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What the Marie Curie fellowship means for a Pakistani researcher
The Marie Curie fellowship for Pakistani researchers is the MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship, an EU-funded research post for PhD holders with no more than 8 years of research experience after the doctorate. You apply jointly with a European host supervisor through the Horizon Europe portal, not through any Pakistani government office. It pays a monthly salary plus mobility and family allowances for 1 to 3 years, and researchers of any nationality can apply.
Marie Curie fellowship at a glance
Every figure below is taken from the European Commission’s official MSCA pages and verified on 12 June 2026. Funding amounts are shown in What It Covers further down the page.
Programme
Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), under Horizon Europe
Funder
European Commission, managed day to day by the European Research Executive Agency (REA)
Who it is for
PhD holders, through MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships; PhD candidates, through MSCA Doctoral Networks
Open to
Researchers of any nationality, for European Postdoctoral Fellowships
Experience ceiling
Maximum 8 years of full-time research experience after the PhD award (career breaks and time outside research do not count)
Duration
1 to 2 years for a European Postdoctoral Fellowship; 2 to 3 years for a Global Postdoctoral Fellowship
Mobility rule
You must not have lived or worked in the host country for more than 12 months in the 36 months before the deadline
Language test
MSCA sets no central IELTS or TOEFL requirement; the host institution sets its own language rule
2026 application deadline
9 September 2026, 17:00 Brussels time
Cost to apply
Free
Pay
Monthly living, mobility and, where applicable, family allowances, paid as a salary by the host institution
Last verified
12 June 2026
What the Marie Curie (MSCA) fellowship actually funds
The Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions fund two different things for two different people: a paid postdoctoral research post for someone who already holds a PhD, and structured doctoral training for someone still working toward one. There is no single “Marie Curie scholarship” a Pakistani student applies for alone, so the honest first question is which of the two routes fits you.
MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships, for researchers who already hold a PhD
years of paid research at a European host institution. There are two types. A European Postdoctoral Fellowship runs 1 to 2 years at a host in an EU Member State or a Horizon Europe Associated Country, and it is open to researchers of any nationality, so a Pakistani researcher can apply directly. A Global Postdoctoral Fellowship runs 2 to 3 years with the first part outside Europe and a mandatory 1-year return to Europe, but it is open only to nationals or long-term residents of the EU or an Associated Country, so for most Pakistani applicants it is not the right door. The European Postdoctoral Fellowship is the one to aim for.
MSCA Doctoral Networks, the route for PhD candidates
MSCA Doctoral Networks fund PhD candidates as paid researchers inside a group of universities and partners running a joint doctoral programme, which is how MSCA pays for doctoral-level work. You do not apply to a Doctoral Network as a lone student through a portal. The network is built and funded first, then it recruits its doctoral researchers through open vacancies, usually posted on EURAXESS. So if you do not yet hold a PhD, your Marie Curie route is to watch for and apply to these recruited positions, not to submit a personal scholarship application. The European Erasmus Mundus route is the better fit if your goal is a funded Master’s rather than a doctorate.
Who can apply: the 8-year rule and the mobility rule
Eligibility for the Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship turns on two hard rules, your years of research experience after the PhD and where you have lived recently, not on your age or your nationality. The points below are taken from the European Commission’s official Postdoctoral Fellowships page, verified on 12 June 2026.
Researchers of any nationality can apply for a European Postdoctoral Fellowship, so a Pakistani passport is no barrier. Global Postdoctoral Fellowships are restricted to EU or Associated-Country nationals and long-term residents, which is why a Pakistani applicant should target the European type.
You must hold a PhD by the application deadline. If you have successfully defended your thesis but the degree has not yet been formally awarded, you are still eligible to apply. PhD candidates who have not defended use the Doctoral Networks route instead.
You may have a maximum of 8 years of full-time research experience counted from the date your PhD was awarded. Time spent outside research, and career breaks such as parental leave, do not count toward this ceiling, so the real window is often wider than 8 calendar years.
You must not have resided or carried out your main activity, meaning work or study, in the host country for more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before the call deadline. A researcher who has been living and working in Pakistan meets this rule easily for almost any European host.
MSCA sets no central IELTS or TOEFL score. The language requirement is set by the host institution and the language of the research group, so confirm the exact requirement with your chosen host before you apply. Do not assume a blanket score.
All disciplines are eligible, including medical and health research. MSCA funds bottom-up proposals with no thematic restriction, so your project sets the field, not a fixed priority list.
There is no age limit. Eligibility is measured by research experience after the PhD, not by age, and the official European Commission pages publish no age cutoff. Verify the current rules at the official source before you apply.
A proposal that scored below 80% in the previous year faces resubmission restrictions the following year, so a weak first attempt has consequences. This is one reason a serious, well-prepared bid matters.
Why your first job is finding a European host supervisor
The single biggest difference between a Marie Curie fellowship and a government scholarship is this: there is no national portal and no Sending Partner, so your application lives or dies on securing a European host supervisor first. Miss this, and there is nothing to submit, because the application is made jointly by you and the host, and it is the host institution that files it on the Horizon Europe portal.
Most Pakistani researchers lose the Marie Curie fellowship not at the eligibility stage but here, at the start, by treating it like a form to fill rather than a partnership to build. Get the host right and the rest follows.
How a Pakistani researcher actually reaches a host:
⚫ Identify researchers whose work matches yours. Read recent papers in your field from European groups and shortlist the supervisors whose direction fits your project idea.
⚫ Check live hosting offers on EURAXESS. European institutions post expressions of interest there to attract MSCA applicants, and these list the field and the supervisor.
⚫ Write to the supervisor with a short, specific proposal. A one-page outline of the project you would bring, not a generic request, is what opens a door.
⚫ Co-develop the full proposal together. Once a supervisor agrees in principle, you build the research proposal jointly, because the EU evaluates it as a joint bid.
⚫ The host submits. The host organisation files the completed proposal through the EU Funding and Tenders Portal on your behalf.
A Pakistani applicant’s real first task is not paperwork. It is persuading a European supervisor to host your project. Everything else on this page assumes you have started that conversation.
Documents you submit with an MSCA application
A Marie Curie application is a joint research bid, so the document set centres on your research proposal and your host’s commitment, not on a stack of certificates. The checklist below is what goes into the application for an MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship, verified from the European Commission’s Postdoctoral Fellowships pages on 12 June 2026. This block covers what you submit; who can apply sits in the Eligibility section above.
Every route (Study Scholarship, Research Grant, EPOS)
1
Research proposal, co-developed with your host supervisor and submitted on the EU template. This is the heart of the bid and carries the most evaluation weight.
2
Curriculum vitae setting out your academic record, publications, and research experience after the PhD.
3
A commitment or support letter from the host organisation and supervisor, confirming they will host and recruit you for the fellowship period.
4
Proof of your PhD, either the awarded degree or evidence that you have successfully defended your thesis where the degree is not yet formally conferred.
5
Ethics self-assessment, completed where your research touches areas that require it.
6
The completed application form and annexes on the EU Funding and Tenders Portal, filed by the host on your behalf.
For a Study Scholarship, you generate the recommendation form inside the DAAD Portal during the application window, then send it to a university teacher to complete and return for upload.
What the MSCA fellowship pays, in euros
An MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship pays you a full monthly salary built from a living allowance of €6,350 per month plus fixed mobility and family allowances, for the 1 to 2 years of a European Fellowship. The figures below are the EU flat rates for the 2026-2027 Work Programme, verified on 12 June 2026.
Covered (paid to you as salary):
⚫ Living allowance, €6,350 per month. This is the salary base. It is adjusted up or down by a country correction coefficient for the host country’s cost of living, so the same fellowship pays more in a high-cost country and less in a lower-cost one.
⚫ Mobility allowance, €710 per month. A fixed amount toward relocation and the costs of moving country. It is not adjusted by the country coefficient.
⚫ Family allowance, €660 per month, where you have family obligations at the start of the fellowship. Also fixed, not country-adjusted.
Covered (paid to the host, not to you):
⚫ Research, training and networking costs, €1,000 per month, managed by the host for your project work, conferences, and training.
⚫ Management and indirect costs, €650 per month, the host’s overheads for running the fellowship.
Not covered:
⚫ Tuition. A postdoctoral fellowship is a paid research job, not a degree, so there are no tuition fees and no tuition waiver to speak of. If you are looking for funded study rather than paid research, the Erasmus Mundus route fits better.
⚫ Guaranteed flights or a separate relocation grant beyond the fixed mobility allowance.
⚫ Your visa, IELTS or other test fees, and document costs, which you carry yourself.
The official honesty caveat: the €6,350 living allowance is a gross figure. Tax and social-security deductions are taken from it under the host country’s rules, so your take-home pay is lower than the headline number and varies by country. Treat the figure as a salary before deductions, not as money in hand.
MSCA pays in euros. Any Pakistani-rupee equivalent moves with the exchange rate, so use a conservative rate when you plan and treat any rupee figure as indicative only. WhatsApp MTZ Islamabad or Lahore for a current euro-to-rupee view before you make any financial decision. MTZ does not control the exchange rate.
Verify the funding rates with the European Commission:
How to apply for a Marie Curie fellowship from Pakistan
You apply for a Marie Curie fellowship by building a joint bid with a European host and letting that host submit it through the Horizon Europe portal, which is why securing a supervisor comes before any form. The steps below follow the official process; the documents themselves are listed in the Documents section above, so these steps stay about what you do and when.
step-1 →
Confirm you meet the two hard rules. Check that you hold or are about to be awarded a PhD, sit within 8 years of research experience after it, and meet the 12-months-in-36 mobility rule for the country you want to move to. A Pakistan-based researcher almost always clears the mobility rule for European hosts.
step-2 →
Find your host supervisor. Shortlist European research groups whose work matches yours, and check live hosting offers posted by institutions looking for MSCA applicants. Browse hosting offers on EURAXESS, opens in a new tab, rel=noopener noreferrer:
https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/search
step-3 →
Agree the project and co-write the proposal. Once a supervisor commits in principle, develop the research proposal together, because the EU evaluates it as a joint bid scored on excellence, impact, and implementation.
step-4 →
Register and prepare on the EU portal. Your host sets up the submission on the Horizon Europe portal. Open the EU Funding and Tenders Portal, opens in a new tab, rel=noopener noreferrer:
https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/home
step-5
The host submits before the deadline. The host organisation files the completed proposal. For the current cycle the deadline is 9 September 2026, 17:00 Brussels time, with results typically about five months later.
Annual pattern: the Postdoctoral Fellowships call opens in spring and closes in early September each year. Dates shift slightly year to year, so MTZ confirms the live dates with you before you plan around them rather than relying on a fixed calendar.
How MTZ helps Pakistani researchers prepare an MSCA bid
MTZ does not award the fellowship and cannot place you in one, so the honest description of our role is preparation and positioning, the work that happens before the EU ever sees your bid. The European Commission and your host institution decide the outcome; MTZ helps you arrive at that decision with a stronger application than you would build alone.
We look at your PhD, your years of research experience after it, your publications, and your mobility history against the 8-year rule and the 12-months-in-36 mobility rule, and tell you plainly whether the European Postdoctoral Fellowship is a realistic target for you this cycle.
We help you identify European research groups whose work fits your project and shape the shortlist, so your outreach goes to supervisors who have a reason to say yes rather than a scattered mailing list.
We help you write the short, specific approach to a supervisor and sharpen how your project reads against the excellence, impact, and implementation criteria the EU scores on.
We help you assemble and check the application pieces that are yours to prepare, the CV, the proposal structure, the ethics self-assessment where it applies, so nothing weak slips into a competitive bid.
If your bid succeeds and the host recruits you, we guide you through the residence and work-permit steps for the host country, drawing on the experience MTZ has built moving Pakistani applicants abroad.
The honest limits of a Marie Curie fellowship
A Marie Curie fellowship is competitive and self-directed, so it is the right target for some Pakistani researchers and the wrong one for many, and it is fairer to say that here than to let you find out after months of work. Read these limits before you commit time to a bid.
Read these limits before you apply.
It is not a scholarship you apply for alone. With no national portal and no Sending Partner, the whole thing depends on a European supervisor agreeing to host you. No host, no application. Many strong researchers stall right here.
It needs a PhD, or a defended thesis, for the postdoctoral route. If you are still a student or hold only a Master’s, this fellowship is not yet for you. The Doctoral Networks route recruits PhD candidates, but only into positions a funded network advertises, not on demand.
Success rates are low. The Postdoctoral Fellowships call funds a small share of the thousands who apply each year, so a serious bid can still miss. Treat it as one route among several, not a single plan.
The pay is gross and country-adjusted. The €6,350 monthly living allowance is before tax and social-security deductions, and the country coefficient changes the real amount, so check what your take-home would be in the specific host country.
MTZ does not award or guarantee any fellowship. We prepare and position your bid. The decision rests with the European Commission and your host institution, and no honest consultant can promise you a place.
If you do not yet hold a PhD and your goal is a funded Master’s, the Marie Curie fellowship is not your route this year. Ask us about Erasmus Mundus instead.
Postdoctoral Fellowships compared with Doctoral Networks
The two Marie Curie routes split cleanly by where you are in your research career: Postdoctoral Fellowships are for people who already hold a PhD, Doctoral Networks are for people working toward one. The side-by-side below shows which fits you and how you actually access each.
| Point | MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships | MSCA Doctoral Networks |
|---|---|---|
| Who it is for | PhD holders, or those who have defended their thesis | PhD candidates who do not yet hold a doctorate |
| What you become | A funded postdoctoral researcher | A funded doctoral researcher inside a network |
| How you access it | You and a host supervisor build and submit a joint bid | You apply to a recruited position the funded network advertises, usually on EURAXESS |
| Open to Pakistani applicants directly | Yes, for the European Postdoctoral Fellowship, any nationality | Yes, by applying to the network’s open vacancies |
| Duration | 1 to 2 years for a European Fellowship | Set by the doctoral programme, normally up to about 3 years |
| Your first move | Secure a European host supervisor | Watch EURAXESS for network vacancies in your field |
| Best fit if | You hold a PhD and want a paid research post in Europe | You want to do your PhD in Europe on a funded position |
If you hold a PhD, the Postdoctoral Fellowship is your route. If you do not, watch for Doctoral Network vacancies, and consider Erasmus Mundus if a funded Master’s is what you actually need.
Marie Curie fellowship: questions Pakistani researchers ask
These are the questions Pakistani researchers raise most often about the Marie Curie fellowship, answered from the European Commission’s official MSCA pages and verified on 12 June 2026. Each answer leads with the direct answer, then adds the detail.
Yes. A Pakistani researcher can apply for a European MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship, which is open to researchers of any nationality. You apply jointly with a European host institution rather than through any Pakistani government office.
Yes, for the Postdoctoral Fellowship you need a PhD by the application deadline, or to have successfully defended your thesis even if the degree is not yet formally awarded. If you do not yet hold a PhD, your route is an MSCA Doctoral Network position instead.
No. There is no age limit. Eligibility is measured by research experience after the PhD, capped at 8 years, not by age. Confirm the current rules at the official MSCA source before you apply.
Under the 2026-2027 rates it pays a living allowance of €6,350 per month, plus a €710 mobility allowance and, where applicable, a €660 family allowance. The living allowance is gross and is adjusted by a country coefficient, so take-home pay is lower and varies by host country.
Not as a central rule. MSCA sets no IELTS or TOEFL requirement of its own. The host institution sets its own language requirement, so confirm what your chosen host asks for rather than assuming a fixed score.
Shortlist European research groups whose work matches yours, then check live hosting offers posted on EURAXESS and write to supervisors with a short, specific project proposal. Securing a willing host is the real first step, because without one there is no application to submit.
You must not have lived or worked in the host country for more than 12 months in the 36 months before the call deadline. A researcher based in Pakistan meets this easily for almost any European host.
The 2026 Postdoctoral Fellowships call closes on 9 September 2026 at 17:00 Brussels time. The call opens each spring and closes in early September, and MTZ confirms the live dates with you before you plan around them.
Yes, in the sense that it pays you a full salary and allowances rather than charging you. It is a paid research post, not a study scholarship, so there are no tuition fees involved and no tuition to waive.
A European Fellowship runs 1 to 2 years at a host in Europe and is open to any nationality, so it is the route for a Pakistani applicant. A Global Fellowship runs 2 to 3 years with a phase outside Europe and is open only to EU or Associated-Country nationals and long-term residents, so it usually does not fit Pakistani applicants.
Not for the Postdoctoral Fellowship. If you are working toward a doctorate, look for recruited positions advertised by MSCA Doctoral Networks. If your goal is a funded Master’s rather than a doctorate, Erasmus Mundus is the better route.
A European Postdoctoral Fellowship lasts 1 to 2 years. A Global Postdoctoral Fellowship lasts 2 to 3 years, including a mandatory final year back in Europe.
No. MTZ does not award or guarantee any fellowship. The European Commission and your host institution decide the outcome. MTZ helps you assess your fit, find a host, and build a stronger application.
It is closer to a paid research job than a student scholarship. You are recruited and employed by the host institution on a salary funded by the EU, with full social-security coverage, for the length of the fellowship.
Start your Marie Curie fellowship enquiry
If you hold a PhD and want to know whether the Marie Curie fellowship is a realistic target for you this cycle, send us your research profile and we will assess it honestly. MTZ does not award or guarantee any fellowship; we help you prepare and position a stronger bid.
Author: Mubbashir Qureshi, CEO, MTZ Global Visa Consultants Pvt Ltd. 25+ years personal experience guiding Pakistani students into study abroad and international education. The 25+ years refers to Mubbashir Qureshi’s personal experience; MTZ Global Visa Consultants Pvt Ltd was established in 2025.
This page was last verified against official European Commission sources on 12 June 2026. Spotted an error? WhatsApp +92 315 155 5507. MTZ corrects verified errors within 24 hours.
