MSCA will provide an extra €10 million to support displaced researchers from Ukraine

The European Commission will provide a €10 million top-up for the MSCA4Ukraine initiative, funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) under Horizon Europe. This extra budget was announced last week as part of the programme’s call planning for 2025.

Since its creation, the MSCA4Ukraine scheme has supported 173 displaced researchers from Ukraine with a budget of €35 million.  

The extra budget will allow an organisation or a consortium to select doctoral candidates and postdoctoral researchers from Ukraine, who will be able to continue their work safely in academia, businesses, research centres and public institutions based in the EU and countries associated to Horizon Europe.

Selected fellows will continue their research under favourable working conditions. The scheme includes specific support for organisations, allowing them to host researchers for a period between 8 months and 2 years and offer them

• training
• skills and career development opportunities
• excellent employment conditions
• proper supervision

The scheme will provide family allowances to help selected researchers with family responsibilities, and a special needs allowance to support the participation of persons with disabilities. 

Call for organisations now open

A call to select a new organisation or consortium that will manage the next phase of the MSCA4Ukraine fellowship scheme is now open until 16 September 2025.

The winner will then organise a call for proposals that will offer fellowships to doctoral and postdoctoral researchers from Ukraine.  

Call for researchers expected in 2026

The opening of the call to Ukrainian researchers is expected for the first half of 2026.  

Interested researchers will be asked to prepare an application with a host organisation of their choice based in the EU and countries associated to Horizon Europe, including Ukraine.  

The host organisations will then apply to the call for proposals. Applicants can include universities, research centres, public bodies, companies or other institutions.

Maintaining links with Ukraine

Supported fellows are encouraged to keep links with their research and innovation communities and cooperate with their counterparts and alma maters in Ukraine. This will strengthen the cooperation and integration between the scientific communities of the country and the EU.  

MSCA4Ukraine will allow them to carry out research placements, fieldwork and develop new projects jointly.

A significant number of fellows under previous editions of the project chose to work on issues that would support their country during the reconstruction phase.  

Read our most recent interview with MSCA4Ukraine fellow, Oksana Khymych, who is researching the needs of innovative entrepreneurship in crisis conditions.

Tentative timeline

15 May 2025: call opening

June 2025: information session

16 September 2025: call closing

November - December 2025: evaluation results

January 2026: grant agreement signature

January - February 2026: project starts

More information

Apply for the MSCA4Ukraine call

Read inspiring testimonies of MSCA4Ukraine fellows

Check out the full list of MSCA4Ukraine researchers and projects supported so far

Find out more about the EU’s support for Ukrainian researchers