EUI PhD Florence 2027 — Fully Funded, EUR 1,685 a Month

The European University Institute is not a university in the ordinary sense. It is an intergovernmental doctoral school in Florence, funded by a group of European states, with four departments and a single intake a year. For a candidate who wants a research career in law, economics, history or social science inside a genuinely international cohort, it is one of the best-value doctorates in Europe.

What the award actually pays

Doctoral researchers at the EUI receive a monthly grant rather than a salary. The rate from 1 January 2027 is EUR 1,685 a month for the first three years, and the fourth year is covered by the institute at the same rate. Tuition is not charged in the way a British or American programme charges it, so the grant is effectively your living income.

The grant is not paid from a single pot. Each researcher is attached to a national funding authority, chosen in the application form, and the terms vary by country: some authorities add a travel allowance or health insurance, some add family allowances, and some pay through a national research council instead of the institute. That detail matters more than any other on this page, because selecting the wrong authority in the form can remove you from consideration for the funding you actually qualify for.

Who can apply

The call is open to any nationality, and there are four separate doctoral programmes: Economics, History and Civilisation, Law, and Political and Social Sciences. You apply to one of them, not to the institute in general.

You need a master's degree completed before the programme begins, and you cannot already hold a doctorate in the same field. English is the working language, and the institute expects a research proposal that could be supervised by named faculty in the department you choose.

Work through these questions before you start. Is my master's finished, or certain to be finished before September 2027? Does my project belong to one department rather than straddling two? Have I read the faculty list and identified two or three people whose current work touches mine? Which funding authority applies to my nationality, and have I read its terms rather than assuming the EUI rate applies to everyone? If you cannot answer the last one, spend an hour on the funding pages before writing anything else.

Deadline and what the calendar really means

The 2027 call opens in early November 2026 and closes on 15 January 2027 at 14:00 CET. The programme starts on 1 September 2027.

There is no separate scholarship application — applying for admission is applying for funding — but the funding-authority choice inside the form is effectively a second application. Results are communicated in the spring, which leaves roughly five months to arrange a visa, housing in Florence and the move itself.

How to apply, step by step

Create an application in the EUI online system, choose your department, upload your research proposal, transcripts, CV and a statement of your academic career, and arrange references. Then select your funding authority. Applicants from some countries will find a dedicated national scheme; the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs "Grants for Foreigners" programme, for example, is open to nationals of a specific list of countries that includes China and the United States, along with several Balkan states, Egypt, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Russia, Tunisia, Turkey and Ukraine.

If your country does not appear on a dedicated scheme, do not guess and do not abandon the application: check the full funding-authority list on the EUI's doctoral funding pages, because the available routes change between cycles and the form is the only place where the choice is recorded.

Documents to have ready

A research proposal of the length the department specifies, transcripts and degree certificates, a CV, a statement describing your academic trajectory, and references. The proposal is the document that decides the outcome: the EUI is a small, thesis-first institution, and the panel is asking whether four years of supervision will produce a book-quality thesis.

Common mistakes that sink applications

The first is writing a proposal for a topic rather than a question, which reads as an undergraduate essay plan. The second is choosing the wrong funding authority, which can make an admissible candidate unfundable. The third is applying to the wrong department because the supervisor you want sits in another one — read the faculty affiliations carefully, since law and political science overlap heavily at the EUI. The fourth is treating the fourth year as automatic: it is funded by the institute, but progression depends on satisfactory progress in the first three.

Tips to win

Write the proposal as if you were already a doctoral researcher: a question, a state of the field, a method, a source base, a chapter outline and a realistic schedule. Show that you know the department's intellectual tradition — the EUI is comparative and European in orientation, and a proposal that ignores that framing will feel like a poor fit. Name the faculty you want to work with and explain the fit in one sentence each. And apply early in the window: the form is long, references take time, and the 14:00 CET cut-off on 15 January is not forgiving.

https://www.eui.eu/apply

https://www.oeacnetwork.com/index.php?page=post&id=93

https://www.oeacnetwork.com/index.php?page=post&id=112

https://www.oeacnetwork.com/index.php?page=post&id=76

If you are deciding between a national doctoral scheme and an EUI application, an OEAC advisor can help you compare the funding terms before you commit.

Photo: sailko, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons (Badia Fiesolana, Florence).

Last updated: 4 November 2026