PhD Fellowships

FWO PhD Fellowships support doctoral research under FWO (Flemish Research Foundation) and are aimed at early-career researchers who want to carry out a PhD at a Flemish university or research institution. The program centers on two main lines, fundamental research and strategic basic research, and also includes special PhD fellowships for completion-year work plus a small EUI track in Florence for human sciences. The standard fellowship is four years, with a three-year option for some applicants under the December 2026 rules. The program runs on an annual cycle, and the next call opens in December 2026. The updated rules introduce quotas at pre-selection for final-year master's students and graduated masters, replace the older mixed seniority test with a two-year degree-seniority limit, and narrow the three-year route to applicants whose master's degree is more than twelve months old and who have already completed more than six months of paid doctoral-relevant research. The public page does not publish a single fellowship amount. This program suits applicants who already have a research topic, a Flemish host, and a track choice that matches the project: curiosity-driven fundamental work or strategic basic research with an eye to application. The cleanest applications will be specific about the doctoral plan, the research setting, and the applicant's stage of training, because the program is designed to sort early candidates into the right duration and track rather than to reward broad or loosely framed proposals.

No upcoming rounds verified. Cadence: Annual.