Planning a next application is easier when you know what each funding line pays for and how it fits a research career. The calls below cover doctoral training, postdoctoral research and the consolidation of an independent research programme, under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions and the European Research Council. Read each one for what it funds, consider where your own trajectory fits, and work backwards from its deadline.
Of the five calls below, three are applied for by institutions or consortia, with individual positions recruited after the grant is awarded, and two are applied for directly by the individual researcher, together with a host organisation.
Who applies. The individual researcher applies directly, together with a chosen host organisation.
The ERC Consolidator Grant funds Principal Investigators who are consolidating their own independent research team or programme. The call expects evidence of research independence, so a proposal has to show a coherent agenda you already own, not a continuation of someone else's project. It also allows additional funding beyond the standard amount when the proposed work needs it and the request is properly justified.
Preparation step. Draft a short outline of the research programme you want to consolidate, setting out the independent results and team-building that already support it, and list any costs that might call for additional funding so you can start building their justification. Discuss the plan early with a prospective host organisation, and check every eligibility condition on the official topic page before committing serious time.
Who applies. Institutions or consortia apply. Individual positions are recruited openly after the grant is awarded.
This Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions COFUND call co-finances doctoral programmes run by participating organisations, so the proposals come from institutions designing structured training, not from individual candidates. For a prospective doctoral candidate, the call matters because it creates programmes aimed at broadening research and professional competences and at building international, cross-sector and interdisciplinary experience. Its stated outcomes also include stronger communication with peers and with the public.
Preparation step
Make a shortlist of graduate schools and doctoral programmes that have run COFUND schemes before and follow their announcements, since any funded programme will open its own vacancy calls well after the award. Meanwhile, strengthen your profile with a clear research interest and some evidence of communicating your work to non-specialists.
Who applies. Institutions or consortia apply. Individual positions are recruited openly after the grant is awarded.
Choose Europe for Science is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions COFUND line for postdoctoral programmes, which organisations design and propose. For researchers who are later supported, it aims at concrete career prospects, greater career stability and a wider base of academic and research competences that build autonomy. On the organisational side it pushes recruitment and progression practices toward the European Charter for Researchers and the Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment.
Preparation step
Follow universities and research centres that publicly commit to the European Charter for Researchers and to research assessment reform, as these are the organisations this call targets. Set alerts for the postdoctoral positions they advertise once a programme is funded, and keep a record of your contributions beyond publications so you can present them when those vacancies open.
Who applies. The individual researcher applies directly, together with a chosen host organisation.
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowships let a researcher propose their own project together with a host organisation, which makes it a personal application built around your ideas. The call aims to widen your research and professional skill set and to shape new ways of working through international, inter-sectoral and interdisciplinary experience. It also emphasises the quality of training and supervision, and working conditions in line with the European Charter for Researchers.
Preparation step
Before investing time, verify the mobility rule and all other eligibility conditions on the official topic page. Then pick a prospective supervisor and host organisation, contact them early, and agree on a draft outline that covers both the research project and the training and supervision you will receive.
Who applies. Institutions or consortia apply. Individual positions are recruited openly after the grant is awarded.
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Doctoral Networks fund partnerships of organisations that build joint doctoral training, so the network members prepare the proposal and candidates join afterwards. For someone considering a doctorate, these networks promise training that crosses sectors and disciplines and, where relevant, knowledge for turning ideas into products and services. The call also aims to integrate research and training across partner organisations and to improve supervision arrangements.
Preparation step
Identify research groups in your field that work with industry or other non-academic partners, as these are typical members of such networks, and follow their news and vacancy pages. Positions in funded networks are advertised separately after the award, so a profile that already shows some cross-disciplinary or applied work will help when those calls appear.
The European Commission is asking research organisations across the EU to put forward candidates to lead the European Research Council, with nominations due in late November 2026. The appointee will begin in autumn 2027, taking over from Professor Maria Leptin for a four-year term that can be renewed once. Early-career researchers who may one day seek ERC funding have a stake in who guides the council's direction.
Preliminary figures for the ERC Starting Grants 2027 call, which closed in October 2026, show 7,710 proposals: a jump of 60.4% over the previous round, after rises of 22.4% and 13% in the two calls before it. Physical Sciences and Engineering made up 43% of submissions, Social Sciences and Humanities 29% and Life Sciences 28%, while women submitted nearly 39% of proposals. For early-career researchers considering this scheme, the numbers point to a sharply more competitive field.
The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions have released an interactive publication with more than 100 testimonials and success stories from the programme. Readers can browse by country or by university to locate relevant researchers and projects. Doctoral candidates weighing a fellowship application may find it useful for seeing how others shaped their projects and careers.
Marking 30 years of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions in 2026, this article notes that over 150,000 researchers, including 25 Nobel laureates, have taken part since 1996, and that annual support has grown from about 800 to roughly 8,000 researchers. Companies represent almost half of participating organisations, and more than 4,000 firms have joined projects over the last five years. For early-career researchers, this highlights how the programme connects academic training with careers in industry and other sectors.
Two Nobel laureates of 2026 have ties to the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions. Georg Nagel, who shared the Medicine prize for work on light-gated ion channels and optogenetics, held a fellowship at the University of Naples Federico II between 1999 and 2000, and Francis Halzen, awarded in Physics for contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, supervised within the MSCA-funded ASTRONU project on neutrino astronomy. These examples show that mobility fellowships and training networks can sit early in careers that later reach the highest levels of recognition.
The ERC reports that Peter Hegemann, a co-recipient of the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, is the sixteenth ERC grantee to receive a Nobel Prize, having held an Advanced Grant and a second, jointly held grant with two other researchers since 2016. His discovery of Channelrhodopsin-1 in 2002 helped establish optogenetics, a method for controlling cell activity with light. The ERC President used the occasion to argue for continued European investment in curiosity-driven research, the kind of research ERC grants are designed to support.