OECD Co-operative Research Programme Research Fellowships 2027: Funded 6-to-26-Week International Research Visits for Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries Scientists

OECD Co-operative Research Programme Research Fellowships 2027: Funded 6-to-26-Week International Research Visits for Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries Scientists

If you are an established research scientist in agriculture, forestry, fisheries, or a closely related food-systems field, the OECD Co-operative Research Programme (CRP) can support a focused research stay at an institution in another participating country. The 2027 call is open. A fellowship lasts from six to twenty-six weeks and is intended to strengthen scientific exchange, international mobility, and collaboration. The application deadline is 10 September 2026 at midnight Paris time.

This page summarises the OECD’s current fellowship call and its 2027 application guidelines. It covers the award calculation, the eligibility rules that can disqualify an otherwise strong applicant, the documents to prepare, and the selection and timing rules. The official OECD page and its linked guidelines control if a detail changes or if your circumstances need an interpretation by the Secretariat.

Key Details at a Glance

What the CRP Is and Why It Funds Research Visits

The Co-operative Research Programme sits within the OECD’s work on sustainable agricultural and food systems. Its purpose is to strengthen the scientific knowledge base that feeds into future policy decisions on the sustainable use of natural resources across food, agriculture, forests, and fisheries. Rather than funding large multi-year grants, the CRP invests in two focused instruments: sponsorship for international conferences, workshops, and symposia; and individual research fellowships that move scientists between countries.

The fellowship stream is deliberately about mobility. A researcher may use the visit to learn a technique, access a specialised facility or dataset, work at a distinctive field site, or co-develop a method with a counterpart team. The expected value is more than a short trip: the fellow should bring skills and results back to the home institution while building a collaboration that can continue after the award. The guidelines therefore ask applicants to show why the proposed host and fellow are complementary and why the host’s infrastructure is important to the project.

Because the CRP is funded by its member governments and coordinated by the OECD Secretariat in Paris, it carries the credibility of an intergovernmental programme. A CRP fellowship is a recognisable line on a scientific CV, and the network it plugs you into is genuinely international.

The Action Areas and Policy Fit

The OECD call asks applicants to relate their work to the CRP Action Areas and welcomes applications relevant to the OECD Committee for Agriculture and other OECD bodies. The listed priorities include sustainable and resilient productivity growth, food security and nutrition; climate risks and reducing emissions from agriculture and food systems; carbon sequestration in agriculture, forestry, and land use; halting forest loss and land degradation; livestock’s environmental and animal-welfare effects; biodiversity and ecosystem services; soil health and water and air quality; agricultural knowledge transfer, including Indigenous and traditional knowledge; and fisheries and aquaculture productivity, sustainability, and resilience.

The broader CRP programme describes three current Action Areas: shaping behaviours for transformational action; strengthening resilience in the face of multiple risks in a connected world; and innovating for sustainable production and productivity. The application should make the connection explicit. Explain the scientific question, the relevant Action Area or policy priority, and the reason an international host is necessary. A project can be technically strong and still be a poor fit if it does not show a clear contribution to sustainable food, agriculture, forestry, or fisheries policy.

Who Is Eligible

The fellowship is aimed at research scientists, but the 2027 guidelines are more specific than a general invitation to anyone in a related field.

• Your institution is in a participating country. The current guidelines list 33 participating countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, the Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Brazil and Ukraine became CRP members in July 2026. Türkiye remains a member until 24 December 2026 but will not participate in the call for fellowships funded in 2027.
• Your host is abroad in another participating country. The host institution must be in a different participating country from the applicant’s institution. A scientist already holding a position in a foreign laboratory cannot apply simply to remain in that laboratory.
• Your experience matches the programme’s level. Applicants should have four years of postdoctoral training. The programme is not targeted at PhD students, although the guidelines allow exceptional consideration for a person without a PhD who has equivalent expertise and an extensive publication record.
• Your employment can support the return and follow-through. You should have a contract with your present employer that ensures continued employment after the fellowship. If the contract is shorter than three years, your institution should certify that an ongoing scientific affiliation with the host laboratory will continue after the visit. Your employer must agree to both the application and the proposed fellowship before submission.

A previous CRP fellow may apply again, but only five years after the year of the first fellowship. These rules make it important to confirm your institutional status, host country, career stage, employment agreement, and prior CRP funding before spending time on the form.

Importantly, the visit must be international: you travel from your country of residence to a host institution in another participating country. A CRP fellowship is not for research at home, and it is not simply a travel grant to any destination — it is support to embed with a specific host abroad for a specific project.

What the Fellowship Covers

The award is a travel lump sum with three components. First, it covers travel calculated from a return economy-class air ticket between the fellow’s domicile and the host laboratory. Second, it includes a weekly subsistence allowance currently set at EUR 600 or EUR 650 per week, depending on the cost of living in the host country. This is intended to cover normal living expenses, accommodation, food, and incidental daily travel to and from work. Third, it includes a EUR 165 terminal-charge allowance for transport costs incurred when taking up and leaving duties at the host laboratory.

These are the only costs covered by the fellowship-period travel lump sum. The award does not separately reimburse insurance, medical cover, passports, visas, removals, family travel, bench fees, laboratory fees, or other incidentals. Laboratory costs are normally expected to be covered by the host laboratory; if they are not, the fellow or home organisation must find another source. The fellow is not an OECD official and does not receive tax exemption on the lump sum. The Secretariat confirms the total amount awarded to successful applicants, because the travel component depends on distance and the subsistence component depends on the duration and host-country cost-of-living category.

How to Apply

Applications must be submitted in English through the OECD’s online application form. The form requires ordinary text rather than formatted text, bullets, or tables; if a table is necessary, the guidelines say to upload it through the form or send it separately to the Secretariat. Prepare the following before opening the application:

1. A focused research application. Describe the objectives, methods, expected outcomes, Action Area and policy relevance, and why the work is feasible within the requested six-to-twenty-six-week period.
2. A CV and publication list. Attach your CV and a list of publications written during the last five years. The CV is passed to the Scientific Advisory Body for assessment.
3. A host acceptance letter. The host institution must provide a headed, dated, and signed letter stating that it will accept you if selected. It must include the proposed starting and ending dates, what you bring to the host, what the host brings to you, the work’s objectives and methods, and the equipment provided. The original letter must also be sent to the Secretariat.
4. Employer approval. Secure your present employer’s agreement before submitting. If your contract is shorter than three years, obtain the additional certification about continuing scientific affiliation described in the eligibility section.
5. A complete online submission. Complete every relevant field in English, attach the required documents, and submit before the deadline. The system automatically confirms that the application was submitted and received.

The OECD page also links the guidelines, selection criteria, Action Areas, sample applications, a sample CV, a sample invitation letter, and the PDF application form. Use those official examples to check the level of detail expected, then contact your National Correspondent for general eligibility questions or the CRP Secretariat at TAD.PROG@oecd.org for administrative questions.

Timeline and Deadline

The application deadline is 10 September 2026 at midnight Paris time. The OECD guidelines state that award decisions will be made by mid-December 2026 and that applicants will be informed by the Secretariat by January 2027 at the latest. Research visits are for 2027: for administrative reasons, the OECD advises that they do not start before 1 March 2027. Administrative arrangements for fellows departing in 2027 must be completed before 1 November 2027, although departure may take place up to 15 December 2027 at the latest.

Work backward from the deadline. First, confirm that both your home institution and intended host are in participating countries and obtain employer approval. Then agree a practical project with the host, draft the invitation letter with the required details, and assemble the CV and five-year publication list. Allow time for the original host letter to reach the Secretariat as well as for the online form and attachments to be submitted. Keep a copy of the system’s receipt. If you miss this call, do not assume the next call will have the same Action Areas, membership, or allowance rules; check the OECD page when a later call is published.

How to Build a Competitive Proposal

Reviewers on an international scientific panel are weighing many strong applications, so clarity and fit win. A few principles consistently separate fundable proposals from also-rans:

• Make the international dimension essential, not incidental. The single best justification is that the work can only (or can best) be done at the host: a unique facility, an irreplaceable field site, a dataset, a species population, or a method the host team pioneered. If the same project could be done at home, the case for a mobility fellowship is weak.
• Anchor explicitly to an Action Area and policy priority. Name the relevant Action Area or priority, then show how the project contributes to it. Do not make the panel guess where your work fits in the CRP agenda.
• Be realistic about scope. Six to twenty-six weeks is enough for a focused piece of work, a method transfer, a joint experiment, or a well-defined data campaign — not a full multi-year programme. Propose something you can genuinely deliver in the time.
• Show the collaboration outlasts the visit. Panels value fellowships that seed continuing partnerships, joint publications, shared methods, or reciprocal exchanges. Spell out what happens after you return.
• Demonstrate host commitment. A specific, enthusiastic invitation letter that names dates, facilities, and a named collaborator carries far more weight than a generic willingness to host.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Leaving the host arrangement too late. Without a confirmed, willing host and an invitation, the application is not viable. This is the step most likely to derail a strong scientist, so start it first.
• Ignoring country eligibility changes. Membership shifts between cycles. Confirm your country of residence is a current participant for the 2027 round — this matters especially for Brazil and Ukraine (newly eligible after joining in July 2026) and Türkiye (a member until 24 December 2026 but excluded from the 2027 call).
• Treating it as a generic travel grant. The CRP funds a defined research project abroad within its themes, not conference trips, sabbaticals, or home-country research.
• Vague deliverables. “Explore collaboration opportunities” is not a project. Panels reward specific questions, methods, and outputs.
• Ignoring the allowance limits. Budget around the return economy-class travel calculation, EUR 600 or EUR 650 weekly subsistence, and EUR 165 terminal charges. Do not assume that insurance, visas, family travel, or laboratory fees will be reimbursed.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a PhD? The guidelines say applicants should have four years of postdoctoral training and that the programme is not targeted at PhD students. They allow exceptional consideration for someone without a PhD who has equivalent expertise and has been extensively published.

Can I visit any country I like? No. The host institution must be in another country participating in the CRP, and the applicant must work at an institution in a participating country. The host cannot simply be a foreign laboratory where you already hold a position.

How long can the visit be? Between 6 and 26 weeks. You choose a duration within that window that fits your project.

Does the fellowship pay a salary? No. It provides a travel lump sum: return economy-class travel, EUR 600 or EUR 650 per week for subsistence, and EUR 165 for terminal charges. It does not cover a salary, family costs, insurance, visas, or laboratory fees.

When would I actually travel? Applications submitted by 10 September 2026 are for fellowships undertaken in 2027. The OECD advises that visits should not start before 1 March 2027 for administrative reasons.

What if my country’s status is unclear? Check the current country list and contact your National Correspondent or the OECD CRP Secretariat before applying. Brazil and Ukraine are participating for this call, while Türkiye will not participate in the 2027 funding call.

Official Links and Next Steps

Start with the OECD’s “CRP Applications for Fellowships” page: https://www.oecd.org/en/about/programmes/co-operative-research-programme/crp-applications-for-fellowships.html. It contains the current call, official guidelines, selection criteria, Action Areas, country information, sample documents, and the online application form. The broader programme page is https://www.oecd.org/en/about/programmes/co-operative-research-programme.html.

The immediate checklist is: verify your home institution and host country; confirm that your career stage and employment arrangement satisfy the guidelines; agree a defined project with a host; obtain the required signed acceptance letter; prepare the CV and publication list; map the proposal to an Action Area and policy priority; and submit the complete English-language form before 10 September 2026 at midnight Paris time. Keep the official guidelines with your application records because they contain the funding exclusions, payment process, and recipient obligations that are easy to miss in a short programme listing.