On February 9, 2026, the European Commission published the results of the HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF call, which was opened on May 6, 2025, with a deadline of September 10, 2025. The total budget for the call was €404.292 million.
Exceptional interest in European Fellowships
A total of 15,668 proposals were submitted in the European Fellowships (EF) category. After excluding withdrawn, inadmissible, and ineligible projects, 14,717 proposals remained above the evaluation threshold. These projects together requested funding of more than €3.44 billion, which significantly exceeds the available budget.
Global Fellowships: Strong international competition
Within the framework of Global Fellowships (GF), 1,168 proposals were submitted, of which 1,119 projects exceeded the evaluation threshold. The requested budget for these projects reached almost €394 million.
Very high thresholds for funding
The results confirm the exceptionally strong competition. The cut-off score for obtaining funding ranged between 95-97 points out of 100 in most panels. In some areas, such as natural and technical sciences, the threshold was particularly high.
Projects with a score below 70 points were rejected as insufficient. The proportion of such proposals varied by panel, but in most cases represented only a small percentage of the total number.
Seal of Excellence for high-quality unfunded projects
Proposals with a score of 85% or higher that could not be funded due to budget constraints will receive the Seal of Excellence award starting in mid-February 2026. This award may help applicants in finding alternative sources of funding.
More transparent evaluation reports
The format of the Evaluation Summary Report (ESR) has also been modified for this year's call. Applicants will now receive a more detailed evaluation, including a qualified assessment of individual criteria (from "Fail" to "Excellent") and a brief comment summarizing the main weaknesses of the project.
UP in numbers
Palacký University in Olomouc submitted a total of 60 projects (22 – CATRIN, 22 from the Faculty of Arts, 8 from the Faculty of Law, 6 from the Faculty of Science, 1 from the Faculty of Medicine, and 1 from the Faculty of Health Sciences). With four supported projects, the university institute CATRIN was successful, placing Palacký University Olomouc in second place among Czech institutions in terms of the number of projects obtained.
We congratulate CATRIN on this success!
Possibility of funding from OP JAK
Projects that received more than 70 points in the scoring evaluation can apply for support from the Jan Amos Komenský Operational Program. At the beginning of March, another round of applications will be announced for the OP JAK – 02_22_010 MSCA Fellowships CZ.
The call is focused on funding Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions projects that, in the evaluation of the Horizon 2020 programs (call H2020-MSCA-IF-2020) and Horizon Europe (hereinafter referred to as "HE") achieved a score of at least 70% of the total number of points, but could not be funded due to a lack of funds in the given call.
Supported activities of the call:
Activity 1. Support for "no money" MSCA projects – arrivals in the Czech Republic
Activity 2. Support for "no money" MSCA projects – departures from the Czech Republic
Activity 3. Support for "no money" MSCA projects – Global Postdoctoral Fellowships
The call is designed to be ongoing, i.e. until the allocated budget of CZK 1,300 million is exhausted. nbsp;million CZK has been exhausted; in this round, 62 million CZK remains to be drawn (data from February 4, 2026).
Palacký University in Olomouc may submit one joint project.
Currently, individual UP departments have been asked to collect and nominate projects that would like to participate in this call. At the end of February, the nominated projects will be submitted as part of a joint project.
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