Invest Your Talent in Italy: is it open to Bangladesh?

Check this first

Invest Your Talent in Italy (IYT) is run by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation with the ICE Agency and Uni-Italia. It is a country-restricted programme: each edition's call names the eligible nationalities, and it is open to citizens who are permanently resident in those countries.

Bangladesh is on the list. The programme's own timeline records Bangladesh joining in 2024, and the call for the 11th edition, for the 2026/27 academic year, names it among 23 eligible countries. Each new call restates the list, so when the next one opens - the programme's site says 2027 - confirm that Bangladesh is still on it before you prepare the file.

What the programme actually is

It is a degree plus placement package with a real scholarship attached. This is what the 2026/27 call sets out:

Those are the 2026/27 figures. Every edition's call sets its own, so read the new call before you budget on any number, including these.

Why the internship is the real value

Plenty of schemes pay more. Very few solve the problem IYT solves, which is that an international student in Italy without Italian struggles to get into an Italian company at all. A structured placement, arranged as part of the programme, with language training attached, is worth more over five years than the cash - particularly in engineering and management, where the Italian graduate market runs heavily on internal referral.

That also tells you who the programme is for: someone who wants to work in Italy, not someone who wants a cheap degree and will leave.

Who can apply

Under the 2026/27 call you had to be all of these on the closing date:

• A citizen of an eligible country who is permanently resident there. Bangladesh qualifies.
• Holding a degree that gives access to the chosen master's. A student still finishing is not eligible, but a graduate who is only waiting for the certificate can apply with a signed statement from the university.
• Born on or after 1 January 2000.
• At B2 or above in English, through a listed test such as IELTS, TOEFL iBT, PTE Academic or Cambridge. A certificate from your university that your degree was taught in English may be accepted as proof of C1 level.
• Not already studying at, or a graduate of, an Italian university.
• Already applying for pre-admission to one of the programme's courses, through that university's own procedure.

How the application works

1. 1Choose one course from the programme's list and apply to that university for pre-admission in its own procedure. A course outside the list cannot be substituted.
2. 2Apply to IYT online in its window. For 2026/27 that ran from 20 April to 11 May 2026. The file is your transcript with your CGPA, the English certificate, the Italian certificate or a commitment to a course, a video of up to 59 seconds, a one-page CV and your passport, in English, French or Spanish or officially translated.
3. 3Selection is by a technical committee of the ministry, ICE and Uni-Italia, comparing applications within a quota for each country. Results arrive by email in the summer.
4. 4The visa is still yours to obtain. The award is not a visa, and Universitaly pre-enrolment and the visa application run as usual - the pre-enrolment guide covers that side.
5. 5Renewal for the second year needs 30 credits by 20 July and regular attendance at the Italian course.

What it does not cover, and what it rules out

• Your flight and your accommodation, and health insurance, which you arrange yourself.
• The gap between EUR 10,800 and the real cost of a year in Italy, which the cost calculator will show you honestly.
• Any job after the internship. It is a placement, not an offer.
• Any other Italian public scholarship. The call makes IYT incompatible with other Italian government or public funding, including the regional DSU grants and Erasmus+. You cannot hold both, so if you take IYT, the regional DSU grant is off the table for that year.

The honest summary

Bangladesh is eligible, the package is generous - no tuition, EUR 10,800 for the year and a structured internship - and the fields are narrow. It is also competitive: the 2026/27 edition drew 1,633 applications and awarded 209 scholarships, on quotas for each country. If you want a career in Italy in one of the named fields, apply, and keep a DSU application as the fallback, remembering that you can hold only one of the two.

Watch for the new call, confirm the list, then decide.