Bring your own funding

The route with the longest record in Norway. CSC funds 36–48 months abroad. It pays no tuition and no bench fee, and Norwegian doctoral education charges no tuition.

Timing. Online application 10 March – 1 April; home-university nomination by 15 April; results end of May. These are the 2026 dates; the 2027 guide is not out.

The stipend alone is about NOK 3 000 a month short of the permit income test. The top-up is paid as a scholarship, not salary. CSC funds at most two students per foreign supervisor.

Indonesia’s education endowment sponsors full degrees abroad. The University of Oslo is on its list of approved destinations for all subjects, which removes the usual first obstacle.

Timing. The 2026 second phase ran 30 June – 31 July; results 30 November 2026. The 2027 schedule is not published.

A split doctorate. You stay enrolled in Brazil and spend part of the degree here, so it suits a defined piece of work and gives no UiO degree.

Timing. Annual call; check the current notice.

The published Norway rate is the furthest below the permit income test of any scheme here. Expect a top-up of about NOK 5 000 a month, planned in advance.

Chile funds doctorates in any country except Chile, so Norway qualifies.

Timing. The 2026 call closed 19 May. Dates depend on the national budget and the 2027 call is not published.

Formerly CONACYT. Funds Mexican nationals for study abroad and asks for a signed letter of definitive acceptance.

Timing. The 2026 call ran 23 March – 22 May. Expect a similar spring window in 2027.

Colombia’s science ministry funds doctorates abroad under periodically renamed programmes.

Timing. Programme names change; check which one is running.

A long-running programme that sends graduates abroad with a public-service commitment on return.

Timing. Annual, announced by the Ministry of Education.

The return obligation is long, reported as six to seven years of state service. You will not stay on as a postdoc.

Kazakhstan’s programme for study at approved foreign universities, with a return-and-work commitment.

Timing. Annual.

Egypt’s missions programme sponsors doctorates abroad. Some hosts share the cost by waiving part of the tuition.

Timing. Announced periodically.

The agency formerly called SERB now runs this. It is the lowest-friction doctoral route: an invitation from the host lab and the Indian supervisor’s recommendation. No admission to UiO and no three-year funding proof.

Timing. Calls are irregular; the last notice I found ran 1 Nov 2023 – 2 Jan 2024.

USD 2 000 a month clears the permit income test on its own, so no top-up. The stay is a visit and gives no UiO degree.

Funds a researcher’s own, unconventional project at a host anywhere in the world: about two and a half years, a review, then about two and a half more. It is not a post in my group. The project is yours and it is hosted here.

Timing. The registration portal closes 15 January 2027, 17:00 CET. The foundation advises submitting a day or two early.

The foundation says it typically does not fund mainstream research that other organisations could fund. Write to me in autumn if you want to be hosted here.

Two years, paid to the university so you get an employment contract. A first-author preprint counts as a publication.

Timing. Hard cut-off 22 January 2027, 14:00 CET. The next cut-off is planned for 9 July 2027.

EMBO pays the person only: no bench fee and no overhead. Write to me about the host’s costs. From this round, rejected applicants cannot reapply, so you get one attempt.

For researchers leaving Switzerland for a host abroad. Worth knowing because it ends.

Timing. Calls close 2 February and 3 August 2027, 17:00 Swiss time. August 2027 is the final Postdoc.Mobility call; from 2028 a new scheme employs grantees at a Swiss host.

After August 2027 the route to an outside host closes.

A German university employs and pays you while you work elsewhere for a year, then takes you back. Germany cannot be the host, which is why Oslo works.

Timing. Portal opens January 2027; deadline 15 April 2027; funding starts between 1 April and 1 September 2028.

A fully funded year at no cost to my grant beyond bench space and supervision.

For researchers with a Danish PhD. At least half the fellowship is abroad, the rest back at a Danish university that administers the grant.

Timing. Opens 30 January 2027; closes 1 April 2027, 16:00 Danish time.

Built for a pivot between disciplines, which describes most people entering molecular recording from another field. Tenable anywhere.

Timing. Institutional nominations for the 2027 cohort closed 15 May 2026. I expect mid-May 2027 for the next cohort; the date is not yet published.

The University of Oslo is on the 2027 partner list. Check that your own PhD institution is on it before anything else.

The strongest fellowship for coming to Norway. Two years, with research, training and management money attached.

Timing. Indicative: opens 7 April, closes 8 September 2027 at 17:00 Brussels time. The Commission has not published the 2027 call text.

The mobility rule excludes people already working in Norway. The living allowance is fixed when the grant is signed while salaries rise, so I budget a fellow at the bottom of the UiO pay band and the lab covers any gap.

For a move to a new country and into a new field. Norway is a member country. The cross-disciplinary variant is for people moving into life science from physics, chemistry, mathematics or computing.

Timing. The 2027 round is closed (letter of intent 12 May 2026, full proposals 24 September 2026). This year’s letter of intent had to be started by 5 May.

For early postdocs trained in Germany who want an independent project abroad. The programme expects you to change institution.

Timing. Proposals accepted at any time.

For early Austrian-linked postdocs who spend a stretch abroad and return.

Timing. Applications accepted continuously; submit at least four weeks before the start.

For Turkish citizens with a doctorate who take a postdoctoral stay abroad. The stipend clears the permit income test on its own.

Timing. The 2026 call ran 20 July – 15 September. A similar summer window is likely in 2027.

Sends Indian researchers to hosts outside the USA. Selection weighs the host mentor’s record.

Timing. Announced periodically.

Faculty, clinicians and industry scientists can spend three to twelve months here with their own institution paying them. This is the simplest route and needs no call.

Timing. Any time; plan about 12 months ahead.

For stays of one to twelve months. The money goes to the host institution.

Timing. No separate call; written into my project application.

There is no standalone call. It must be in my application before submission, so we have to talk long ahead.

Funded by the Research Council and the French ministries. A one-year bilateral project, renewable, with researchers moving both ways.

Timing. The 2027 call closed 23 September 2026. The Norwegian side opened on 12 August, so expect August–September 2027.

For US scholars who want a period of research in Norway. The award is theirs, the host is me.

Timing. The 2027–28 round has closed; the next should close in autumn 2027.

For learning a technique rather than running a project, from a few weeks to a few months. A cheap way to test a collaboration.

Timing. Rolling applications.

Funded lab exchanges inside a COST Action. Quick and light on paperwork once both labs belong to the same Action.

Timing. Open while the relevant Action runs.

For academic and technical staff at European universities who spend days to weeks at a partner. Your international office runs it.

Timing. Rolling, set by your home university.

Internal money for hosting international colleagues. It tops up another source and does not replace it.

Timing. I apply on your behalf.