MSCA Doctoral Networks 2027 | Salaried PhD Positions in Europe, Any Nationality

MSCA Doctoral Networks fund PhD positions across Europe, and the single thing to understand before you read any further is this: you do not apply to the call. Institutions compete for the money, and once they win it they advertise individual PhD vacancies that you apply to as jobs. The European Commission says so in its own words — candidates “should apply to funded Doctoral Network projects by consulting their open vacancies advertised internationally, including on the EURAXESS portal.”

The second thing to understand is that these are not scholarships. The Commission requires every Doctoral Network vacancy notice to state “the gross salary (not including employer’s social contributions) offered to the researcher”. You are hired, on a contract, with social contributions and the employment rights of the country you move to.

After re-reading the Commission’s own Doctoral Networks pages on 19 October 2026, we also found the budget has moved. The open call carries an indicative budget of €628 million, raised from the figure published earlier in 2026 after what the Commission labels an “announcement of the additional funding”.

Key Highlights

Detail Description

The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions are the European Union’s funding programme for doctoral education and postdoctoral training under Horizon Europe. Doctoral Networks is the doctoral half, and the Commission states its objective plainly: to implement doctoral programmes “by partnerships of organisations from different sectors across Europe and beyond to train highly skilled doctoral candidates, stimulate their creativity, enhance their innovation capacities and boost their employability in the long-term.”

The programme exists to move researchers — between countries, between disciplines, and between the academic and non-academic sectors. That purpose explains nearly every rule below. The mobility condition, the secondments, the requirement that Industrial Doctorate candidates spend half their time outside academia: none of these are administrative friction, they are the point. It also explains why the money arrives as a salary, with the host organisation employing you and the EU contributing defined unit costs. Networks are open to organisations from outside Europe too, which the Commission frames as “fostering strategic international partnerships for the training and exchange of researchers”.

Programme Structure

A Doctoral Network is a partnership that runs a doctoral programme. It must include at least three independent legal entities, each established in a different EU Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country, with at least one in an EU Member State. On top of that minimum, the Commission states, “other organisations from any country in the world can also join”.

Each beneficiary must recruit at least one doctoral candidate, and can organise secondments for them anywhere in the world. Individual fellowships run 3 to 36 months, or 3 to 48 months within a Joint Doctorate. The projects themselves last up to four years, or five for Joint Doctorates. Candidates must be enrolled in a doctoral programme during the project.

Beyond the standard form, the Commission has introduced incentives for two specific types:

• Industrial Doctorates — for candidates who want to work outside academia. Participants are enrolled in a doctoral programme, jointly supervised by academic and non-academic partners, and spend at least 50% of their time outside academia
• Joint Doctorates — a highly integrated collaboration leading to a joint doctoral degree or multiple degrees awarded by the participating institutions, with candidates enrolled in a joint programme and jointly supervised

The Commission notes that specific conditions apply to Industrial and Joint Doctorates beyond the three-entity baseline, so a consortium planning either should work from the call documents rather than the summary.

Research Areas

There is no subject restriction. The Commission states that “All areas of research may be funded” under Doctoral Networks, and that the programmes “will respond to well-identified needs in various research and innovation areas”.

What varies is not the field but the training. Every network must expose its researchers to both the academic and non-academic sectors, and offer training in transferable skills relevant to innovation and long-term employability — the Commission names entrepreneurship, commercialisation of results, intellectual property rights and communication. Against a conventional PhD, that structured non-academic training is the practical difference.

Benefits

This is where most coverage of MSCA goes wrong, so it is worth separating the two numbers carefully.

Eligibility Criteria

Two different bars apply here, and the gap between them is wider than for almost anything else on this site. The European Commission decides whether a network is funded and sets the rules every recruited researcher must meet. The recruiting institution decides whether you personally are hired, and sets its own academic and language requirements on top.

What the EU requires of recruited researchers

• No doctoral degree at the date of recruitment
• Any nationality — the Commission states researchers “can be of any nationality”
• Enrolment in a doctoral programme during the project
• The mobility rule — set out below, and the condition that ends most plans
• At least 50% of your time outside academia, if the post sits within an Industrial Doctorate

What the institution decides, not the EU

• Academic entry requirements for the doctoral programme and the specific research post
• Language requirements. MSCA itself sets none, so IELTS, TOEFL or another test may be required by the host university — and often is
• Shortlisting, interviews and the hiring decision, conducted under the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers

The mobility rule — the condition that disqualifies most people

The Commission’s wording is that researchers “must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country of the recruiting organisation for more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before their recruitment date“.

Two details decide how it applies to you. The window counts back from your recruitment date, not from any application deadline. And “main activity” explicitly includes studies, so a master’s taken in that country is likely to count against you.

The practical consequence runs counter to instinct: finishing a degree in the country where you most want to do your PhD can make you ineligible to be recruited there, while leaving you eligible almost everywhere else in Europe. One mercy — the Commission qualifies the rule with the words “in general”, which signals that narrow exceptions exist. A borderline count is worth raising with the recruiting institution rather than self-rejecting.

Selection Process

Recruitment is run by the institutions, not by Brussels, but the Commission sets the frame. The selection procedure “must be open, transparent and merit-based, in line with the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers“, and the vacancy notice must be widely advertised internationally, including on EURAXESS, carrying the gross salary on offer.

In practice each position sets its own requirements, documents and interview format. The Commission’s role ends at the standard; the department hiring you decides everything else. EURAXESS states that on the vacancy page you will “find the full requirements of the position you are interested in” and “be able to apply directly to the institution or project of your choice”.

Application Timeline

The Commission marks every stage of both calls as indicative and to be confirmed — including the opening dates and the deadlines themselves, not only the stages after them. The deadlines above are the published ones and are what a consortium should work to, but check the call page before relying on any date. Both call pages carry an “Extended deadline” field, and it stands empty on each.

Required Documents

There is no MSCA document set for a candidate. What you submit is decided by the recruiting institution and stated in the vacancy notice. Expect the standard research-post file:

• A CV, usually in a research format with publications where you have them
• A motivation letter addressing that specific project
• Academic transcripts and degree certificates
• References, with the number and format set by the institution
• Proof of English proficiency in most cases — MSCA imposes no language rule, but universities do
• Evidence for the mobility rule, since you will be asked to account for where you have lived and worked

Consortia applying to the call itself work from a much larger set — the MSCA Work Programme and General Annexes, the guide for applicants, call-specific FAQs and the application forms — all published on the call’s page on the EU Funding and Tenders Portal.

How to Apply

Step 1: Work out which side of the call you are on

If you are an individual wanting a PhD, you apply to vacancies, never to the call, and nothing you do before 24 November 2026 affects your chances. If you are an institution forming a consortium, the deadline is yours and the documents live on the Funding and Tenders Portal.

Step 2: Check the mobility rule against your own history first

Before anything else, count the months you have spent in your target country over the past three years, counting study as well as work. More than twelve in the last thirty-six and that country is closed to you for recruitment — while the rest of Europe stays open. Because the rule is qualified as applying “in general”, a borderline count is worth querying with the institution rather than assuming the worst.

Step 3: Set up EURAXESS alerts and search continuously

Vacancies from funded networks are advertised internationally and the EURAXESS listing is updated daily. Positions from the open call cluster around and after August 2027, but networks funded in earlier rounds are recruiting throughout, so there is no reason to wait.

Step 4: Read each notice as a job advert, then apply directly to the institution

Every position states its own requirements and its gross salary. Check the salary, the duration within the 3-to-36-month range, and whether the post sits inside an Industrial Doctorate, since that commits you to half your time outside academia. EURAXESS routes you to the recruiting institution, which runs its own shortlisting and interviews — so tailor the motivation letter to that project, not to MSCA in general. You are being hired by a research group, not by the European Commission.

Step 5: Confirm the money and the enrolment in writing

Before you accept, establish your gross salary, which allowances apply to you, and which university will enrol you for the doctorate. Enrolment in a doctoral programme is an EU requirement, so it should never be vague.

Also Check

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. Is MSCA Doctoral Networks a scholarship or a salary?

A salary. Doctoral Networks fund an employment contract, and the Commission requires every vacancy notice to state “the gross salary (not including employer’s social contributions) offered to the researcher”. The EU contributes a living allowance, a mobility allowance and, where applicable, family, long-term leave and special needs allowances, plus research, training and management costs paid to the network. You are employed staff with a contract and social contributions, not a scholarship holder.

2. What is the deadline for MSCA Doctoral Networks 2027?

24 November 2026 at 17:00 CET for the open call, HORIZON-MSCA-2026-DN-01 — but that deadline is for institutions, not individuals. A further call, HORIZON-MSCA-2027-DN-01, opens 26 May 2027 and closes 23 November 2027 at 17:00 CET. For candidates the dates that matter are different: results in April 2027 and PhD vacancies appearing from around August 2027. The Commission marks every one of these as to be confirmed.

3. Who can apply for MSCA Doctoral Networks?

Two different answers. The call is open to consortia of at least three independent organisations in three different EU Member States or Associated Countries. The PhD positions are open to researchers who do not hold a doctoral degree at the date of recruitment, of any nationality — the Commission states recruited researchers “can be of any nationality”, with no quota and no country list. Applicants from Pakistan and India are eligible on the same terms as anyone else. The binding constraint is the mobility rule, not your passport.

4. How do I apply for an MSCA Doctoral Networks PhD position?

You do not apply to the call. The Commission states that candidates “should apply to funded Doctoral Network projects by consulting their open vacancies advertised internationally, including on the EURAXESS portal”. You search EURAXESS, which is updated daily, apply directly to the recruiting institution, and go through its own shortlisting and interviews. There is no central MSCA application form for individuals and no single deadline to meet.

5. What is the MSCA mobility rule, and will it disqualify me?

You must not have resided or carried out your main activity — which the Commission defines as “work, studies, etc.” — in the recruiting organisation’s country for more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before your recruitment date. This is the condition that ends the most plans, and it works in an unexpected direction: because study counts, a master’s completed in your preferred country is likely to rule you out there while leaving you eligible across the rest of Europe. The Commission qualifies the rule with “in general”, so a borderline case is worth querying with the institution before you give up on it.

6. How much does MSCA Doctoral Networks pay per month?

The Commission does not publish the amounts on its Doctoral Networks action or call pages. They are set in the MSCA Work Programme and General Annexes, and they change between Work Programme periods. The figure that actually applies to you is more specific and easier to get: the Commission requires each vacancy notice to state the gross salary offered, excluding employer’s social contributions. Read that number in the advert rather than budgeting from a monthly figure quoted on a third-party site, and check which Work Programme year any such figure came from.

7. Is IELTS required for MSCA Doctoral Networks?

MSCA itself sets no language requirement — but that is not the same as not needing one. Each position is recruited by an institution that sets its own requirements, and a university enrolling you in a doctoral programme commonly requires IELTS, TOEFL or an equivalent. The vacancy notice states the full requirements of that specific position, so treat the English requirement as decided there rather than by Brussels, and assume you will need a test unless the advert says otherwise.

8. What is the difference between Doctoral Networks and MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships?

Career stage and who applies. Doctoral Networks recruit researchers who do not hold a doctorate, through vacancies advertised by funded consortia. Postdoctoral Fellowships are for researchers who already hold a PhD, and there you are the applicant — though the proposal is submitted by a host organisation on your behalf, so finding a supervisor is the real first step. The next Postdoctoral Fellowships call, HORIZON-MSCA-2027-PF-01, is marked forthcoming: it opens 7 April 2027 and closes 8 September 2027 at 17:00 CEST, with an indicative budget of €459 million.

Final Thoughts

MSCA Doctoral Networks is one of the largest sources of funded PhD positions in Europe, and one of the most consistently misdescribed. Getting one starts with accepting what it is: salaried employment inside a mobility programme, advertised as jobs, with the pay printed in the advert.

That changes what you should be doing. The 24 November 2026 deadline is not yours — it belongs to the universities and companies competing for a €628 million pot. Your work is to be eligible and visible when the vacancies land. Count your months in your target country first, because the mobility rule is strict, counts study as well as work, and catches people who assume that finishing a master’s somewhere helps their chances there. Set up EURAXESS alerts and search continuously rather than waiting for August 2027, since networks funded in earlier rounds are recruiting throughout.

Verify every date and figure on the official Doctoral Networks page before you rely on it — the Commission marks its own timeline as to be confirmed, and it revised all three MSCA budgets upward in October 2026.