A Decisive Cycle for EU Digital Recruitment
The EU institutions are running the largest IT and data recruitment in the history of EPSO. Two AD7 administrator competitions are open in parallel — Data Management & Knowledge (EPSO/AD/426/25) and ICT (EPSO/AD/429/26) — and together they target more than 1,020 laureates. To put that in context: the previous combined IT cycle, EPSO/AD/398/22, targeted 350 places across five fields. The 2025–2026 cycle is almost three times larger.
Behind that number is a clear shift in priorities. The EU Commission's AI Office is staffing up to enforce the AI Act. NIS2 transposition has put cybersecurity on every agency's agenda. Eurostat, the JRC, and DG DIGIT have new data infrastructure mandates. And the institutions need professionals fluent both in EU regulation and in modern engineering practice.
This guide walks through the current competitions, what they test, who can apply, and how AST IT differs from AD IT.
EPSO/AD/426/25 — Data Management & Knowledge (AD7)
Published in OJ C/2025/5881 of 11 November 2025, this competition recruits 238 administrators with deep expertise in data governance and engineering. The application deadline was 16 December 2025; the field-related testing day is scheduled for 29 April 2026.
The eligible degree fields are unusually broad — and this matters. Section 3.3 of the Notice accepts diplomas in AI, ML, data science, data engineering and analytics; data, information, and knowledge management; economics, econometrics, finance, accounting, business analytics; engineering with a data or IT specialisation; computer science, ICT, informatics, information systems; law, European studies, international relations, political science, public administration; and mathematics or statistics. The breadth recognises that data work in the institutions is interdisciplinary.
Three eligibility routes:
- A three-year university diploma in one of the listed fields, plus a minimum of six years of relevant professional experience.
- A four-year university diploma in one of the listed fields, plus a minimum of five years of relevant professional experience — or any advanced degree (master's, PhD, or equivalent) in those fields irrespective of the previous studies, plus five years.
- A three-year university diploma in any other field, plus seven years of relevant professional experience.
The Annex II of this Notice is the most explicit syllabus EPSO has published for a Data competition. The eleven duty categories include data architecture and interoperability; data governance and compliance — and here the Notice names specific regulations verbatim: the Data Act, the Open Data Directive, the Data Governance Act, the AI Act, and the GDPR. Then come data engineering and integration; data warehousing and big-data platforms; business intelligence; master and reference data management; metadata and taxonomy work; data quality management; data security and privacy; and advanced analytics including AI data preparation.
EPSO/AD/429/26 — ICT (AD7), Four Fields
Published in OJ C/2026/2425 of 6 May 2026, this competition is broader and larger: 782 places across four fields.
| Field | Reserve list places |
|---|---|
| Field 1 — ICT Infrastructure | 204 |
| Field 2 — ICT Project Management | 228 |
| Field 3 — Clouds and Networks | 166 |
| Field 4 — Data Science | 184 |
Application deadline 10 June 2026; testing scheduled for autumn 2026.
Eligibility follows the same logic as 426/25 but with four routes — including a path for non-specified diplomas with nine years of experience (eight for Field 4 Data Science). The Annex II domains are field-specific. Field 1 covers operating systems, databases, storage, networking, cybersecurity, DevSecOps, HPC, and quantum technologies. Field 4 covers data engineering, statistical modelling, knowledge graphs, MLOps, and analytics — overlap with EPSO/AD/426/25 is real but the focus is engineering rather than governance.
The Test Structure: FRMCQ as Sole Ranking Driver
Both competitions use the new EPSO post-reform format, identical in structure:
| Test | Language | Questions | Time | Pass mark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Verbal reasoning | L1 | 20 | 35 min | 10/20 |
| Numerical reasoning | L1 | 10 | 20 min | combined 10/20 with AR |
| Abstract reasoning | L1 | 10 | 10 min | combined |
| Field-related MCQ | L2 | 30 | 40 min | 15/30 |
| EUFTE essay | L2 | 1 | 40 min | 5/10 |
What matters here is the scoring logic. Reasoning is a pass-or-fail gate that does not contribute to ranking. The FRMCQ is both a pass gate (15/30) and the sole ranking variable: only the top ~1.5× the reserve list size are invited to score the EUFTE. The EUFTE itself is also pass-or-fail (5/10). In effect, your FRMCQ score determines your place in the queue; everything else is a filter.
The 2024 EPSO Annual Activity Report confirms what this means in practice: the last assessment centre under the old model was held from 21 February to 13 May 2024 (for EPSO/AD/401/22 Green Deal). Since then, no specialist AD competition has used an oral assessment centre. All testing is remotely proctored, on a single day, in a single online session.
How the New Cycle Differs from EPSO/AD/398/22
For candidates who prepared for the 2022 ICT competition, the differences matter:
- Language regime. EPSO/AD/398/22 restricted Language 2 to English or French. EPSO/AD/426/25 and EPSO/AD/429/26 allow any of the 24 official EU languages for both Language 1 and Language 2.
- Selection model. EPSO/AD/398/22 used a Talent Screener (paper screening) plus a full assessment centre with general competencies (40/80 pass) and a field-related interview (60/100 pass). The combined score out of 180 determined the final ranking. The new model has no Talent Screener, no AC, no interview — the FRMCQ does all of the ranking work.
- Reasoning gates. EPSO/AD/398/22 used a combined VR+NR+AR pass mark of 20/40 with no per-test pass. The new model splits VR (own gate at 10/20) from NR+AR (combined 10/20). For dedicated preparation on each reasoning type, see our guides on verbal reasoning, numerical reasoning, and abstract reasoning.
The shift is fundamental. Candidates who relied on assessment-centre skills in 2022 — structured interviews, group dynamics, narrative case studies — need to switch their preparation almost entirely to multiple-choice mastery of EU digital regulation.
Candidate Numbers — What We Know
EPSO/AD/398/22 provides the cleanest historical funnel data. In Field 1 (ICT Infrastructure AD7): 404 applications, 284 eligible, 215 past Talent Screener, 195 sat the tests, 146 passed reasoning, and 75 made the reserve list. Field 3 (IT/Data Governance AD7) attracted 769 applications and produced a 76-person reserve list. Field 5 (ICT Security AD8) had 375 applications for 82 places.
The pattern: about a 5–10% headline ratio of applicants to laureates, with the bulk of attrition between the reasoning gate and the assessment centre. Under the new model with no AC, that attrition will concentrate at the FRMCQ stage.
For the 2014 AST IT competition, EPSO/AST/133/14 attracted 3,885 applications for 151 places across five fields — Information Systems alone drew 1,651 candidates. The AST IT pool is large.
The EPSO AAR 2024 also reports that 99% of the 38,851 computer-based tests administered in 2024 were conducted remotely, and that 1,200 FRMCQ items were created or translated across specialist competitions in that year — roughly 100 per field.
AST IT — A 12-Year Gap About to Close
The last AST IT competition was EPSO/AST/133/14 in 2014. For more than a decade, the EU's IT support and operations roles at assistant level have been filled through internal mobility, contract agents under CAST Permanent, and ad-hoc temporary staff calls.
EPSO's indicative 2026 planning lists three new AST IT competitions: Data Management Experts (AST) and ICT Experts (AST) in three fields — IT Infrastructure/Cloud/Networks, Software Development, and User Support. Notices have not been published yet. When they are, the test structure should follow the current AST3 pattern (VR/NR/AR + FRMCQ + EUFTE), but the syllabus will be field-specific.
AD vs AST: What the Two Tracks Actually Recruit
| Dimension | AST 3 | AD 5 | AD 7 | AD 8 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Last NoC | 2014, returning 2026 | n/a (no AD5 IT specialist) | 2016, 2022, 2025/26 | Bundled with AD7 (rare) |
| Function | Operational IT (helpdesk, sysadmin, network ops, web development) | n/a | Architecture, governance, project management, security design, advanced engineering | Senior cybersecurity and AI experts, deep specialist roles |
| Education | Post-secondary 1–3 years, or secondary with experience | 3-year university | 3–5 years university + ≥5 years experience | ≥9 years experience |
The AST track is operational. The AD track is strategic, architectural, and policy-facing. They are not interchangeable, and the eligibility paths are quite different.
How to Prepare
The most useful thing a candidate can do — across both 426/25 and 429/26 — is to read the Annex II of each Notice carefully and then read the actual regulatory texts it cites. For broader context on how field-related MCQs work across all specialist competitions, see our EPSO specialist competitions FRMCQ guide. For the testing platform candidates will use, the EPSO TAO platform guide 2026 walks through what to expect on test day. For the Data Management competition this means working through the Data Act (Regulation (EU) 2023/2854), the Data Governance Act (Regulation (EU) 2022/868), the Open Data Directive (Directive (EU) 2019/1024), the AI Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689), and the GDPR (Regulation (EU) 2016/679). The FRMCQ tests precise knowledge of what these regulations say — not general familiarity.
For ICT 429/26, the field-specific Annex II points to areas where you should be operationally fluent: in Field 1, OS administration, container orchestration, DevSecOps practice, HPC; in Field 3, cloud security and compliance frameworks; in Field 4, MLOps tooling and data engineering pipelines. The EU's preference is for candidates who can pair this technical depth with EU institutional context.
References and Sources
All figures and quotations in this article come from official EU sources:
- EPSO/AD/426/25 — OJ C/2025/5881
- EPSO/AD/429/26 — OJ C/2026/2425
- EPSO/AD/413/24 — OJ C/2024/6485
- EPSO/AD/398/22 — OJ C 76A, 17.2.2022
- EPSO/AD/331/16 — OJ C 447A, 1.12.2016
- EPSO Annual Activity Report 2024 (PDF)
- Apply page — ICT AD7
- Apply page — Data Management & Knowledge
- EPSO upcoming selection procedures
Where this article infers content beyond the literal text of a Notice — for instance, the broader EU digital regulatory framework — the inference is explicitly flagged as preparation territory, not Annex II text.
