Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowships (MSCA PF)
Mobility and training fellowships for excellent early-career researchers
The information on this page relates to the 2025 call under Horizon Europe.
You can use the information here to familiarize yourself with this funding scheme but be aware that details may change for the 2026 call. Please also consult the MSCA website.
2026 CALL
Tentative opening date: 9 April 2026
Tentative deadline: 9 September 2026
The Grants Office and Euresearch assume no responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of the information here.
Last update: 23.09.2025
| Eligibility | No more than 8 years of research experience after the PhD defence |
|---|---|
| Mobility rule | Cannot have lived, worked or studied in the host country for more than 1 year in the last 3 years |
| Budget | Fixed salary + project and other costs (+ family, long-term leave, special needs allowance) |
| Duration | 1-2 years (European), 2-3 years (Global) (+ 6 months at end in non-academic organization) |
| Time commitment | 100% |
| Calls | Yearly |
1-2 years in an EU Member State or Associated Country (e.g., Switzerland)
1-2 years in a Third Country, then 1 year in an EU Member State or Associated Country (e.g., Switzerland)
UniBE Seal of Excellence Fund (SELF)
SELF is an internal grant of the University of Bern to employ unsuccessful Postdoctoral Fellowship applicants who were awarded the “Seal of Excellence” (over 85 points).
Eligibility
The general mobility rule is that you cannot have lived, worked, or studied in the country of your future host institution for more than 1 year in the 3 years prior to deadline. There are special rules for applicants who have been absent from research for at least a year for whatever reason, including displacement because of conflict, or who want to return to Europe and reintegrate. Please consult the Guide for Applicants for details.
Applicants must have a PhD at the date of the call deadline, i.e., have a successfully defended doctoral thesis, even if the doctoral degree has not yet been awarded. At the call deadline, applicants can have a max. of 8 years full-time equivalent experience in research, measured from the date of the PhD. Years of experience outside research, periods of unemployment and career breaks (e.g., parental leave; see below) are not counted toward the 8 years. For nationals or long-term residents of EU Member States or Associated Countries applying to reintegrate, years of experience in research in Third Countries are also not counted.
Applicants can be of any nationality. However, if you are applying for a Global Fellowship or want to reintegrate, you must be a national or long-term resident of an EU Member State or Associated Country (e.g., Switzerland) at the time of the deadline. Long-term residence means a period of at least 5 consecutive years. For rules about absences during this period, please consult the Guide for Applicants for details.
Career breaks:
Maternity: For each child born prior to the call deadline, 18 months will be deducted from the experience in research, or the actual time taken if it is longer and the applicant can document it.
Paternity: For each child born prior to the call deadline, the documented time of parental leave taken will be deducted from the experience in research.
Admin forms
University of Bern registration details
PIC number: 999976493
Legal Name: Universitaet Bern
Organisation Short Name: UBERN
Address: Hochschulstrasse 6, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
LEAR: Maddalena Tognola
Additional registration information for the University of Bern appears automatically once you have entered the PIC number. Please use the instructions below to fill in the online forms.
Please note that the University of Bern has a Gender Equality Plan. This is one of the questions asked in the forms.
Use these instructions to add your Grants Advisor at the Grants Office as the "Contact Person" in the step "Participants".
Step-by-step instructions from the NCP network "Radiance" on how to submit your proposal.
Signatures
Please consult the infosheet below so you know who may sign EU forms and agreements. If the signature of the Vice-Rector for Research and Innovation is required, this is organized through the Grants Office.
Budget
The budget is fixed and is calculated automatically based on monthly unit costs. Please see the factsheets above for the exact amounts.
For the researcher, there is a "living" (salary) allowance (adjusted by country) plus a "mobility" allowance and a "family" allowance, if applicable.
For the project, there is a monthly contribution towards "research, training and networking activities" for the researcher as well as towards "management and indirect costs" for the project.
Of the monthly unit cost for management and indirect costs, the University of Bern determines 50% to be management and 50% to be indirect costs (overhead). In general, one half of the overhead part goes to the University and one half goes to the project. Please read the directives on overhead contributions of the University Board of Directors.
UBERN description
Please use the document below to help you write the description of the host institution in your MSCA PF proposal. It contains key details about the University of Bern as well as information about training opportunities that you can include in your proposal.
Open science
For resources, guidance and advice on open access publications and research data, your contact is the University of Bern’s Open Science Team. They offer a range of training workshops and support services, including help preparing data management plans (DMPs). If a DMP is required for your project, you can download a template from the EU portal under "Templates & forms" > "Project reporting templates" > "Data management plan (HE)".
Open access requirements
You must ensure immediate gold or green open access to your publications (journal articles, books, etc.). Embargoes are not accepted. Only publication fees in fully open access venues can be charged to the project. That means that if you publish open access in a so-called “hybrid” journal, which publishes a mix of open and closed articles, the costs cannot be charged to the project.
Research data requirements
You must manage your research data in line with the “FAIR” data principles, i.e., findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable. In particular, researchers must:
- develop and continuously update a Data Management Plan during the whole project life cycle
- share research data as openly as possible and as closed as necessary. This means that research data must be made publicly available in a research data repository unless there are ethical or legal restrictions (e.g., data protection, confidentiality agreements, patenting). If such restrictions apply, they must be clearly described and justified.
It is not possible to opt out of these obligations.
Guides & workshops
Euresearch online tutorial
This is an essential tool! The videos provide an explanation of what to include in each part of the proposal.
NOTE: For access, please create an account on the Euresearch website and contact the Euresearch NCPs.
MSCA Postdoc Fellowship 2025
This video provides an overview of the basic facts about the MSCA PF.
Euresearch MSCA PF 2025 Info Event, 15.04.2025
This video contains recordings of the presentations given at the Euresearch info event.
Tips and tricks from the NCP Network "Radiance" on how to write an excellent proposal.
Sample proposals
While the Grants Office cannot provide you with an example of a successful proposal, there are a couple of things you can do to obtain one:
- Contact a successful applicant you know and/or someone at the University of Bern who has an Individual Fellowship. A list of current projects can be found on the University's EU projects webpage.
- Do an internet search. There are many successful proposals available online.
Please take into account the fact that the proposal template from previous calls may not be the same as the one you are using.
FAQs
If you have questions, please consult the list of frequently asked questions on the Q&A blog of Radiance (network of MSCA National Contact Points) or contact the Grants Office.