Fully funded PhD in Europe: schemes, rules, pay and dates

In much of Europe, a fully funded PhD is a paid job. You apply for an advertised doctoral position paid for by a university, a research grant or an EU network. You’re then employed on a contract with a salary and social security. The other route is a scholarship you win yourself, such as the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) doctoral scholarship; you usually need a supervisor’s backing first.

The EU’s own schemes and several others are open to any nationality, including applicants from the UK and outside Europe. What usually rules you out is where you’ve lived recently, the degree you hold or a missed call date, not your passport. The amounts also aren’t comparable at a glance: some are gross salary costs, some monthly stipends, and one Swiss scholarship doesn’t cover fees at all.

Is a fully funded PhD in Europe a job or a scholarship?

It depends on the country. A 2026 report on doctoral pay across Europe sorts each country by its main national system. In Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Estonia, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland, the main system employs doctoral candidates. In other countries, including Italy, Portugal, Ireland, Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary, it’s a scholarship or stipend.

That difference matters more than it sounds. An employment contract brings tax, social security and, usually, benefits such as pension contributions and paid leave. A scholarship may come with limited or no social security. In Italy, universities may also admit up to a quarter of their doctoral candidates without any funding, so ‘admitted’ doesn’t always mean ‘funded’.

Contracts aren’t always full-time, either. In Germany and Switzerland doctoral posts are often below 100%, and in Austria often 75%. Pay and some benefits follow the percentage, so read it in the advert before you compare salaries.

What this means for you: where PhD candidates are employed, ‘fully funded’ usually means a salary. Where the system is a scholarship, check what the award covers and whether you’ll be insured.

The main ways to get a fully funded PhD in Europe

There are two kinds of route. Many funded PhDs are advertised positions: a project already has the funding, and you apply for the job. The others are scholarships you apply for yourself, usually with your own plan and a supervisor who has agreed to take you on. The table compares the main schemes open to international applicants.

Route	Who can apply	What it pays	How and when you apply
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Doctoral Networks (EU-funded)	Any nationality; no doctorate when recruited; the mobility rule below	Normally an employment contract with full social security. For networks from the 2026 call (first projects expected to start in August 2027), the EU gives the employer €4,250 a month per person (gross, adjusted by country), plus €710 for mobility and €660 if you’re married, in a legally recognised partnership or supporting dependent children. Networks recruiting now were funded under earlier calls, at their own rates	Apply to a network’s advertised vacancy
European Research Council (ERC) team posts	Any nationality	Varies by post: check the advert	Apply to the advertised post on an ERC grant
National doctoral contracts (example: France)	Doctoral candidates in their first six months of the first year; no age limit	At least €2,300 a month gross since 1 January 2026, for research only	Offered by universities and research bodies, on the doctoral school’s proposal
DAAD Doctoral Programmes in Germany	Applicants living in the countries on DAAD’s list; master’s by the start (bachelor’s in exceptional cases)	€1,400 a month, insurance payments and €460 a year for research; up to four years	Your own project with a supervisor’s confirmation, or a structured programme. This round is closed; applications open from 1 June
Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship (PhD)	Applicants from the countries on the Swiss list (183 take part; the scholarships offered vary by country); master’s by 31 July 2027 (ETH Zurich: 30 June); born after 31 December 1991	CHF 2,450 a month for 12 months, renewable up to 36; fees not covered	A Swiss supervisor’s letter of support, then apply online. Opened 20 August 2026; deadlines vary by country
CIFRE industrial PhD (France)	No nationality condition; master’s; non-EU and non-Swiss nationals need permission to work in France	A permanent or three-year contract with an employer in France, at least €27,600 a year gross	The employer hires you for a thesis co-supervised by a university lab
FCT studentships (Portugal’s Foundation for Science and Technology)	Portuguese, EU and third-country nationals, stateless people and refugees; no doctorate and no earlier FCT-funded PhD studentship	A monthly allowance plus fees and other support at the rates in FCT’s rules	A yearly call, usually in March; the 2026 call ran from 2 to 31 March 2026
‘la Caixa’ INPhINIT (Spain and Portugal)	Any nationality; for both calls, no doctoral studies begun and no more than four years of research. Incoming: you mustn’t have lived in your destination country (Spain or Portugal) for more than 12 of the last 36 months. Retaining: you must have lived there for more than 12 of them	€35,800 a year in labour costs for the host (at least €25,000 a year gross salary to you), €3,500 a year for research and your tuition fees	Open now: STEM ‘incoming’ call closes 12 January 2027; any-field ‘retaining’ call closes 2 March 2027
European University Institute (Florence; social sciences and humanities)	Depends on the grant authority; the Italian ministry’s grant is for nationals of 15 listed countries (not EU dual nationals)	€1,685 a month from 1 January 2027 for years 1–3; the institute covers year 4	Choose the funding authority on the application form

Sources: each scheme’s funder or official page; links in the text or the Sources list.

Advertised positions: a job on a funded project

MSCA Doctoral Networks are EU-funded doctoral programmes run by partnerships of universities, companies and other organisations in different countries. Each network recruits its own doctoral candidates, so you don’t apply to the EU: you apply for a network’s vacancy. The Doctoral Networks page sets out the rules, and our Marie Curie PhD guide covers applying.

MSCA fellowships, as the EU calls these posts, last up to 36 months (48 in a joint doctorate). To find vacancies, the European Commission points you to EURAXESS, the EU’s researcher jobs portal. ERC grants work in a similar way: a researcher wins the grant and can hire team members of any nationality.

Many other funded PhD posts in Europe are national. In Germany, universities set up Research Training Groups, and the national research funder, the DFG, pays for each for up to nine years. Each group funds posts for doctoral researchers; our guide to DFG funding for PhD students explains them. In the Netherlands the national PhD salary scale starts at €3,204 a month gross from 1 July 2026.

In Switzerland, universities employ doctoral students on projects the national research funder pays for. On its new grants, the salary range has been CHF 50,000 to CHF 55,000 a year gross since 1 January 2026. Universities set the pay within that range, and the CHF 50,000 minimum applies whatever your work percentage.

In France, any funder can pay for a doctoral contract, including a company or a regional authority, as long as it covers the minimum salary. Our guide to CNRS PhD positions explains the CNRS doctoral contract, what it pays and where offers are posted.

PhD scholarships you apply for yourself

Here you usually find a supervisor first, then apply with your own research plan. The DAAD scholarship page sets out the German scholarship’s rules. The Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship works the same way: you need a letter of support from a Swiss supervisor before you apply (eligibility and amounts).

The ‘la Caixa’ INPhINIT fellowships sit in between. You apply for them yourself, but the money goes to the host, which takes you on with a contract. Half of the 60 fellowships, the ‘incoming’ call, are for STEM doctorates at accredited research centres. The other 30, the ‘retaining’ call for people who have lived in their destination country for more than a year of the last three, are in any field, at any university or research centre in Spain or Portugal.

In Portugal, the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) runs a national call, which offered 1,600 studentships in 2026. Our FCT PhD scholarship guide explains how it works.

Ireland’s Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship has closed. It has been folded into a programme that funds universities, not individual applicants, so you can no longer apply for it yourself. The scholarship’s 2026 call, for awards from September 2026, paid a stipend of €25,000 a year.

Who can apply? The rules that rule people out

Nationality rarely decides whether you can get a fully funded PhD in Europe. These rules do:

Where you’ve lived (MSCA). In general, you mustn’t have lived or had your main activity (work, studies and so on) in the country of the recruiting organisation for more than 12 months in the 36 months before you’re recruited. So two recent years in the Netherlands usually rule out a Dutch MSCA post, but not a Belgian one.
Where you’ve lived (‘la Caixa’). For the incoming call, you can’t have lived or had your main activity in the destination country (Spain or Portugal) for more than 12 months in the three years before the deadline. The retaining call is the reverse: you must have lived or had your main activity there for more than 12 of those months, and if you win, you must enrol at a different university from the one where you did your bachelor’s.
Where you’ve lived (DAAD and Swiss). DAAD won’t consider you if you’ve lived in Germany for more than 15 months at the deadline. The Swiss scholarship excludes you if you’ve been living, studying or working in Switzerland since a date more than 13 months before the start date.
How recent your degree is (DAAD). As a rule, your last degree should be no more than six years old at the deadline. If you’ve already started a doctorate, you should have started it no more than three years before you apply.
Age and attempts (Swiss). For the 2027/28 round you must be born after 31 December 1991, and a fourth application after three unsuccessful ones isn’t accepted.
No doctorate already. MSCA networks and FCT studentships are for people who don’t yet hold a PhD, and FCT also rules out anyone who has already had an FCT-funded PhD studentship. Both ‘la Caixa’ calls go further: you can’t have started a doctorate at all.
A master’s. DAAD (bar exceptional cases), the Swiss scholarship and CIFRE expect one. If you don’t have one, our guide to whether you can do a PhD without a master’s covers the routes that do exist, such as integrated PhDs and direct entry.
Timing (France). You can’t apply for CIFRE if you’ve been enrolled in a doctorate, or employed by that employer, for more than nine months when the application goes in. A French doctoral contract is open to candidates in the first six months of their first year.
Living in Portugal (FCT). If you want an FCT studentship spent partly or wholly abroad, you must live in Portugal permanently.

Common mistake: applying for an MSCA post in the country where you’ve just done a two-year master’s. If you finished within the last year, you’ve spent more than 12 of the last 36 months there. The mobility rule then usually rules you out.

Can UK and international students get a fully funded PhD in Europe?

Yes. MSCA networks, ERC teams and ‘la Caixa’ all say any nationality, and CIFRE sets no nationality condition.

Where your country matters, the scheme says so. DAAD’s list goes by the country you live in and apply from, and the Swiss scholarship’s by your country of origin. The European University Institute’s Italian ministry grant names 15 nationalities. Check those lists before you write a proposal.

If you’re applying from the UK, two points matter. The UK is fully associated to Horizon Europe, the EU programme behind MSCA, under a deal running to the programme’s end in 2027. That means UK researchers can apply and UK organisations can take part in projects.

But as a UK national you’re not an EU citizen, so the rules for non-EU applicants apply to you. In France, for example, CIFRE needs non-EU nationals to have permission to work.

How much does a fully funded PhD in Europe pay?

There’s no single figure, because the schemes measure different things. Before you compare, check which of these you’re looking at:

A gross employer cost. MSCA’s €4,250 a month is what the EU gives the host. It includes employer and employee social security contributions and direct taxes, and it’s adjusted up or down for the country. ‘La Caixa’s €35,800 a year is the host’s labour cost, not your take-home pay; your gross salary must be at least €25,000 a year.
A gross salary. France’s €2,300 a month minimum and CIFRE’s €27,600 a year are salaries before tax and contributions.
A stipend. DAAD’s €1,400 a month and the Swiss CHF 2,450 are scholarships. The Swiss one is explicitly ‘not a salary’. It doesn’t cover tuition or semester fees, and some universities charge about CHF 600 to CHF 2,000 per semester.

So a contract with a lower headline figure can leave you better off once insurance, pension and fees are counted. If pay decides it for you, compare the net amount and what’s covered, not the biggest number in the advert. For UK readers, the minimum UKRI doctoral stipend for 2026/27 is £21,805 a year (£23,805 with London weighting). Our guide to PhD pay in the UK explains how it works.

When to apply for PhD funding in Europe

Advertised positions for a fully funded PhD in Europe come up through the year, but the scholarships run to fixed calendars. As of 10 November 2026:

Open now: ‘la Caixa’ INPhINIT. The STEM ‘incoming’ call closes on 12 January 2027 and the ‘retaining’ call on 2 March 2027, both at 14:00 Spanish peninsular time.
Opened 20 August 2026: the Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship for 2027/28. Each country has its own deadline and some may already have passed, so check yours in the country list on the scholarship page. Decisions come by the end of May.
Usually March: FCT in Portugal (the 2026 call ran from 2 to 31 March 2026).
From 1 June: DAAD’s doctoral scholarship applications open for the next round.
Through the year: MSCA network vacancies, posts on ERC grants and university PhD jobs.

For advertised posts, start with the university’s or network’s own job pages. For scholarships, leave plenty of time: finding a supervisor who’ll back you can take weeks or even months.

Your next step

Start by working out which route fits you. If you’d rather join a funded project, look for advertised positions and check the mobility rule against where you’ve lived.

If you have your own research idea, find a supervisor first. Then match yourself to DAAD, the Swiss scholarship or INPhINIT by country, degree and dates. A fully funded PhD in Europe is within reach from outside the EU, as long as the small print fits you.

When you’re ready to look at real projects, search funded PhD positions on DiscoverPhDs.

Sources