Fellowships vs. potential PhD

A

Hello everyone! First time poster here. I'm mostly looking for advice on European fellowships related to the public policy field, but also open to hearing ideas about whether to start looking into PhDs as well.

I'm currently 30 years old, and I have a BA in Political Science (2009) and a Master's in Public Administration (2015), each from different highly-ranked U.S. universities. This month, I applied to the Young Policy Leaders fellowship offered by the European University Institute in Florence, and this has inspired me to find more programmes in this vein (6 months-1 year) in case this particular application doesn't pan out.

At the same time, I love researching and writing, and I have either participated in publications as a researcher or published articles myself, so I am confident the same research topic I would propose for fellowships could be further explored and expanded in a doctoral setting. I am from Costa Rica but possess Swiss nationality through family, which is why any information on interesting fellowships or PhDs in Europe for a Political Science/Public Policy background is more than welcome.

P.S. Following my Master's, I have worked as a freelance consultant for the last two years (including a stint as a TA at a local university), but frustrated with the lack of solid job prospects in Costa Rica for someone with my background. Even though I am simultaneously searching for administrative work in the general project management variety, I'm not having much luck, and since I loved my time both in undergrad and graduate school, I am seriously considering more time in academia, hopefully this time in Europe where I could probably have an easier time working afterwards.

Thanks!

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