ECTRIMS Postdoctoral Research Fellowship 2027 in Europe

Last verified: 22 August 2026

There is one rule inside this fellowship that quietly decides who can apply and who cannot. You are not allowed to take it in a laboratory where you have already worked, or under a mentor you already know professionally, and if you hold a European passport you cannot take it in the country of your own citizenship either. The whole award is built around movement.

That single condition shapes everything else about the ECTRIMS Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Exchange Programme: how early you need to start writing emails to people who have never met you, which host laboratory will realistically say yes, and how much of your autumn you should set aside for paperwork. The rest of the package is generous. It pays €55,000 a year for one or two years, covers economy travel to and from your host city, and separately supports your attendance at the ECTRIMS congress while you are funded. Applications for the 2027 cycle close on 1 December 2026.

What this fellowship is, in plain terms

ECTRIMS is the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis, and its secretariat sits in Basel, Switzerland. That address confuses a lot of people, so it is worth saying clearly at the start: this is not a fellowship to study in Switzerland. ECTRIMS is the funder. Your actual host can be a laboratory or clinic anywhere in Europe, and you are the one who finds it.

The Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Exchange Programme exists to give early career neuroscientists a mentored block of time to do multiple sclerosis research and to be trained while doing it. The research can be basic, clinical or applied. ECTRIMS describes the purpose as maximising the exchange of information and growing the pool of well trained research scientists working on MS problems. In practice, it is a funded transplant: you move into a strong MS group somewhere in Europe, work under a named mentor, and come out with a project, a network and a publication record you did not have before.

What the money is actually worth

Start with the number, because it decides whether the rest of this is even feasible for you.

• The fellowship provides annual funds of €55,000 for all fellows.
• The money goes to the host institution, which acts as your employer and pays you according to its own institutional policies.
• Those funds cover your salary at a rate the institution considers appropriate for your position, plus institutional social benefits such as healthcare and pension contributions where those are needed.
• Economy transportation from your home location to the host institute, and back again at the end, is covered. Travel is reimbursed once you submit receipts, so expect to pay first and claim afterwards.
• Anything left over after your salary is paid may be used towards those institutional social benefits.

Where the money stops

This matters, and it is the part readers skim past. The award is a salary and mobility package, not a research budget.

• Research equipment, materials, consumables, books and journal subscriptions are not covered. The guide is explicit that these stay the responsibility of the host institution and your mentor.
• If your salary plus benefits cost more than the fellowship provides, the host institution is responsible for topping up the difference. That is their obligation, not yours, but it is also a reason a department might hesitate. Raise it in your first serious conversation with a prospective mentor rather than after the application is written.

Congress attendance is funded separately

Fellows are expected to attend the annual ECTRIMS congress during the term of the fellowship and to give a presentation on the funded research, whether in a young researcher session or elsewhere. ECTRIMS supports travel and accommodation for that congress participation separately from the €55,000. Treat the presentation as part of the job, not an optional extra.

The exchange rule, and why it catches people out

The word “exchange” in the title is doing real work. Read these conditions slowly, because most rejected profiles fail here before anyone reads the science.

• At the time of application you should not have worked, in any capacity, at the institution you are proposing or under the mentor you are proposing.
• All fellows must train at a different institute and in a different country from their current placement.
• Applicants who are European citizens must train in a European country other than the one they are a citizen of.
• Wherever you are from, the research training itself has to happen in a European laboratory or clinic.
• The same mentor may not be proposed in more than one application in a single cycle, so you cannot quietly share a mentor with a colleague who is also applying.
• Exceptions to the mobility conditions are considered only under special circumstances, so plan on the rules applying to you.

If you are a researcher from Pakistan, India, Nigeria, Brazil or anywhere else outside Europe, the rules are actually simpler for you than for European applicants: citizens of any country are eligible, and you just need a European host that is not somewhere you have already worked. If you are, say, a German postdoc, you cannot take this to a German institute at all.

There is a practical consequence hidden in the mentor rule. Because you are barred from proposing anyone you have already worked with, you cannot lean on an existing supervisor. You are cold approaching a senior researcher and asking them to write you an endorsement letter, commit their department, and accept the payment terms. That takes weeks, sometimes months. It is the single strongest argument for starting now rather than in November.

Also Check: Chevening OCIS Fellowship 2027/2028

Who ECTRIMS expects to see applying

Some of these are firm, and some are guidance the committee applies with judgement. Both are worth knowing before you spend a weekend on the research plan.

The firm requirements

• You hold an MD, PhD, ScD or an equivalent professional degree, and you hold it by the time you apply. A degree you expect to finish later does not qualify you.
• Your proposed research relates to multiple sclerosis, in any relevant specialty.
• The training takes place in a European laboratory or clinic.
• You and your mentor both affirm that no language barrier will get in the way of the training experience. You evidence this with exam results or a short declaration.

The guidance the committee applies

• Successful applicants are, in general, under 40 years of age at the time of application. Exceptions under special circumstances will be considered.
• It is recommended that you have no more than five years of postdoctoral experience beyond your final degree at the time of application.

Notice the wording on those last two. Neither is written as an absolute bar, which means a strong applicant at 41, or at five and a half years past the PhD, is not automatically excluded but is asking the committee to make an exception. If that is you, use the statement of intent to explain the circumstances rather than hoping nobody notices the dates on your CV.

Also Check: Eric Bleumink Fellowship at the University of Groningen, Netherlands

Choosing a mentor and a host, without wasting three months

The official page will not help you here, so this is the part where a little strategy pays.

• Work backwards from the science. Find the four or five European groups publishing the work closest to what you want to do, then check that none of them is somewhere you have already worked or trained.
• Read two recent papers from each group properly before you write. A first email that engages with an actual finding gets answered far more often than one that praises the group in general terms.
• Say what you bring, not only what you want. A mentor is being asked to host you, endorse you in writing, and have their department head sign an acceptance letter. Make it easy to see the benefit.
• Ask directly whether the department can cover research consumables for your project and, if needed, top up the salary. A mentor who hesitates on that is telling you something useful early.
• Approach more than one group at a time, but be honest that you are exploring options. Only one can end up on the application.
• Once a mentor agrees, agree a paperwork timetable with them in writing. You need their endorsement letter, their biographical sketch, a department head letter and a signed payment rules form, and none of that moves at your speed.

The documents you will need to gather

Everything is submitted as PDFs through the ECTRIMS online application system, and the applicant is responsible for collecting and submitting all supporting material. Nobody chases your referees for you.

From you:

• The completed online application form.
• An abbreviated CV and bibliography, using the ECTRIMS Biographical Sketch form.
• A statement of intent covering your goals, your career plans and how the training applies to them, written on the form provided.
• A research project description of no more than five pages, and that limit includes figures, tables and references, prepared on the Research Plan form.
• Confirmation of language ability, either exam results or a declaration, in no more than one page.

From your mentor and host:

• A letter of endorsement from the mentor covering their interactions with you and the proposed research plan.
• The mentor’s current abbreviated CV and bibliography, maximum five pages, on the Biographical Sketch form.
• A letter from the head of department accepting you as a fellow if the award is made.
• A signed Acceptance of ECTRIMS Payment Rules form certifying that the institution accepts the terms.

From your referees:

• Up to two additional letters of reference from professionals who know your work. Including the mentor letter, three recommendation letters is the maximum. Extra letters beyond that give you no advantage, so do not treat volume as a strategy.

That five page research plan is the tightest constraint in the whole pack. Figures and references eat into it, so write the plan first and design the figures to fit the space that is left, not the other way round.

Also Check: Royal Society University Research Fellowship 2026 in the UK and Ireland

Key dates for the 2027 cycle

• Application deadline: 1 December 2026.
• Notification of review outcomes: by the end of March 2027.
• Preferred start: fellowships are normally set up to coincide with the start of the autumn academic year in September or October, though they can begin at any time after the April award notification.
• Hard start limit: the fellowship must begin before the end of the calendar year in which it was awarded.
• Duration: one or two years.

Two honest notes on those dates. First, ECTRIMS does not publish a closing time or a time zone for 1 December, so treat the deadline as end of business and submit at least a couple of days early rather than gambling on a midnight interpretation. Second, the official website contradicts itself on when the window opens: the programme page says the application period for the 2027 cycle will open in August 2026, while the main fellowships page says it will open in September 2026. As of the verification date at the top of this article, both sentences are still live. Check the fellowships page yourself before assuming the portal is open, and if it is not, email the secretariat rather than waiting.

How applications are judged

The Fellowship Committee is not scoring your CV in isolation. Its stated criteria cover four areas:

• Your qualifications, meaning education, previous employment history, current responsibilities, the goals you state for the training, and an assessment of your career plans, together with your commitment to collaboration and to knowledge exchange or transfer.
• The qualifications and characteristics of your proposed mentor and host institution.
• The research plan itself, judged on scientific quality, innovation and perceived feasibility.
• The quality of the endorsement letters from your mentor and your referees.

Read that list again with a pen. Two of the four areas are about other people writing about you, and one is about the host you chose. Only one is the project. Applicants who spend all of October polishing the science and email their mentor for a letter in late November have optimised the wrong quarter of the application.

Feasibility deserves a special mention. A proposal that needs a technique the host laboratory does not run, or a cohort it cannot access, reads as ambitious to you and as unfeasible to a committee. Build the plan around what your host actually has.

What is expected after you win

Funding comes with obligations, and it is better to know them before you sign.

• A midpoint progress report goes from you to your mentor and then to ECTRIMS, due 30 days before the end of the year.
• At the end of each year, the host institute files a financial accounting report showing how the funds were allocated and naming any supplemental funding and amounts.
• You and your mentor each complete an online survey about the lived experience of the fellowship.
• At the end of the fellowship, a full narrative report is due from you, and ECTRIMS accepts it up to six months after the fellowship concludes.
• Copies of any published papers coming out of the work should be sent in as they appear, and those publications should acknowledge the ECTRIMS Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Programme for its support.
• Returning to your original home institution afterwards is described as desirable but is not required, and fellows are asked to stay in touch so ECTRIMS can track careers and publications.

Also Check: DAAD Alfried Krupp Fellowships 2027/28 in Germany

Mistakes and scams to avoid

A few things worth guarding against, some specific to this award and some general.

• Do not pay anyone to submit this for you. ECTRIMS runs its own online application system and lists no application fee anywhere in the programme description. Any person or page asking for a processing fee, an application fee or a guaranteed selection payment is running a scam.
• Check the domain before you enter anything. The official information sits on ectrims.eu. Aggregator websites copy these fellowships constantly, and several of them have listed this programme under the wrong host country. Verify dates and figures on the official page even if you found the opportunity elsewhere.
• Do not propose a mentor you have already worked with, however tempting the shortcut. It contradicts an explicit condition of the award.
• Do not exceed the page limits. Five pages for the research plan, one page for the language declaration, five pages for a biographical sketch. Limits like these exist partly to test whether you can follow instructions.
• Do not let AI write your application for you. Committees increasingly screen for it, referees notice it, and a statement of intent that could have been written about anybody is the fastest way to be forgettable. Use your own voice and your own reasons.
• Do not assume last cycle’s dates carry over. Confirm the deadline and the notification window on the official page each year.

Frequently asked questions

Can I apply to more than one ECTRIMS fellowship programme in the same cycle?

No. Applicants are restricted to one application per annual cycle across all categories, so choose the programme that matches your profile rather than spreading yourself across several. There is a second cap on the receiving side that is worth knowing: an institute may hold a maximum of three ECTRIMS awards in a cycle across all fellowship categories, and only one award within any single category. Institutes are not limited in how many applications they support, as long as different mentors are proposed. It is a fair question to ask a prospective host whether they already hold ECTRIMS awards for that cycle.

Do I have to be an ECTRIMS member to apply?

The programme description does not list ECTRIMS membership as a requirement, and it states that citizens of any country are eligible. Because the guide is silent on membership rather than explicitly ruling it in or out, ask the secretariat at secretariat@ectrims.eu if you want that confirmed in writing before you commit weeks to the application.

Will the fellowship pay for my family to relocate with me?

No. The travel provision covers economy transportation for the successful candidate only, and family travel expenses are excluded. The guide mentions no dependant allowance. If you are moving a household across a border, budget for it separately and speak to the host institution’s HR office early about visa routes for accompanying family, since that process usually runs on its own timetable and can be slower than the fellowship paperwork.

Can I keep teaching or seeing patients while I hold the fellowship?

A limited amount. The award is intended as a full time research and research training experience, but up to 10 percent of your time may be spent on teaching or clinical care unrelated to your research or coursework. That works out at roughly half a day a week. If your existing clinical or teaching load is heavier than that, settle the arrangement with your host department before you accept the award rather than after you arrive.

What happens if my mentor moves institutions, or I have to stop the fellowship early?

ECTRIMS will consider a request to transfer the fellowship to a new European mentor or institution in special circumstances, but authorisation must be requested and granted before any change takes place. Unexpended funds are returned and the balance is reissued to the new host institution. The award is individual and cannot be passed to a different fellow. If a fellowship ends early, ECTRIMS must be notified and unused funds returned. ECTRIMS can also revoke or terminate an award where the fellow cannot carry out the research as planned, where the mentor requests it because of unsatisfactory performance, or where fraud or malfeasance is established through due process or by an institutional review committee.

The last cycle produced only a handful of postdoctoral awards. Is it worth applying with an ordinary publication record?

The 2026 announcement named three postdoctoral research fellows, placed at Imperial College London, the University of Bergen and Humanitas University in Milan. So yes, this is a small and competitive programme. That said, look again at what the committee scores: the research plan, the mentor and host, and the quality of the endorsement letters together outweigh your raw publication count. A focused, feasible project with a mentor who writes a specific and enthusiastic letter can carry a modest CV. What will not work is a strong CV with a rushed proposal and a generic letter. ECTRIMS does not publish the number of applications received, so treat any success rate you see quoted elsewhere as guesswork. If you do not yet have a mentor secured, the honest answer is to spend this cycle finding one and apply to the next.