Ernst Mach Grant - Worldwide (Austria)

Eligibility

Who can apply

All except Austria

Education required

Masters completed

Age

up to 35 ('Applicants must not be older than 35 years when they start their research stay.')

Fields

Any field of study

Language

No official language certificate is required: 'There is no need to submit any official testing certificate, such as a TOEFL, etc., but you should have sufficient knowledge of English in the respective subject area.' Your Austrian academic supervisor must confirm that your project can be done in English. Documents that are in neither English nor German must be uploaded as the original plus a rough English or German translation (a certified translation is not required).

Residency

Applicants already permanently resident in Austria, or who completed their academic education mainly in Austria, are not eligible. You must not have lived, studied, pursued research or pursued academic work in Austria in the six months before taking up the grant.

Also required

• Open to postgraduates pursuing a doctoral/PhD programme outside Austria; postgraduates and post-docs who finished their studies at a university outside Austria after 30 September 2025; and post-docs working as lecturers or researchers at a university outside Austria
• A written confirmation of supervision from an Austrian university lecturer, on OeAD's template, is mandatory — OeAD will not help find a supervisor
• The grant funds a visiting research or study stay only; it cannot finance a complete or partial Master's or PhD programme in Austria
• Regular students at an Austrian university are not eligible
• You must apply for whole months only, starting on the first and ending on the last day of a month
• Non-university Austrian research institutes may be eligible — OeAD assesses these case by case before you apply

About this opportunity

Level

PhD, Postdoc

Where

Austria

Duration

1 to 9 months; extensions are not possible

Difficulty

High · about 10 weeks to prepare

Funding

Partially funded

• stipend

A monthly grant paid by OeAD; the programme page does not publish the 2027/28 monthly rate, so check the current call rather than a third-party figure. OeAD is explicit that the grant is not meant to cover everything: 'Our grant rates are based on the assumption that actual living costs in Austria are higher than the grant itself. Hence own funds are required.' Grantees themselves pay for compulsory health insurance, accommodation and its deposit, the visa and travel to Austria, and proof of own funds may be required by the Austrian residence authority (for example if accommodation costs more than EUR 386.43 a month). The rate cannot be increased, including for bringing family.

What you will need

• Reference letters
• CV / résumé
• Degree certificate
• Passport or national ID
• Other documents

Letters of recommendation (freely worded but on letterhead, dated, signed and stamped by the university or department, and no older than six months at the time of application); a confirmation of supervision from an Austrian university lecturer using OeAD's template, which must also carry a date, signature and stamp; a valid biometric passport (an identity card is only accepted from EU applicants); diplomas; and confirmation of employment or enrolment. No research proposal upload is required — the research plan is entered in the online application form, with minimum word counts per section. Your Austrian supervisor cannot also write a letter of recommendation; if they do, that reference is treated as invalid.

Track this application and eStudent360 turns the list into a checklist and, with Plus, a dated plan that works back from the deadline.