EMBO Call for Applications: Postdoctoral Fellowships 2026

EMBO is calling for applications for its Postdoctoral Fellowships 2026 for a period of 2 years to support post-doctoral research visits.

Eligibility:

• Applicants must hold a PhD degree or equivalent at the start of the fellowship, but not necessarily at the time the application is submitted.
• Applicants must have obtained their PhD degree a maximum of two years before the application submission date. Exceptions may be made for applicants with career breaks due to parental leave and mandatory military/civil service or prolonged severe illness.
• Candidates with a medical degree (M.D.) are eligible to apply if they hold also a PhD, or provided they can demonstrate research experience comparable to a PhD and after approval from the EMBO Fellowships office.
• Applicants must have at least one first (or joint first) author primary research paper accepted for publication or published in an international peer reviewed journal at the time the application is submitted. A first author preprint with public in-depth peer reviews is also sufficient for eligibility, provided several conditions are met (see p. 4 Guidelines).
• Applications to go to the country in which the PhD was obtained will not be considered. If the PhD is officially shared between two institutions in different countries, both countries will be excluded.
• Applications to return to a laboratory where the candidate has worked in the past for more than six months, either in one or in several visits will not be considered.
• Candidates who have already started working in the host laboratory can apply only if they have been working in the host laboratory for less than six months at the time the application is submitted.
• Candidates can only submit one application for one project at one host laboratory at each round of selection.

Mobility and nationality restrictions: 

All applications must involve a change of country. See list of EMBC member states and EMBC Associate member States in the attached guidelines as several restrictions apply.

• Applications to work in an EMBC Member State

Applicants, regardless of their nationality or the country in which they obtained their PhD, can apply for an EMBO Postdoctoral Fellowship to work in any EMBC Member State provided there is international mobility.

• Applications to work in an EMBC/EMBO global partners

Eligible if they move from, are nationals of and have performed their PhD in an EMBC Member State or an EMBC/EMBO global partner.

• Applications to work in a Non-EMBC Member State

A maximum of 30% of fellowships are awarded in this category (c). Applicants must meet all the following requirements:

• must move from an EMBC Member State,
• must be nationals of an EMBC Member State
• must have performed their PhD in one of the EMBC Member States.

General restrictions:

•  Applications to work in an industrial research laboratory with the intention to develop new commercial products or procedures will not be considered.
• Applications to work in an industrial or for-profit research laboratory to develop a basic research project in biology are eligible.
• Projects with an aim to develop an application, commercial product or process, or a device may be considered if there is a fundamental biology question behind the project to be answered. For instance, development of technologies that enable biological discovery (microscopy, PCR, etc.) may be eligible for funding.
• Only research proposals that are within the scientific scope of EMBO can be considered (see https://www.embo.org/about-embo/programmes-and-activities/subject-areas/)
• Candidates may only submit one application, for one project, at one host laboratory at each round of selection.

Funding: 

• In EMBC member states EMBO provides funds to the host institution with the sole intention to cover the cost of an employment contract to be issued by the host institution to the awardee. Yearly funding for contracts to be issued in Spain is 56.400€ (gross amount before taxes and social security).
• Fellows going outside EMBC member states receive a stipend. The stipend is solely intended to cover the cost of living in the host country.
• Funding covers contract/stipend, child care allowance and relocation allowance. Final funding will depend on the country of host institution and personal details.
• Moreover, beneficiaries will be able to participate to EMBO Fellows’ network activities and Laboratory Leadership Courses.
• The fellowship does not cover bench fees, overheads, funds for consumables or any other financial benefits to the host supervisor or the receiving institute.

Read more here. 

Applications accepted throughout the year (next cutoff date – hard deadline: Friday 10 July 2026, 14:00 CEST)