EMLex — European Master in Lexicography

Benefits & funding

• About 20 Erasmus Mundus scholarships for the 2026 intake, and 19 for the 2024/25 intake, paid pro rata at €1,400 a month for the whole programme, to a maximum of 24 months.
• The monthly payment covers travel, visa and residence-permit costs, installation and living costs; no monthly payment is made for time spent at your own home consortium university.
• The scholarship also covers the participation costs — tuition, health insurance, library access and administration.
• Around 80% of the scholarships go to applicants from Partner Countries and other non-associated countries, around 20% to Programme Countries.
• Without a scholarship the participation fee is €4,000, reduced to €2,000 where the consortium grants assistance.
• At most 30 study places a year in total, scholarship holders and self-funded students together.
• An internship follows the second semester, at dictionary publishers, research institutes such as the Institut für Deutsche Sprache and ATILF, or language-technology firms; more than 80 partner organisations in 18 countries hosted 130 students between 2010 and 2021.
• 120 ECTS over four semesters, the last of them a 30-ECTS master’s thesis.

Eligibility

• A higher-education degree in (computational or applied) linguistics, (foreign) languages, translation, communication and media, book studies or library and information science, or another discipline the admissions committee accepts.
• A degree still in progress is accepted if it is completed before the programme starts.
• Both English and German are required: sufficient reading competence in both, and very good writing competence in one of them, at least B2.
• Language certificates must be no more than two years old; onSet, Goethe-Institut, ÖSD, TestDaF, Österreich-Institut, IELTS, TOEFL iBT, Cambridge, Trinity and British Council results are accepted.
• Open to applicants of any nationality, with no residency requirement and no age or work-experience bar.
• Anyone who has already held an Erasmus Mundus scholarship cannot receive a second one.
• Your home university cannot be the one hosting the shared second semester — the 2026 intake could not begin in Italy because summer semester 2027 is held in Rome.

Application process

1. 1
   Take the application form from the online form page and prepare every document as a PDF, 10 MB in total at most.
2. 2
   Upload the form, a motivation letter of at most two pages in English or German, the degree certificate, the transcript of records, language certificates, a CV, and a copy of your ID or passport.
3. 3
   Write the motivation letter to the four points asked for: why EMLex, your previous experience with lexicography, the home university you prefer, and a lexicographic project you would design for your own country.
4. 4
   Add certified translations for any document that is not in English or German.
5. 5
   Apply by the scholarship deadline — 2 February for the 2026 intake — or later as a self-funded applicant.
6. 6
   A formal check confirms the file arrived on time and complete, with language proof and a finished degree; only then is it assessed.
7. 7
   Accept an offer within ten days of notification; that deadline is not extended.
8. 8
   An applicant who is not selected may appeal on procedural grounds within seven working days, by email to the EMLex coordinator with the subject “EMLex non-selection appeal [last name]”.

Program timeline

1. Mid-October

   Applications open for the next intake; the 2026 cycle opened on 17 October 2025

2. Erasmus Mundus scholarship deadline for the 2026 intake, the most recent cycle

   Feb 2, 2026

3. March

   Self-funded deadline, later than the scholarship one — 25 March in the 2024/25 cycle

4. Within ten days of notification

   Accept the place

5. September

   Winter semester starts; the 2026/27 cohort was welcomed in Santiago de Compostela on 10 September 2026

6. Summer semester

   The whole cohort studies together at the rotating host — Rome in 2027

7. After 24 months

   Master’s thesis submitted and the joint degree awarded