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Admission criteria

The consortium aims to admit highly qualified doctoral candidates from a wide range of countries including Europe, America, Africa and Asia.

The application files should be sent to the Coordinating Institution and will be examined by the International Committee of the JDP, according to the following admission criteria, which will therefore be common to all institutions of the consortium:

  • doctoral candidates coming from the Erasmus Mundus Master on TCCM will be eligible for the JDP in any of the Institutions of the Consortium, without further requirements.
  • for the doctoral candidates who had not followed the Master studies in TCCM, only those who have taken a minimum of 60 ECTS credits in a Master or equivalent in Chemistry, Physics, Material Science, Biochemistry, Biological Chemistry, or any other that the IC considers provided the doctoral candidate a background adequate to follow the JDP, would be considered as candidates to enter the JDP.

Those selected candidates not coming from the TCCM Master and judged to need further training in theoretical chemistry and computational modelling, should take, besides the Core Course (vide supra), complementary courses, following the advice of his/her supervisor, aiming at his/her upgrading in areas of the TCCM in which the background of the student is not sufficient. The modules that the student should take will be decided by his/her supervisor and co-supervisor, and they could be some of the courses which are delivered in the European Master in TCCM.

To guarantee the necessary equity in the selection of the candidates, this will be carried by the International Committee of the JDP, in which there is a representative of each partner (full and associated partners) of the Consortium and will be based exclusively on excellence criteria:

  1. The adequacy of the Master studies to the objectives of the JDP. Masters in Chemistry, Physics, Material Science or Biochemistry whose contents provide a sufficient background in quantum chemistry, programming and modelling will be preferred to those that provide a more general background. The IC would also consider as an added value the fact that the Master is an EM Master or has the Eurolabel from the ECTNA.
  2. The background of the candidate in specific areas of relevance in this scientific field, namely in mathematics, programming or software development would also be positively considered.
  3. The marks obtained by the candidate in his/her Master studies, and in particular in his/her Master Thesis. The publications derived from the Master Thesis (if any) will be a significant added value.
  4. The IC will also take into account the prestige, in the International context, of the University in which the doctoral candidate obtained his/her Master degree.
  5. The motivation of the doctoral candidate expressed in the letter that he/she wrote, in which the candidate should describe the topics of research he/she likes the most and why.
  6. All the extra activities (intensive courses, summer or winter schools) taken by the candidate outside his/her official Master studies. Those that contributed to improve the doctoral candidate’s background in theoretical chemistry will be considered as an added value.
  7. The candidate should provide, together with the application, the names of 2 persons who may be contacted for references.
  8. Candidates having an excellent ranking in the1-7 excellence criteria will be called for a personal interview.
  9. The same criteria will be applied to European doctoral candidates or to doctoral candidates coming from third-countries.

This first selection done by the IC will be based on the documents provided by the candidate. However, after establishing a first ranking of the candidates, those with a better score, will be interviewed, in order to confirm his/her eligibility for the JDP. These interviews can be carried out telematically, using videoconferences procedures.

The EM Consortium follows European recommendations in relation with the need to encourage the participation of women and individuals from minority groups along all stages of Science and Technology career paths. Most universities belonging to the consortium have signed the European Charter and Code, but whether the code has been signed or not, the Consortium follows the principles contained in the “Human Resources Strategy for Researchers Incorporating the Charter & Code” that the European Commission has issued to provide guidelines for contractors of research personnel.

 
[ Last updated 31.05.2012 ]