Postgraduate fellowships abroad Call 2026

Key points

• 100 fellowships for postgraduate studies (Master, doctorate or pre-doctoral research) with a maximum duration of 24 months.

• To pursue postgraduate studies in any country within the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), North America (the United States or Canada), and the Asia-Pacific region (Australia, South Korea, India, Japan, Singapore and China).

• The call covers all fields of knowledge but excludes Master of Business Administration (MBA) programmes.

• The fellowships are intended for master’s or doctoral studies, which must start with the fellowship. Predoctoral scientific and technical research stays are also accepted.

Requirements of the call

To take part in the selection process, candidates must meet, among others, the following requirements:

1. Be a Spanish or Portuguese national.

2. Proof of an advanced level in the language to be used in the studies in question.

3. Have completed undergraduate studies in Spain (Spanish candidates) or Portugal (Portuguese candidates). These must have been completed between January 2017 and July 2026.

Candidates who have completed a bachelor's degree abroad before the start of the fellowship are not eligible.

FAQ

If you have any doubts about the call, please consult the list of frequently asked questions.

You can apply for a postgraduate fellowship abroad through the application website of the ”la Caixa” Foundation Fellowships Programme.

On the application website you can also request to receive a notification when the next call for applications opens by clicking on the "Receive a notification" button.

For any suggestions or doubts, you can contact: [email protected].

The selection process is made up of three consecutive phases:

• Phase 1 - Eligibility

  All applications are reviewed provided they meet the eligibility requirements described in the rules for participation.

• Phase 2 - Shortlisting

  Applications are evaluated remotely by at least two evaluators with relevant experience in the same disciplinary field. The criteria determining the evaluation during this phase are as follows:

  1. Academic record and CV (weight 50 %): the candidate's academic record and/or professional CV are evaluated in line with the stage of their career.

  2. Motivation and proposal (weight 30 %): the originality, innovation and potential impact of the proposal will be evaluated, in addition to the choice of the programme and the host institution.

  3. Letters of recommendation (weight 20 %): letters of recommendation supporting the candidacy are evaluated taking into account the specificity of their content with respect to the candidate, as well as the profile of the people recommending the applicant.

• Phase 3 - Selection interviews

  Shortlisted candidates are called for an individual interview before a multidisciplinary committee that evaluates them according to the following criteria:

  1. Candidate's potential (weight 40 %): the candidate's potential will be assessed considering their soft skills, such as clarity, consistent discourse and articulation of ideas, ability to express complex and independent reasoning, originality, entrepreneurship, leadership and teamwork.

  2. Motivation and statement of purpose (weight 30 %): the excellence of the ideas introduced in the statement of purpose will be assessed, considering their originality, innovative approach and their potential impact as well as the suitability of the host institution chosen and the studies or research to pursue.

  3. Academic and professional background (weight 30 %): cademic and professional background of the candidate in relation to the career stage and the opportunities they may have had.

Join

Each year, the Fellowship Programme benefits from the collaboration of a large number of experts from different disciplines who are involved in evaluating applications to ensure rigour and transparency in the selection process.

If you're interested in forming part of our database and would like to be involved in evaluating future fellowship calls, please contact us by sending an email to [email protected] along with your CV in PDF format or a link to the website where this can be found.

Download materials

With the aim of creating synergies and informing as many people as possible about the postgraduate fellowships abroad call for applications, we would be grateful if you could help us disseminate the communication materials among potential candidates.

• Call posters

• Informative mail

• Posts to publish on Social Media

• Recommendations for promoting the call on Social Media

More information

• How should the communication materials be disseminated?

  To ensure effective communication, first of all we recommend a mailing to explain the details of the call to the students.

  Then we suggest publishing the downloadable posts about the call on all social media channels, taking into account the texts proposed for publications contained in the Recommendations for promoting the call on Social Media.

  We also recommend printing the posters in A4 or A3 format to publicise the call at the university or centre.

• How should the results of the publications be shared?

  ”la Caixa” Foundation is grateful for your help in promoting calls among the students. To optimise the communication materials, we would like you to help, as far as possible, by providing us with some important data on the pieces published on your digital channels: a description of the audience reached, screenshots of your publications on social media and the language in which your posts were published.

Contact

You can send any doubts or suggestions to: [email protected].