There is no single application, or deadline
DAAD does not run EPOS as a single application with one closing date. It funds a list of approved master’s and PhD programmes at German universities, and each one sets its own deadline and its own admission requirements. That structure catches people out: you apply to the course, through the course, on the course’s timetable.
Start from the DAAD scholarship database rather than from a listing site. Filter to your subject and level, open the individual programme entry, and work from the dates and documents on that page.
The professional experience requirement is enforced. EPOS is aimed at people already working in a relevant field who intend to return, not at students moving straight from a bachelor’s degree.
What’s actually on offer in the current cycle
The current intake cycle, 2027/2028, covers roughly two dozen named programmes across fields as different as economics, engineering, urban planning, agriculture and public health: a Master of Science in International Health at Charité or Heidelberg, Tropical Forestry at TU Dresden, Urban Management at TU Berlin and Global Health at the University of Bonn are a few of the current options; several are taught fully in English, so a lack of German is not automatically disqualifying, similar to the pattern covered in the guide to scholarships in Germany without German. Most run 18 to 24 months, though a handful run as short as 12 or as long as 42, and DAAD’s own summary document for this entire cycle still gives every single programme’s deadline as “see website of the course,” which is worth sitting with: the funder itself has not centralized this information, so nobody else’s listing of a specific date for EPOS as a whole should be trusted either.
Who DAAD actually wants to fund
DAAD frames this fund explicitly around returning home, not staying in Germany: it describes the goal as building a network of well-trained local experts who go back to support their own country’s development. That framing shows up in the selection criteria too. Beyond academic performance in roughly the top third of your cohort and the language skills your chosen programme needs, DAAD says it looks for applicants who can demonstrate development-related motivation and a credible expectation that they will take on social responsibility and help drive change in their profession and home country afterward. A strong transcript with no clear development angle is a weaker application here than a more ordinary one with a genuine record of that kind of work.
What to send, and to whom
Applications go directly to the course you are applying to, not to DAAD, and DAAD says applications sent to it will not be forwarded. You can apply for up to three courses, listing them in order of priority and using one uniform letter of motivation that also explains why you chose and ranked those courses. The core documents are a signed checklist, the EPOS application form, a Europass CV with no unexplained gaps, the letter of motivation, and a letter of recommendation from your current employer on letterhead, signed, stamped, dated currently and not in a sealed envelope.
You also need certificates of employment showing at least two years of relevant work after your bachelor’s, ideally with a guarantee that your employer will re-employ you when you return home, plus recent language proof, degree certificates with certified translations if they are not in German or English, and full transcripts with an explanation of the grading system. IELTS or TOEFL is accepted, but institutional TOEFL is not. Applications must be in English or German, and some courses ask for extra documents, so read the course’s own page as well.
Rules that can rule you out
A few conditions are easy to miss. Your degree should normally be no more than six years old, and anyone who has been resident in Germany for longer than 15 months at the application deadline cannot be considered. For a German-taught course the scholarship includes a preparatory six-month German course, but you must already have at least B1 German when you apply, because DAAD says the DSH 2 or TestDaF 4 exam cannot be passed without prior basic German even after that course, and passing it is a formal condition for enrolling. For an English-taught course, the language requirement is set by the course.
DAAD also describes the typical scholar as someone who works for a public authority or a state or private company in a developing country, in a role connected to development policy. That is a description, not a formal test, but it shows the profile the selection is looking for.