European Research Executive Agency
European Research Executive Agency
03/25/2026 | News release | Distributed by Public on 03/25/2026 08:01
MSCA awards €617.18 million for doctoral programmes
Published: 25 Mar 2026
MSCA awards €617.18 million for doctoral programmes
The European Commission will support 141 doctoral programmes to train and develop the skills of around 2 115 doctoral candidates.
The European Commission has announced the results of the 2025 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Doctoral Networks call.
The Commission will fund a total of 141 doctoral programmes with €617,18 million to train around 2 115 doctoral candidates in and outside academia.
Among them, funding includes €19.7 million for 5 Industrial Doctoral programmes to train PhD candidates and develop their skills outside academia, including industry and business.
Doctoral candidates will also benefit from joint industry-academia supervision. An additional €34.6 million will be allocated to 8 Joint Doctoral programmes, which promote joint selection, training and supervision leading to joint or multiple doctoral degrees.
The European Research Executive Agency (REA) received 1,616 applications for this call.
Close collaboration beyond academia
These doctoral programmes are implemented by international partnerships, involving 2,701 organisations in 61 countries in the EU, Horizon Europe associated countries and beyond. 759 of these are private for-profit entities.
Selected projects are coordinated by organisations in 23 countries.
This bar chart shows the countries of coordinating organisations and respective number of projects. The top 5 countries are France and Italy with 15 projects each, Spain with 14 and the Netherlands and the United Kingdom with 13 each.
An overview of the evaluation results, cut-off scores and statistics has been published on the MSCA Doctoral Networks 2025 call page of the Funding and Tenders Opportunities Portal.
A list with all funded projects and coordinating organisations will be available in CIRCABC. Please note that this list reflects the results of the evaluation before the Grant Agreement Preparation and formal selection decision.
Once grant agreements are finalised, the complete list of funded projects will be published on the same page and on CORDIS.
Frontier research in all fields
Selected projects will promote research in fields such as
- Human health, diseases, biomedical technologies, and therapies
- Artificial intelligence, data science, and advanced computing systems
- Physical systems, manufacturing, and materials science.
Industrial Doctorates will train doctoral candidates in areas such as
- Digital technologies, AI & telecommunications
- Environmental science & public health
- Industrial sustainability & green engineering
Joint Doctorates will develop programmes focusing for example on
- High-performance computing, quantum systems, and AI for scientific discovery
- Urban design, mobility, safety, and social well-being in cities
- Cancer research, infectious diseases, and drug target discovery
The projects selected are in the following broad fields.
This pie chart shows the projects by scientific disciplines. The top 3 disciplines are engineering and ICT with 37.5%, life sciences with 22.7% and chemistry with 12%.
Next steps for successful applicants
The European Research Executive Agency (REA) will inform applicants of the outcome of the evaluation. Applicants will be able to access the results of the evaluation in their personal area of the Funding and Tenders Opportunities Portal.
Successful applicants will receive instructions on the next steps to prepare the grant agreement with the agency.
The first projects are expected to start in summer 2026. Projects on the reserve list may be contacted once all the grants have been signed.
Next funding round coming soon
The next call for MSCA Doctoral Networks will open on 28 May 2026.
In the meantime, more information is available on the how to apply page.
Did you know about the 30th anniversary of MSCA?
This year marks a key milestone: the 30th anniversary of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA).
Since 1996, the programme has played a crucial role in advancing research and innovation, supporting over 150,000 researchers, including 23 Nobel Prize winners. The programme has been a cornerstone of European research and a beacon of excellence, fostering mobility across disciplines, sectors, and countries and attracting and nurturing top talent.
2026 is a moment to reflect on what has been achieved, and to look ahead to what comes next.
Explore the activities marking 30 years of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
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European Research Executive Agency published this content on March 25, 2026, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on March 25, 2026 at 14:01 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at [email protected]