After a Score or a Job Offer

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. PF 2026 results should be announced in February 2027. The funding page lists grant-agreement signature from April 2027 (news text also says February–May 2027) and first projects from May 2027.

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.

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.