Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Networks: The African Applicant's Guide (2026)

MSCA Doctoral Networks (formerly Innovative Training Networks) are the European Commission's flagship PhD scheme. They fund consortia of 6–10 universities, research institutes and industry partners across Europe to recruit and train cohorts of PhD candidates around a shared research theme. For African Master's graduates, MSCA-DN is one of the most generous, most internationally mobile, and most under-applied-for PhD routes in the world.

The package: ≈ €3,400/month living allowance + €600/month mobility allowance + €660/month family allowance, full tuition, structured secondments at partner institutions, and 36 months of guaranteed funding. Nationality is not a barrier — the only hard rule is mobility (less than 12 months in the host country in the previous 36).

Pair this guide with the live best PhDs in Europe shortlist and the fully funded PhD master list.

What an MSCA Doctoral Network actually is

A funded network is a research consortium that has already won EU money to recruit a cohort of PhD candidates (called Doctoral Candidates, or DCs) around a single scientific theme — e.g. "next-generation battery materials," "AI for African language NLP," "antimicrobial resistance in livestock." Each DC has a primary host institution but spends 3–18 months on secondments at other consortium partners, including industry. The PhD degree is awarded by the host university.

The structure matters for African applicants because secondments dissolve the usual "one country, one supervisor" PhD bottleneck. You graduate with a network of 8 PIs across Europe, industry contacts, and publications from multiple labs — exactly the profile that wins the postdoc fellowships listed in our postdoc shortlist.

Eligibility, in plain language

• Nationality: any. All African nationalities qualify.
• Degree: at recruitment, you must hold a degree that gives access to PhD studies in the host country (almost always a Master's).
• Research experience: in the first 4 years of your research career, measured from the date you earned the degree that qualifies you. Most African Master's graduates are in their first 1–2 years.
• Not yet a PhD holder: you cannot already have a doctorate.
• Mobility rule: you must not have lived, studied or worked in the host country for more than 12 months in the 36 months before the recruitment deadline. (Short visits, holidays, asylum stays do not count.)

The mobility rule is the one African applicants almost always satisfy by default — which is exactly why MSCA is friendlier to African candidates than most national EU schemes.

The money, line by line

• Living allowance: €3,400/month gross, multiplied by a country correction coefficient (≈ 0.83 in Poland, ≈ 1.20 in Denmark). Country coefficients are published in the call text.
• Mobility allowance: €600/month, untaxed in most jurisdictions.
• Family allowance: €660/month if you have a spouse and/or dependent children at recruitment.
• Long-term leave allowance, special-needs allowance: available on documented need.
• Tuition: 100% covered by the host institution from the network's research, training and networking budget.

Net take-home varies by country tax rules. In Germany, a single DC nets ≈ €2,500/month; in the Netherlands ≈ €2,700/month after tax. Both are well above local cost of living for a graduate student.

How to find open MSCA-DN positions

1. Bookmark EURAXESS Jobs (euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs). Filter Funding Programme = "MSCA" and Career Stage = "First Stage Researcher (R1)". Sort by date.
2. Cross-check the CORDIS database (cordis.europa.eu) for already-funded MSCA-DN networks in your field. CORDIS lists every funded network with the coordinator's contact email — useful for outreach before the recruitment ads go live.
3. Search Google Scholar for recent papers in your field and trace the authors back to their MSCA networks. Most PIs list MSCA-DN coordinator roles on their group pages.

The application itself

You apply directly to the host institution against a specific advertised DC project (e.g. "DC4: Reinforcement learning for low-resource translation"). Each network sets its own format, but the universal pieces are:

• CV (Europass or 2-page academic).
• Cover letter tailored to the DC project — not the whole network.
• 1–2 page research statement answering "what would you do in the first year of this project?"
• Transcripts + degree certificates (English translation).
• 2 referees who can write in English.
• Proof of English (IELTS, TOEFL, or evidence of English-medium degree).

The research statement carries 60% of the decision. Treat it the way you would a postdoc research statement — see the structure in the scholarship essay guide.

A 12-month timeline

1. Month -12. Use CORDIS to identify 5–8 already-funded MSCA-DN networks in your field. Read their public deliverables.
2. Month -10. Cold-email 3 network coordinators with a one-page research idea. (See the cold-email PhD supervisor playbook for templates.)
3. Month -8. Sit IELTS if needed. Begin assembling transcripts and certified translations — this takes longer than expected.
4. Month -6 to -2. EURAXESS ads start appearing. Apply within 7 days of each ad — many positions close on first qualified candidate.
5. Month -2 to 0. Online interviews. Be ready to discuss the DC project paper-by-paper.
6. Month 0. Sign contract. Apply for visa (D-type long-stay research visa — schedule varies by country).

For the full week-by-week version, use the 12-month application timeline.

The four mistakes that sink African applicants

1. Applying to the network, not the DC. Each Doctoral Candidate project has a tightly defined scope. A generic "I want to do MSCA" letter loses to a candidate who quotes Deliverable D2.3 by number.
2. No prior contact with the PI. The successful candidate has usually exchanged 2–4 emails with the supervisor before applying. Cold applications without that context lose ~70% of the time.
3. Ignoring the mobility rule. An African applicant who recently spent 14 months on an Erasmus+ exchange in Germany is ineligible for a German MSCA-DN host. Re-check before applying.
4. Treating the research statement as a CV in prose. The reviewer wants a project, not a biography. Open with a question the DC project will answer; close with a 12-month plan.

Frequently asked questions

Can African students apply to Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Networks?

Yes. MSCA Doctoral Networks (MSCA-DN) are open to applicants of any nationality, including all African nationalities. The mobility rule is what matters: you must not have lived or worked in the host country for more than 12 months in the 36 months before the recruitment deadline. African applicants almost always qualify.

How much does an MSCA Doctoral Network pay?

Living allowance ≈ €3,400/month gross (country-corrected), plus a mobility allowance of €600/month, plus a €660/month family allowance if you have dependants. Full tuition is covered by the host institution. Total package usually lands €52,000–€68,000/year gross over 36 months.

Do I need to find a supervisor before applying?

Not formally — MSCA-DN positions are advertised through the EURAXESS portal once the host network is funded. But the strongest applications come from candidates who emailed the PI months earlier, sent a 1-page research idea, and got informal encouragement to apply when the call opens.

What's the difference between MSCA Doctoral Networks and MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships?

Doctoral Networks recruit you as a PhD student inside a pre-funded consortium of 6–10 EU institutions. Postdoctoral Fellowships are an individual award you write yourself, after a PhD, with a single host. For Master's graduates the Doctoral Network is the right entry point.

When do MSCA Doctoral Network positions open?

The European Commission funds new MSCA-DN networks once a year (call typically opens May, deadline November). Successful networks then advertise their 6–15 PhD positions on EURAXESS between roughly March and September of the following year. Watch EURAXESS continuously — positions open and close on different timelines per network.

Is GRE or IELTS required?

GRE is never required. IELTS is host-institution-dependent — many MSCA-DN hosts accept evidence of English-medium prior study (common for African applicants from anglophone systems) in place of IELTS. Check each host's PhD admission rules before paying for a test.