We list 8 fully Funded Postdoctoral Scholarships Open to Nigerian Students, with the deadline, study level and eligibility of each one taken from the award's own terms. Most are held in the United States (3), Australia (2) and Germany (1). Awards with a known closing date are listed soonest first.
Written from the 8 awards on this page — every figure below is counted from what the awards themselves state. 6 min read.
This page collects 8 fully funded postdoctoral scholarships that are open to Nigerian students. Every award here is labelled fully funded by the body offering it, and every one of the eight is a postdoctoral opportunity in the sense used on this site: a position, research fellowship or visiting programme for a researcher who has already completed a doctorate.
None of the eight names Nigeria, or West Africa, or Africa, as a condition of eligibility. Instead, all eight carry no nationality restriction at all. That is the practical reason this collection exists. For a Nigerian researcher holding a Ph.D, the barrier is rarely a clause that excludes you by passport. It is the paperwork, the referee letters and the timing.
The eight awards sit in five countries.
The spread matters for a simple reason: referees, transcripts and courier costs behave differently depending on where the file is going. A United States application often wants letters uploaded directly by your referees. Australian and European programmes frequently accept scanned documents at the first stage and ask for certified hard copies only if you are shortlisted. Knowing which of the two you are dealing with saves money you would otherwise spend sending originals to every address on the list.
These are the benefits named in the awards' own text. They are not a promise that every award covers every item.
Read that list carefully before you assume a postdoctoral award is a salary. Travel appearing most often tells you something: several of these are built around moving a researcher to a host institution for a fixed period, and the funding is structured around that move. Living costs and health insurance appear in three each, which is the combination that most closely resembles a proper postdoctoral package. Accommodation is named by two. Research or training costs by one.
Where an award does not name a benefit in its own text, this page does not claim it. Check the individual award page for the full terms.
Durations are stated on some of these awards and not on others. Among those that state a figure, the periods named are 2 years, 3 years and 5 months. One award states that student fellowship recipients are eligible to apply.
Two and three years are the standard shape of a postdoctoral fellowship. A five-month award is a different animal: it is usually a visiting or short research stay, useful for finishing a paper or building a collaboration, but not a replacement for a longer post. Decide which of the two you actually need before you spend a referee's goodwill on an application.
Across the eight awards, the stated requirements fall as follows.
The recommendation letters are the item to plan around. Five of eight is the majority, and postdoctoral referees are not final-year lecturers who see you weekly. Your Ph.D supervisor, your co-authors and your head of department may be scattered across institutions, and one of them may be on sabbatical when the portal opens. Ask early, give each referee the award title, the deadline and a one-page summary of the project, and confirm that they can upload before the closing date rather than on it.
Only one award states an English test requirement. That is worth noting for a Nigerian applicant, because many Nigerian researchers already hold a degree taught in English and would rather not pay for IELTS or TOEFL again. But do not generalise: the remaining awards simply do not state a position on this page, so confirm with each one directly.
The single award that asks for a commitment to return home afterwards is the one to read most carefully. If your plan is to remain abroad, that award is not for you. If your plan is to return to a Nigerian institution with a stronger research record, it may suit you better than the others.
Three of the eight awards carry a stated date. Three are still open at the time of writing. Five are undated on this page, and three recur annually.
The busiest months among the dated awards are September, November and May, one award each. The three closing soonest are:
The undated five are not closed. They are awards whose pages do not carry a fixed closing date here, and several of them run on a recurring cycle. Treat them as open until you have checked the award page itself.
The eight come from six providers. Harvard University, the Swiss Government and Swiss universities, the ACI Foundation, the National Endowment for Democracy, the Forrest Research Foundation with Australian universities, and ICFO, the Institute of Photonic Sciences.
Some of these are open across several study levels. That is useful if you supervise students as well as conduct your own research, but read the level line on each award page before you apply, because a programme listed as postdoctoral may still route you through a different application stream than its PhD track.
Two fields are named on this page: Law, and Social Sciences, one award each. The rest of the eight do not carry a field label here, which does not mean they are open to every discipline. It means the field is not stated on this page, so check the award itself.
If you are in Law or the Social Sciences, the Reagan Fascell Democracy Fellowship and the awards in that grouping are the natural starting point. If you are in the sciences, the ICFO fellowship, the Forrest Research Foundation fellowships and the Harvard awards are worth opening first.
Start with the three dated awards, because they have a fixed clock. The ACI Foundation closes 1 November, the Forrest Research Foundation closes 31 May, and Harvard closes 20 September. If a deadline is weeks away, you can realistically complete one strong application. If it is months away, you can prepare two.
Then work backwards from the deadline. Request your letters of recommendation first, since five of the eight awards ask for them and referees need the most lead time. Prepare your research proposal next, for the two awards that require one. Order any certified transcripts and confirm your English test position only after you have read the individual award page, because only one award here states a test requirement and you should not pay for a test you do not need.
Finally, be honest about the return commitment. One award asks for it. If you intend to build your career back in Nigeria, say so plainly in your proposal; it is a stated requirement, not a weakness.
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