BIOPHAM Erasmus Mundus 2027 — Funded Materials Master's
Fully funded Master scholarship in France for International students 2027
A bio and pharmaceutical materials master's across Lille, Pisa, Katowice and Barcelona, paying EUR 1,400 a month for 24 months plus full tuition and insurance.
Eligibility
- Open to all nationalities
- Bachelor's degree in an accepted science or engineering field
- No previous Erasmus Mundus scholarship
- Residence documented within 12 months of the deadline
- Maximum five scholarships per nationality across the project
What it covers
BIOPHAM is a two-year European master's in bio and pharmaceutical materials science, coordinated by the University of Lille with the University of Pisa, the University of Silesia in Katowice and the Polytechnic University of Catalonia in Barcelona. It sits at the point where materials engineering meets drug formulation, which is a niche with steady industrial demand and comparatively few graduates.
The Erasmus Mundus scholarship is EUR 1,400 a month for the full 24 months of the programme, a total of EUR 33,600, and it is intended to cover travel and visa costs, installation and subsistence. On top of that, tuition and registration fees are waived at every university you visit, and comprehensive health insurance is provided.
The funding pot is substantial: the European Commission awarded the consortium 50 full scholarships and 30 partial support packages for the period 2026-2031, which works out at roughly 12 to 13 scholarship holders per intake. Every student admitted to the programme, funded or not, receives the tuition waiver and the insurance.
There is also support to attend the joint winter courses and the award ceremony, and additional support on request for students with disabilities or sensory impairments, which is worth asking about early rather than after enrolment.
Eligibility: who can apply
The call is open to applicants from anywhere in the world, with one structural limit that matters: to keep the cohort geographically balanced, no more than five scholarships may go to students of the same nationality across the whole project. In a competitive year that cap binds before the merit ranking does for large applicant pools.
Run this self-check before you start:
Is your bachelor's in a discipline the consortium actually accepts? BIOPHAM maintains its own list of accepted backgrounds, and the safe move is to read that list rather than assume that any science or engineering degree qualifies.
Have you already held an Erasmus Mundus Joint Master scholarship? If so, you are not eligible for another one, and this applies even if the earlier award was for a different programme.
Can you produce a residence certificate or an employer certificate issued within the last 12 months? The consortium checks place of residence against those documents, and a missing one is treated as an incomplete file.
Can you meet the English requirement the consortium sets out? The programme is taught in English across four countries, and the specific evidence accepted is listed on the who-can-apply page rather than assumed from your previous degree.
Can you be in Lille for the start of the programme in September 2027 and move between partner universities afterwards?
Deadline: the dates that decide it
The call for the 2027-2029 cohort opened on 1 November 2026 at 00:00 Brussels time and closes on 1 February 2027 at 23:59 Brussels time. Interviews follow in March 2027, admission decisions come at the beginning of April, and the programme starts on 1 September 2027.
This is the only call for the intake, covering both scholarship and non-scholarship applicants. There is no second window later in the spring, so a file that misses 1 February waits a full year.
How to apply
Applications go through the consortium's own portal, and the process is a single submission in which you indicate that you wish to be considered for the scholarship. The programme's apply page carries the link and the current call text:
https://www.master-biopham.eu/apply/apply
What the file needs:
Bachelor's degree certificate and full transcripts, with certified English translations where the originals are not in English.
A curriculum vitae that makes your laboratory, project or industrial experience legible, since this is a materials programme and practical work counts.
A motivation letter that connects your background to specific modules or research groups in the consortium rather than to the idea of studying in Europe.
References from academic supervisors who can describe your laboratory work.
English proficiency evidence in whatever form the consortium's who-can-apply page currently accepts.
A passport copy, plus the residence certificate or employer certificate described above.
Read the who-can-apply page before drafting anything. It is the document the selection committee actually works from, and it is where the accepted-degree list and language rules live.
Common mistakes to avoid
The first is treating BIOPHAM as a general materials programme and writing a letter about aerospace composites or construction materials. The consortium is specifically about bio and pharmaceutical materials, and a letter that never mentions pharmaceutical formulation signals the wrong programme was chosen.
The second is the missing residence document. It is an administrative requirement that reads trivial and eliminates otherwise strong applicants, because the consortium has to verify residence within a fixed window before the deadline.
The third is assuming that admission and funding are the same decision. They are not: roughly a dozen scholarships are available per intake against a larger admitted cohort, and non-funded places still carry the tuition waiver but not the monthly allowance.
Tips to win
Name the mobility path you want. The consortium spans Lille, Pisa, Katowice and Barcelona, and an applicant who can say which semester in which city serves their research interest reads as someone who has understood the structure rather than skimmed the homepage.
Show a reason to be in this niche. Pharmaceutical materials is a small field with a visible industrial map, and a letter that mentions a specific class of materials, a formulation problem or a company you want to work with lands better than a general statement about scientific curiosity.
Apply well before February. Files are reviewed after the deadline closes, but the residence certificate and certified translations take weeks to obtain in most countries, and those are the two items that most often arrive late.
https://www.master-biopham.eu/apply/support-scholarships
https://www.oeacnetwork.com/index.php?page=post&id=104
https://www.oeacnetwork.com/index.php?page=post&id=95
https://www.oeacnetwork.com/index.php?page=post&id=80
Photo: Cité scientifique campus, University of Lille, Frédéric Kuhlmann, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Last updated: 2 November 2026
Want a second opinion on whether your degree fits the accepted list? Contact an OEAC advisor and we will review your transcript against this call before you apply.
Always confirm the deadline and eligibility on the official page before you apply. Scholarship dates change between rounds, and this listing is a summary — the provider's own page is the authoritative source. OEAC Network lists scholarships for free and is not an agent for any university or funding body.
