Deadline: March 7, 2017
Ghent University wishes to support university research groups or research centres in developing countries in their aim to grow into excellent research centres by upgrading local academic personnel. Therefore Ghent University grants PhD scholarships to promising PhD students from developing countries who wish to carry out half of their PhD research at Ghent University and half in a university in a developing country.
These grants take the form of a so called “sandwich” scholarship: the candidate obtains a scholarship for maximum 24 months to work within a span of 48 months on an alternating basis on the PhD at Ghent University (‘North’) and at the university or research centre in a developing country (‘South’). Only for the periods the scholarship holder works at Ghent University the scholarship holder will receive a monthly income. The rest of the PhD research is done in the partner university, for which no funding is provided through this scholarship. For this part of the PhD research students must prove that they will be financed at their home university (e.g. fulltime PhD scholarship or salary).
Scholarship
- The value of the scholarship at Ghent University depends on, a.o., the researcher’s family situation and is approximately € 1,958 per month;
- The Ghent University promoter also receives a bench fee of €15,440 to cover (part of) the operational costs, as well as the travelling costs of the student and both the Ghent University and the local promoter.
Eligibility
- 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 on the PhD project at the partner university in a selected developing country (South). This implies that there must be a local PhD supervisor at the partner university or research center;
- A written statement is requested from the university authorities stating that the candidate is either a fulltime PhD student or a staff member of this university and will be sufficiently exempted from teaching or other assignments as to be able to fully concentrate on the PhD research in the South;
- This statement should also mention that the candidate receives a local PhD scholarship or salary when working on the PhD at the partner university in the South;
- CSC scholarship holders are not eligible to apply for a Doctoral grants for researchers from developing countries. CSC students are referred to the call Cofunding for Chinese candidates PhD candidates holding a CSC scholarship (deadline October 2017).
Selection Criteria
The Research Council makes a selection of the applications based on part of the recommendations obtained from members of the Council for Development Cooperation. The recommendation is based on:
- the qualifications of the applicant;
- the doctoral project;
- the relevance of the research topic for development;
- 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.
Application Process
- The candidate applies to Ghent University jointly with a promoter of Ghent University and a supervisor at the local institution;
- The promoter at Ghent University has to fill in a separate document (‘promoter’s advice‘) with advice on the candidate, stating the promoter’s opinion on the potential of the candidate as a future researcher.
For more information, see official call or visit Ghent University Doctoral Scholarships 2017.
