SPECIAL RESEARCH FUND

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Applying for a PhD scholarship & PhD admission at Ghent university

Prior to their scholarship application all applicants need the explicit commitment of a Ghent University professor who will act as their personal PhD supervisor.

If you need to approach a Ghent university professor please browse the list of faculties and research topics available on our research directory.

All international PhD candidates need to complete an admission procedure during which the academic aspects (equivalence of your degree, research proposal, and language skills) will be evaluated.

This admission for a doctoral study does not guarantee any funding so it can be started after the result of the scholarship application is known.

Duration and start date of the scholarship:

The earliest starting date of the scholarship at Ghent University is 1 October 2020;
The candidate obtains a scholarship for 24 months to study at Ghent university (Nord);

24 months of the PhD research/study must be cofinanced at the partner university in the South;
Students are obliged to divide the Ghent University scholarship into minimum 2 different research stays in Ghent (North) and need to return at least once to their home university (South) in between (= ‘sandwich- schedule’);

The following mobility scheme is mandatory:
Students need to start and end with a research stay of minimum 3 up to maximum 12 months in Ghent.

The first research stay in Ghent needs to start between 1 October 2020 and 28 February 2021.
At least 24 months of locally funded research stay in the South must be scheduled in between the first and last research stay in Ghent.

The average duration of PhD studies in Belgium (Ghent University) is 4 years.
Who can apply for this scholarship

The proposals must be jointly submitted by a candidate, a promoter (supervisor) at Ghent University and a supervisor at the partner university.

No restrictions are imposed on the field of research, nevertheless preference will be given to topics that are relevant for development

Development relevance relates to the extent to which the proposals’ objectives are consistent with beneficiaries’ requirements, country needs, synergy opportunities, global priorities and partners’ and donors’ policies.

Candidates need to come from – and have the nationality of – a developing country (see country list);

There must be a guarantee that the candidate will be able to work fulltime on the PhD project for a period of 24 months at the partner university in a selected developing country (South).

This implies that the following conditions needs to be fulfilled:

there must be a local PhD supervisor at the partner university or research center in the South;
A written statement is requested stating that the candidate will be/is either a funded fulltime PhD student or a staff member at this partner university

Special Research Fund

and will be sufficiently exempted from teaching or other assignments as to be able to fully concentrate on the PhD research in the South.

Applicants can dedicate maximum 10 % of their time (fulltime appointment) to other tasks (teaching and other tasks)

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This statement should also mention that the candidate receives a local PhD scholarship or salary for a period of 24 months when working on the PhD at the partner university in the South.
This cofunding is only open for students who intend to obtain a (joint ) PhD degree at Ghent University

How to apply for this scholarship

Applications must be submitted on the application forms provided for this purpose.
The Research Council makes a selection of the applications based in part on the recommendations obtained from members of the Council for Development Cooperation.

Selection criteria:

Please note that this call is highly competitive. The success rate for this call is 19% (based on the results of the previous calls 2017-2019). The first selection criterion in this call are the study results of the candidate (both Bachelor and Master Level).

the qualifications of the applicant;
the doctoral project;

the relevance of the research topic for development & capacity building
the scientific/scholarly potential of the promoter’s research group(s); the partnership between Ghent University and the local institute; the scientific/scholarly potential of the local institute.

Scholarship funding

PhD scholarship at Ghent University (24 months).
24 months of PhD research will be executed at the partner university in the South, for which no funding is provided through this scholarship.

This part of the research (24 months) must be funded (e.g. local PhD scholarship or salary) at the partner institution in the South.

Special Research Fund

The Ghent University promoter receives a bench fee of €310/per month of research in Ghent + €8000 travel budget to cover (part of) the operational costs, as well as part of the travelling costs of the student and both the Ghent University and the local promoter.

Results scholarship selection