The Juan de la Cierva grants are an annual competitive program run by the Spanish State Research Agency, AEI. They support recently qualified PhD holders joining Spanish R&D centres for three years of postdoctoral research and training.
Up to 500 awards were available in the 2025 call, including reserved places for the disability and JDC-INIA-CCAA access routes. The 2025 cycle is closed, and AEI’s official calendar schedules the 2026 call to open on 12 November 2026.
Benefits & funding
- A three-year employment contract at a Spanish R&D centre.
- AEI provides €35,000 per year to co-finance salary and the employer’s Social Security contribution; the contracted researcher must receive at least €30,600 gross per year.
- A further €15,000 covers expenses directly related to the research, preferably national or international mobility activities.
Eligibility
- Applicants must hold a PhD. For the general and JDC-INIA-CCAA routes, the first doctorate must have been obtained from 1 January 2024 through 31 December 2025.
- For the route reserved for people with a disability of at least 33%, the doctorate window was 1 January 2023 through 31 December 2025. Documented career interruptions described in the call can extend the lower date limit.
- Except for the disability route, the applicant must seek to join an R&D centre different from the centre where their predoctoral training was mainly completed. Certain moves between institutes of the same public research organisation or from a joint centre require a reasoned mobility report.
- Anyone who participated in the 2024 Juan de la Cierva call must have received at least 50 points in that cycle.
- The call states no nationality, residence, age or gender restriction. Applications are submitted through a host Spanish R&D centre and include the participating researcher.
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Education required
PhD
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Application process
- 1Arrange a host team, tutor and eligible Spanish R&D centre for the proposed postdoctoral work.
- 2Complete the participant form in AEI’s online system and upload the required evidence and PDF documents, including the participant’s CVA, the tutor’s CVA and the research team’s scientific-technical record.
- 3Sign the generated participant form electronically or by hand and make it available to the host centre; electronic signature by the participant is optional.
- 4The host centre’s legal representative signs and submits the complete application electronically. In 2025, participant forms closed on 10 December and centres submitted by 17 December.
Program timeline
31 October 2025
2025 call published
Participant and centre application systems opened
25 November 2025
Participant form deadline at 14:00 Spanish peninsular time
10 December 2025
Host-centre submission deadline at 14:00 Spanish peninsular time
17 December 2025
Provisional selection proposal published
12 June 2026
12 November 2026
Scheduled opening of the 2026 call