We list 6 fully Funded Natural Sciences Scholarships for Nigerian Students, with the deadline, study level and eligibility of each one taken from the award's own terms. Most are held in Belgium (1), Canada (1) and Germany (1). 4 state eligibility that includes Nigerian applicants. Awards with a known closing date are listed soonest first.
These awards do not restrict the field of study, so natural sciences applicants can apply too.
Written from the 6 awards on this page — every figure below is counted from what the awards themselves state. 6 min read.
This page collects 6 fully funded natural sciences scholarships open to Nigerian students who want to study abroad. Every award here is labelled fully funded by the provider, and every award sits in the natural sciences. That means the physical and life sciences: physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, earth sciences and the subjects that sit alongside them.
The list is small, and that is deliberate. Six awards, spread across six countries, each one carrying full funding rather than a partial tuition discount. If you are paying for transcripts, courier fees and English tests out of your own pocket, a short list of awards that actually cover the cost of study is more useful than a long list of ones that do not.
The six awards come from six different providers: The Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, a Canadian institution with a quota to host Vanier scholars, the International Max Planck Research School, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Berea College, and Muhammad Bin Zaid University.
The awards are spread one per country, so there is no single destination dominating the list:
Six countries, six awards, one each. That matters when you are planning: you are not choosing between five routes into the same country, you are choosing between six different systems, each with its own application portal, its own document requirements and its own academic calendar.
The list splits almost evenly between postgraduate and undergraduate study. There are 3 Masters awards and 3 PhD awards, plus 1 Bachelors award and 1 Fellowship. Those groups overlap, because a single award can be open at more than one level — the Muhammad Bin Zaid University award, for instance, is listed for both Masters and Doctoral study.
So if you hold a B.Sc or HND and are looking for a master's, three awards on this page are pitched at your level. If you already hold a master's and are chasing a doctorate, three awards are pitched at that level. If you are coming straight from secondary school with your WAEC or NECO result, one award on this page takes undergraduate applicants.
All six are labelled fully funded. Beyond that label, the awards name specific benefits in their own text, and it is worth reading those carefully rather than assuming.
These are the benefits the awards state in writing. Where an award does not name a benefit, this page does not claim it. Treat the provider's own text as the authority on what is paid, what is reimbursed and what you must cover yourself — particularly flights, visa fees and the day-to-day cost of living, which vary enormously between Belgium, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, the UAE and the United States.
This is the question that decides whether the rest of the page is worth your time. Of the six awards, 4 are open to Nigerian applicants. Within that group, none names Nigeria or the African region specifically — all 4 carry no nationality restriction at all. The remaining 2 do not state their eligibility on the award itself.
Read that carefully. An award that names no nationality restriction is not the same as an award that names Nigeria. It means the provider has not written a nationality bar into the award text, so a Nigerian passport is not automatically a disqualifier. It does not mean the competition is easy, and it does not mean every department at that institution will take your application.
For the 2 awards where eligibility is not stated on the award, you will need to check the provider's own page before you spend money on transcripts or a courier. That check costs you nothing but time, and it should happen before anything else.
The requirements below are what the awards state. They are not a checklist you can assume your way around.
Four awards asking for IELTS or TOEFL is the single most expensive line item for most Nigerian applicants. Book early, because test slots in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt fill up, and because a re-sit costs the same as the first attempt. If you are applying to a programme taught in English and you studied your previous degree in English, some providers waive the test — but only some, and only where their own rules say so. Check the individual award before you pay for a test you may not need.
Four awards want letters of recommendation. Approach your referees at least a month before the deadline. A professor who has to write four letters in the same week will write worse ones than a professor who has three weeks.
Two awards want a research proposal. That is a writing job measured in weeks, not days, and it is the part of the application most applicants underestimate.
One award states a minimum degree class. If you are applying with a Second Class Lower or an HND, read that requirement first — it is the one place on this page where your transcript alone can end the application.
Deadline information on this page is uneven, and you should plan around that rather than assume a clean calendar.
1 award carries a fixed date. 1 is still open. 5 are undated in the listing, and 1 recurs annually. February is the busiest month on the list, with 1 deadline falling in it.
The award closing soonest is the KU Leuven Scholarship 2026 (Fully Funded) in Belgium, which closes on 15 February. That is the one to look at first if you are ready to apply now.
The others run on different rhythms. The Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship (Vanier CGS) 2027 closes before November 2026, with the 2026–2027 competition anticipated. The International Max Planck Research School PhD Scholarship 2026-2027 in Germany accepts applications at any time, which sounds relaxed but usually means places fill as strong candidates arrive. The EPFL Excellence Fellowships 2027 in Switzerland run on two annual dates, 31 March and 15 December. Berea College Scholarships 2027 in the United States carry three dates across the cycle. The Muhammad Bin Zaid University Scholarships 2026-2027 in the UAE list a regular deadline of 15 January 2027 alongside a later date.
Where a deadline is undated on this page, go to the provider's own page. Do not assume a date has passed, and do not assume it has not.
The awards state their durations individually, and they differ. One runs for 3 years. One runs for 4 years. One covers a 1.5-year master's programme or a 2-year master's programme, according to the programme you enter. One runs for 4 years or longer depending on the major.
Duration matters more than it looks. A 3-year PhD award and a 4-year PhD award are different propositions if your research needs fieldwork, lab time or a write-up year. Check the duration against your actual programme length before you accept anything.
Start with eligibility, because it is free and it is decisive. Of the six awards, 4 place no nationality restriction on applicants. For the other 2, eligibility is not stated on the award, so confirm it with the provider before you spend a naira on documents.
Then work backwards from the deadline. The KU Leuven award closes on 15 February, so if that is your target, your English test, your referees and your transcripts all need to be in motion now. Transcripts from Nigerian universities take time, and courier fees to Europe are not small — budget for both, and request more copies than you think you need.
If your target award is undated or recurring, treat the provider's page as the source of truth and build your own timeline around it. Six awards is a short list. Read each one properly rather than applying broadly and hoping.
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