MSCA opens €105.5 million call to co-fund doctoral and postdoctoral programmes

MSCA opens €105.5 million call to co-fund doctoral and postdoctoral programmes

COFUND gives organisations a unique opportunity to attract talent through their own doctoral and postdoctoral fellowship programmes.

The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) 2026 call for co-funding of regional, national and international programmes (COFUND) is open as of 16 December 2025. The deadline for submission of proposals is 8 April 2026.

Under this call, the European Commission will award €105.5 million to support institutional, regional, national and international training and career development programmes for researchers.

COFUND allows organisations to create new or strengthen existing doctoral and postdoctoral programmes, with the goal of recruiting researchers and attracting international talent, by co-funding a significant part of their cost.

Organisations benefitting from such funding need to top it up with their own sources. Synergies with cohesion policy funds are strongly encouraged.

Forms of COFUND projects

Doctoral Programmes

• offering doctoral candidates research training activities to develop and broaden their skills and competences
• leading to the award of a doctoral degree

Postdoctoral Programmes

• funding individual advanced research training and career development fellowships for postdoctoral researchers

Proposed programmes can cover any research disciplines ("bottom-up"), but can also focus on specific disciplines, notably when they are based on national or regional Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialisation (RIS3 strategies).

Who can apply?

A single organisation in an EU Member State or a Horizon Europe associated country is eligible to apply.

Additional project partners such as

• government entities
• regional authorities
• funding agencies
• universities
• research organisations
• enterprises

can be included in the project to recruit researchers (implementing partners), as well as host secondments and provide training (associated partners).

At the time of recruitment, implementing partners must be established in an EU MS, the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) linked to the Member States, HE Associated Country, or low- and middle-income third countries included in the list of countries eligible for funding provided in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide. Associated Partners can come from any other country.

Spreading best practices

COFUND spreads the MSCA's best practices by promoting high standards in the selection and recruitment process and excellent working and employment conditions for researchers.

It promotes sustainable training and international, interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral mobility to

• train researchers and innovators in academia and beyond
• allow them to enlarge their networks and share knowledge to carry out cutting-edge research
• provide them with new knowledge, skills, career development perspectives and increased employability
• boost their creativity and entrepreneurship

Organisations can use the programmes to attract international talent, increase their research and innovation capacities and contribute to the local, regional and/or national socio-economic ecosystems. This will also enhance their overall attractiveness.

Funded programmes will have to consider important aspects such as

• research excellence
• open science
• communication and dissemination of results
• community engagement
• entrepreneurship
• gender equality
• ethics
• high-quality supervision

Indicative timeline

• 16 December 2025: launch of the call for proposals
• 8 April 2026: deadline for submitting proposals
• September 2026: notification of call results to applicants (TBC)
• December 2026: grant agreement signature for successful projects (TBC)
• First semester of 2027: first EU-funded projects start (TBC)

Find out more and apply