Do you want to do excellent research supported by one of the most prestigious postdoctoral fellowships in Europe? Do you want to work at a leading research institution with colleagues from all over the world? Do you want to be mentored by world-class scientists? Our DKFZ Marie Skłodowska Curie MasterClassessupport you achieving it.

We offer 17 projects to apply for the Marie Sklodowska Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship (MSC-PF) 2025 with the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) as host institution and combine it with appropriate support actions to increase your success chances. Projects are available in all areas of cancer research and are located in Heidelberg/Mannheim, Dresden, Mainz and Munich. 

Available cancer research areas include: 

• Biochemistry
• Bioinformatics
• Cancer biomarkers
• Cell biology and tumor biology
• Cancer drug development
• Epidemiology
• Genomics
• Metabolomics
• Microbiome research
• Molecular imaging and radio oncology
• Neurobiology
• Redox biology
• Transcriptomics
• Tumor immunology

Benefits

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowships (MSC-PF) are granted by the European Commission and fund postdoctoral research projects for up to 24 months.

Benefits include:

• Postdoc salary including social security contributions and health insurance.
• Budget for research, training and networking.
• Access to a worldwide network of fellows and alumni.

Eligibility

To be eligible for the call 2025 of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowships you: 

• Need to hold a PhD degree. Your thesis must be defended before September 10, 2025.
• Must have a maximum of 8 years of postdoctoral research experience from the date of defense of your PhD and until September 10, 2025. Career breaks (parental leave, military service, work outside research, etc.) do not count towards the amount of research experience.
• Must not have resided or worked in Germany for more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before the September 10, 2025. 

Our support actions

Is this your first time writing a research proposal? Are you unsure about how to write a successful research plan? Not sure, who can be your supervisor? We help you with this:

• List of available Principal Investigators and projects at DKFZ
• You submit your pre-application and we check your eligibility for this call and put you in contact with the Principal Investigators of your choice.
• If there is a match between you and a DKFZ PI, we support you during the whole application process.
• Marie Curie MasterClasses: three online workshops between June and July 2025 on how to plan and write a successful proposal.
• 1 to 1 feedback and consultation with experienced grants experts during the whole preparation and application process. 

Application

Submit your application via Indico. Please, fill in the registration form with your personal information and the names of up to 3 DKFZ PIs from the list. In addition, upload the following documents:

• CV including list of publications (max. 3 pages) – at least one publication as first author (or shared first authorship) is required to be considered for the fellowship.
• Motivation letter (max. 1 page): tell us about your research interests and career plans. Why would these three principal investigators be a good match for you? What can you bring to their groups? Do you have any project idea you would like to implement with the support of the fellowship?

The deadline for the submission of applications is May 19, 2025.

For any inquiries, do not hesitate to contact us (mariecuriemasterclass@dkfz.de)