VŠE awarded its first-ever MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship

VŠE has reached an important milestone: in the latest MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships results, we have succeeded in securing the first MSCA PF grant in the university’s history.

While we cannot yet share details of the specific project, we can already place this achievement in the broader context of an exceptionally competitive call:

• Under the MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships scheme within Horizon Europe, the European Commission will fund 1,610 postdoctoral researchers this year, with a total budget of €404.3 million. In total, 17,066 proposals were submitted; 16,836 were eligible and evaluated, and 1,610 projects were selected — an overall success rate of 9.6%.
• Competition intensified significantly compared to last year, with the number of applications rising by almost 65%.

From a Czech perspective, the results are particularly strong: 44 new EU-funded postdocs will be hosted in the Czech Republic — 33 supported directly through MSCA PF and an additional 11 through the ERA Fellowships scheme. ERA Fellowships effectively provide a “second chance” for top-rated proposals that could not be funded from the main MSCA PF budget; the EU has earmarked €7.9 million for this purpose, enabling 41 projects across the widening countries (including the Czech Republic).

• For fellowships hosted in the Czech Republic under MSCA PF 2025, 437 proposals were submitted and 33 were funded, corresponding to a 7.6% success rate in the main call. When ERA Fellowships are included, the overall Czech success rate rises to 10.1%.
• Of the 33 successful MSCA PF projects hosted in the Czech Republic, 30 are European Fellowships and 3 are Global Fellowships (with an outgoing phase outside the associated countries and a mandatory return phase in Europe).

More information on the MSCA PF results can be found here.