PhD Scholarships

2018 Call for proposals

The University of Louvain (UCL) holds a competition for awarding PhD scholarships to citizens of developing countries. By doing so, UCL hopes to contribute not only to reinforcing the capacity building in Cooperation for development,

1. Eligibility criteria

To be eligible, the candidate must satisfy ALL of the following criteria:

be from a developing country ;
have the support of at least one UCL faculty member;
be admitted by the PhD Committee (CDD) to pursue a PhD at UCL or to the Research Certificate Program (PhD in home country institution) in the candidate’s research field;
be free from any commitment to return to a country that has funded training;
for students who have already started their doctorate and are enrolled at UCL, not be a scholarship beneficiary.

Developing country citizens who, through their administrative status within the EU, hold Belgian student status based on a residence permit and/or social rights are not eligible.

2. Selection criteria

UCL’s International Action Committee (CAI) selects PhD scholarship beneficiaries on the basis of the following criteria:

the candidate’s academic credentials (CV, supervisor cover letter, etc.)
the research project’s scientific attributes (research originality relating to the current state of knowledge in the field of research, feasibility of the research schedule, relevance with the current researches in the host entity);
the prospects of strengthening capacity building in higher-education context for the applicant's home country
the institutional impact (added value for the UCL host entity in terms of the potential for the current and future collaborations with the higher education and the research institutions of the home country)

3. Scholarship terms

Recipients receive a UCL PhD scholarship that includes support for no more than 36 months and, if necessary, one or more round-trip airline tickets between the international airport nearest to the recipient’s home country residence and Brussels Airport.

4. Application procedure

The UCL supervisor submits the candidate’s dossier using the application form by noon (Belgium time) on 30 March 2018 in a single PDF file to Mr. Christian Duqué (christian.duque@uclouvain.be).

If needed, and regardless of the process of putting together the application, the applicant and his/her supervisor must complete the application procedure to both the subject-specific doctoral committee responsible for the chosen field of research (for UCL PhD Degree) or to the research certificate (Home institution PhD Degree).