2. Application criteria (doctoral scholarship)
Applicants are advised to include at least the following documents:
- Letter of motivation
- CV
- Two to three letters of reference
- Transcripts and diplomas
- Research plan (two to three A4 pages)
- Academic competence of the candidate: Academic profile, the research capacity and motivation
- Quality of the research proposal: Originality, methodological soundness and time-frame of the project
- Academic context: Quality and context of supervision and the potential for future academic cooperation
- Language proficiency of the candidate
- Age limit: max. 35 years
It is not recommended to support more than two applicants per year.
You need to clarify with the Doctoral Administration whether the potential candidate can be admitted to undertake a doctorate at ETH, and if yes, what the prospective admissions requirements might be.
The professorship must ensure compliance with applicable protected page export control law.
- Registration for the doctorate – including employment – takes about two months.
- Therefore, the Master's degree must be fully completed by 30 June and the final Master's transcripts / Master's degree must be available for registration for the doctorate. They must be online verifiable.
- Transcripts / degrees that cannot be verified online must be sent directly to the Doctoral Administration Office by 30 June each year by the Certificate Office / Registrar's Office of the respective home university.
Applicants can underestimate how long it takes for documents to be issued. In the past, documents not submitted on time have prevented project starts. Even though this is the responsibility of the applicants, we ask you to take these deadlines into account in your assessment (i.e. how realistic is it that the documents will be available on time).
The terms and conditions of the scholarships – set by the FCS – may limit the grantee's research activities, which you should take into account when making your decision.
- The scholarship must be completed in Switzerland. Any trip abroad or absence from the place of study lasting longer than two weeks must be reported to and approved by the Student Exchange Office. Mixed research (part time in Switzerland and part time in another country) is not allowed.
- Field research must be approved by the Student Exchange Office and FCS delegate four weeks before its start. There is no co-funding by FCS neither for fieldwork nor for attending conferences. During the entire PhD scholarship (36 months) the maximal duration of the PhD field work abroad cannot not exceed a total of 6 months.
- All additional income (internship, employment, scholarship) must be reported to the Student Exchange Office and approved by the FCS in advance.
- Internships abroad or as part of Swiss mobility (exchange semester) are not accepted.
- Change of study programme must be reported to the Student Exchange Office and approved by the FCS.
- Additional or part-time studies must be reported to the Student Exchange Office and approved by the FCS.
- When accepting the scholarship, grantees agree in writing to return to their home country after completing their studies. Further employment after the end of their studies contradicts the intention of the scholarship (i.e. avoiding brain drain).
Applicants who have been living in Switzerland for more than one year at the time of the planned start of the scholarship will not be considered.