher must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, study, etc.) in the country of the host organisation for more than 12 of the 36 months immediately before the call deadline.
European vs. Global Postdoctoral Fellowships
The action has two tracks:
- European Postdoctoral Fellowships — 1 to 2 years, hosted at an organisation in an EU Member State or a Horizon Europe Associated Country, open to researchers of any nationality.
- Global Postdoctoral Fellowships — 2 to 3 years total, structured as an outgoing phase of 1-2 years at a host in a non-associated Third Country followed by a mandatory 1-year return phase at a European host organisation; restricted to nationals or long-term residents of an EU Member State or Associated Country.
Both tracks permit optional short-term secondments to other organisations and an optional non-academic placement of up to six months.
Funding structure
Like other MSCA actions, Postdoctoral Fellowships are funded as EU-wide unit costs rather than an institution-set salary: a living allowance, a mobility allowance, and — where the researcher qualifies — family, long-term leave, and special needs allowances, on top of separate contributions to the host organisation for research/training/networking activities and for management and indirect costs. Exact unit-cost figures are revised in each annual MSCA Work Programme and should be checked against the current call rather than assumed from a prior year.
Application and evaluation
Applications are prepared jointly by the researcher and a proposed host organisation and submitted through the EU Funding & Tenders Portal, describing the researcher’s proposed project and the host’s training and supervision plan. Proposals scoring at or above a high excellence threshold but not selected for funding due to budget limits may receive a Seal of Excellence, a quality label some national or regional funders use to fund the project outside the EU budget. From 2026, MSCA applies resubmission restrictions to proposals that score below a set threshold in a given call round.
How it differs from MSCA Doctoral Networks
Postdoctoral Fellowships and Doctoral Networks (the Horizon Europe successor to Innovative Training Networks, ITN) are both MSCA actions but fund fundamentally different things. A Doctoral Network is a grant to a multi-country, multi-sector consortium that jointly trains a cohort of doctoral candidates who do not yet hold a PhD, with each beneficiary organisation recruiting and supervising at least one candidate. A Postdoctoral Fellowship is a grant to one individual researcher who already holds a PhD, held jointly with a single host organisation. Confusing the two is a common source of eligibility errors: a researcher who already has a doctorate is not eligible for a Doctoral Network position, and a not-yet-PhD-holding candidate is not eligible for a Postdoctoral Fellowship.
MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships are one instance of the broader postdoctoral fellowship funding-mechanism category — an individually competed, individually held, fixed-term award distinct from a staff position paid out of a PI’s grant or an institutional training-grant slot — alongside comparable national and foundation schemes such as the NIH F32. For the broader EU funding context this action sits within, see the CASRAI guide to Horizon Europe.
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
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