Moldova's Ministry of Education and Research, together with the National Agency for Research and Development, opened a call on Tuesday, 20 October, for individual research grants. The official notice does not say the money has already been handed out: it is a competition, with applications still to be filed and an evaluation still to come.

The call sits inside the Higher Education in Moldova Project, a ministry programme backed by the World Bank. The stated aim is for selected researchers to work on topics chosen by the ministry and to produce results that can feed public policy, innovation and education. It is not the separate "Young Researchers" 2027-2028 contest, with teams and a lei ceiling, that ANCD announced earlier.

Only individuals may apply, not teams. On the filing date the applicant must be between 25 and 50 years old, hold a doctorate or be enrolled in a doctoral programme, and remain a student, employee or affiliate of a public university in the Republic of Moldova for the whole grant period. The host university must agree to administer the funds and formally approve the proposal.

The ministry publishes the list of topics. Each researcher picks one, and only one person will be selected per topic. Applicants must show a rising research trajectory; the agency says career breaks for women and for people with refugee status will be taken into account.

The ceiling is 20,000 euros for at most 12 months. The amount requested is not the amount guaranteed: after selection there is a dialogue, and the final grant may differ. Eligible spending includes the research itself, small equipment, reagents, software, conference travel, publication and, within national rules, salaries tied to the subproject. Costs already funded elsewhere, intellectual-property fees and undocumented expenses are out.

The calendar in the notice is firm: the call opened on 20 October 2026, the filing deadline is 20 December 2026, evaluation runs from December into January, results are due in January 2027, and work is due to start on 1 February 2027. The file is five PDFs, completed in Romanian and sent to mhepresearch@mec.gov.md. Incomplete proposals, or those in another language, will not be considered.

Image: Moldova State University main building, CC BY-SA 4.0 TotalAnarchy, Wikimedia Commons; the campus, not the ministry.

Sources consulted: Granturi de până la 20.000 de euro pentru tinerii cercetători din R. Moldova. Cine poate beneficia; ANUNȚ referitor la apelul pentru propuneri de granturi pentru tineri cercetători.