After an MSCA Score or a Job Offer
The host signs the grant and recruits you. You get an employment contract, not a student stipend letter, and EURAXESS helps with visas and taxation.
ScholarshipUnion Editorial
2 min read
Updated Oct 6, 2026
Post-award checklist
A high score is not a visa. Planning tool only.
If you submitted a Postdoctoral Fellowship
REA checks eligibility, then external experts score Excellence, Impact, and Implementation. The official 6-steps page says evaluation takes about five months, so PF 2026 results should be announced in February 2027. The PF 2026 call news gives mid-February 2027 for results, grant agreements in April–May 2027 and first projects from April 2027. The funding page still says May 2027 for first projects.
The host recruits you for the whole fellowship, supervises, hosts, trains, and — where appropriate — seconds you. Short secondments are allowed during the fellowship, except during the Global PF return year. An optional non-academic placement of up to six months can sit at the end, in an EU Member State or Associated Country.
If you are waiting for a Doctoral Network vacancy
DN 2026 consortium results are indicative for April 2027, grant agreements July 2027, first projects August 2027. Only then do funded networks advertise PhD posts on EURAXESS. Selection must be open, transparent, and merit-based.
Your “after selection” moment is the job offer from that project, not the November consortium deadline.
Seal of Excellence
Official PF rules: Seals of Excellence go to applications with a total score equal to or higher than 85% that cannot be funded because the call budget ran out. Some countries and hosts run follow-on schemes that honour the Seal. It is not an MSCA grant by itself. For the 2025 call, 9,847 applicants received a Seal; for 2026, certificates are due by the end of February 2027.
ERA Fellowships (Widening)
If you submitted a European Fellowship with a host in a Widening country or outermost region, you could opt into the 2026 ERA Fellowships call. The official 6-steps page says around 40 ERA Fellowships should go to excellent applicants not selected under MSCA PF for budget reasons. Confirm eligibility of the host country on the ERA list.