The Ministry of Education, Science and Sport of the Republic of Lithuania has opened a new scheme for MSCA Seal of Excellence holders and applicants with a high score who applied to Postdoctoral Fellowships under Horizon Europe, but failed to be funded due to budget constraints. 

The scheme targets applicants who 

• received the "Seal of Excellence" certificate 

• were evaluated successfully by the European Commission and reached the minimum threshold (70%), but could not be funded due to budgetary constraints 

The scheme is open to applicants who had a host organisation in Lithuania in the original project.

Proposals will be reviewed on a rolling basis until all funds are exhausted. Selected projects should end by 30 April 2026.

The government has published full details and eligibility conditions on its website (in Lithuanian, an automatic translation into English is also available). 

This scheme is the seventh example of a Seal of Excellence funding scheme using Recovery and Resilience Facility funding, after similar schemes in Spain, Romania, Italy, Slovenia and Slovakia. 

How to apply 

The application must be submitted on behalf of the researcher either by the original host organisation from Lithuania or by the newly proposed eligible organisation in Lithuania. 

Applicants must submit the original project proposal and the Seal of Excellence and the evaluation summary report. 

About the MSCA Seal of Excellence 

The MSCA Seal of Excellence is a quality label awarded to applicants of Postdoctoral Fellowships and COFUND who achieved a high score in their applications (85% or more) but unfortunately were not awarded funding due to budgetary constraints. 

The MSCA Seal of Excellence 

• underlines the value of these projects, which may use it to help find alternative funding 

• allows other funding bodies such as national, regional, and university-level schemes to support MSCA proposals holding the label and take advantage of the Horizon Europe evaluation process