Coimbra Group Scholarship Programme for Sub-Saharan Africa

Who can apply

Born on or after 1 January 1981
A national and current resident of a Sub-Saharan African country; candidates already living or studying in Europe are not considered
An academic staff member at a university or equivalent higher education institution in Sub-Saharan Africa, preferably holding doctoral or postdoctoral status; the programme frames this as support for early-career researchers specifically
Must obtain a mandatory acceptance letter or email from a supervisor at the chosen host university before applying; the Coimbra Group Office does not help applicants find or contact a supervisor
One application to a single participating Coimbra Group university only; multiple applications are rejected outright, and incomplete applications are rejected with no exceptions
All application materials must be submitted in English
Female candidates are explicitly encouraged to apply and are prioritised in selection

A short research visit for academic staff, not a degree programme

This is a short research-visit grant, one to three months at a European host university, not a degree programme, and it’s aimed specifically at academic staff rather than students: Coimbra Group’s own eligibility criteria require applying from a position as an academic staff member at a Sub-Saharan African institution, with a preference for doctoral or postdoctoral status, not simply “early career” in a general sense, though the programme’s own framing does describe its target group as early-career researchers. Female candidates are explicitly encouraged to apply and are prioritised in the selection process.

Funding varies by host university, so read your specific one’s terms

Because funding comes from the host universities themselves rather than a single central pot, the benefits genuinely vary by which university you apply to. Coimbra Group’s own page gives a real range rather than a single figure: monthly stipends from roughly €300 to €1,800, and travel support up to €1,735, with some hosts covering a full economy flight and others not. Read the specific host institution’s own terms before assuming a figure applies to your choice.

You need a supervisor lined up before you can even apply

You also need the hardest part sorted before you can even apply: a mandatory acceptance letter or email from a supervisor at your chosen host university. That conversation has to happen first, and Coimbra Group is explicit that its own office cannot help you find or approach a supervisor; you are expected to research the host institution yourself or contact the university’s own listed contact person. Applications are only accepted for one institution at a time, incomplete applications are rejected with no exceptions, and everything must be submitted in English.

18 named universities across 11 countries, not an open field

The 2026 edition named 18 specific host universities across 11 countries as the only eligible destinations: Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi in Romania, the Universities of Barcelona and Granada and Salamanca in Spain, the University of Bergen in Norway, the University of Coimbra in Portugal, the University of Cologne, Heidelberg University, Friedrich Schiller University Jena and Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg in Germany, the University of Graz in Austria, the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, İstanbul University in Turkiye, the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, the Universities of Padova, Pavia and Siena in Italy, and the University of Poitiers in France. Some of these universities further restrict eligibility to applicants from specific Sub-Saharan countries, stated only in that university’s own listing, not on the general programme page, so check your chosen host’s own terms before assuming your nationality qualifies everywhere.

A decade of real numbers on how competitive this actually is

Coimbra Group publishes its own year-by-year figures back to 2015, and they’re worth reading before you gauge your odds. The number of participating universities grew from 11 in 2015 to 19 in 2025; grants awarded have ranged from 17 to 36 a year, 31 in 2025; and eligible applications received peaked at 286 in 2023 before falling to 141 in 2025. That puts the recent acceptance rate for eligible applicants somewhere around one in five to one in four, competitive but not a long shot, and considerably more transparent about actual odds than most programmes on this site publish.