A backpacker walks alone along a path between terraced rice fields in Vietnam

Opportunities 29 October 2026

Live or study in Oeiras and fancy a gap year? There are 4 grants worth up to €5,000

The sixth Emunicipa-te round, run by the Gap Year Portugal association with Oeiras council, pays €3,000 for a solo trip and €5,000 for a pair, for six-month to one-year gap years starting between January and August 2027. Ages 18 to 35, with a tax address or a school year in Oeiras. Applications close on 8 November.

Deadline: 8 November 2026

Apply / Learn more

Six months on an organic farm in New Zealand, volunteering in Japan, a year learning a language on another continent. The Gap Year Portugal association has four Emunicipa-te grants for exactly that sort of break, and in this sixth round the partner council is Oeiras.

It pays €3,000 if you go alone and €5,000 if you go as a pair, with a best friend, a sibling or a partner. Groups of three cannot apply.

Who can apply

You need to be between 18 and 35 and have one of two links to Oeiras. Either a tax address in the municipality (living there without it registered does not count) or at least one full school year at a school or university in Oeiras during the two years before you apply.

Seventeen-year-olds in their final year of secondary school can apply too, as long as they finish before leaving and turn 18 by departure day, at the latest 31 August 2027. Anyone who has already had a grant from the association is out.

What counts

The trip has to start between January and August 2027 and last between six months and a year. You can ask for more than €5,000 if you explain how you will cover the gap, with summer work or family help, for instance.

Timeline

applications close on Sunday, 8 November;
ten finalists picked by 17 November;
interviews and project pitches between 23 and 25 November;
winners contacted by 30 November.

Before you fill in the form, the association offers an application manual, an e-book of tips and a five-module online course, and will post two information sessions on its site. And if you had Australia in mind, bear in mind that Work and Holiday visas for Portuguese citizens were paused in August, which makes a grant like this handy for planning somewhere else.

By Miguel Sarmento

Illustrative · Photo: HONG SON / Pexels

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