ELLIS PhD & Postdoc program - Frequently Asked Questions

No. The ELLIS PhD and Postdoc Program welcomes applications from all qualified candidates regardless of nationality.

The home institution will be the one delivering the degree.

ELLIS is a non-profit organisation that cannot award official degrees and the ELLIS PhD Program is a meta program on top of existing graduate programs. The student will enrol as a student or be employed at a degree-granting institution (typically the university the main supervisor is affiliated to) and must comply with all the regulations and fulfil all the requirements of the home institution in order to receive their degree. 

If the requirements of the ELLIS PhD program are met as listed in the letter of intent, an ELLIS certificate* will be provided to confirm that the student conducted the thesis within the ELLIS network.

*As mentioned above, please note that this certificate is not an official degree in any capacity. 

Yes. The ELLIS PhD Program is a meta program on top of existing graduate programs and, as such, is not part of an actual institution; it does not provide funding (except for smaller travel grants) nor does it award degrees. ELLIS offers an EU-wide central application portal and coordinates the matching process, but the official hiring process is local, governed by the institution of your main advisor; this means that all the official paperwork goes through the institution of the main advisor and the candidate has to comply with all the institution's rules.

When students first apply through the ELLIS portal to get matched to potential advisors and receive an offer, they - along with their two supervisors -  will sign a letter of intent which specifies the plans for funding, graduation and the exchange. New students must be accepted to the degree granting university in addition to being accepted as an ELLIS student (i.e., the acceptance to the ELLIS PhD program is a conditional accept).

After the offer to become an ELLIS PhD student has been accepted, the candidate should ask their main advisor which steps they have to take to become a student/an employee at the degree-granting institution (e.g. submitting documents, applying to the local doctoral school, etc.).

Note that rules may vary depending on the institution.

It means that you should also apply internally through the advisor's institution. 

Typically, the ELLIS Central Recruiting call opens in October and candidates are pre-screened until December. Shortlisted students are then invited for interviews in January - February and are extended offers from March onwards. 

Some institutions (e.g., University of Oxford or EPFL) do not accept graduate students throughout the year, but have strict deadlines for applying to their graduate programs (for instance, December or earlier) which overlap with the call's timeline.

In this case, you should not wait until the ELLIS selection procedure has ended, but apply in parallel through the advisor's institution. If you don't, or fail to meet the deadline, you might have to wait until the next year to enrol as a PhD student, despite having received an offer prior. In a worst case scenario, this might even jeopardize your offer as the advisor might not be in a position to wait/will lose the funding for this particular PhD position if the deadline isn't met.

Advisors are be able to indicate in their profile portal if a parallel application is required. Therefore, please make sure to read their comments and instructions carefully.

If unsure, visit the website of the institution or contact your preferred advisor. It's safest to apply to both programs in parallel to avoid any delays in the starting date of your contract.

The ELLIS PhD Program is a meta program on top of existing graduate programs; it does not fund or employ PhD students (except from providing smaller travel grants). As such, the PhD is funded through the advisors’ resources.

After accepting the offer, the student and the two advisors sign a letter of intent which specifies the plans for funding, graduation and the exchange. The details of the funding arrangement will be specified in this letter. It’s up to the advisors to decide the split and determine who will fund the student for which period of time.

Please note that The ELLIS Coordination Office cannot give any details about the amount of funding beforehand because it may differ from country to country and from advisor to advisor. Shortlisted candidates are encouraged to ask for more details during the interview process.

Yes, but only if the candidate is a final-year student.

It depends. Some participating institutions accept candidates with a BSc degree, sometimes only under specific conditions, while others don't.

This information can be found in the advisor's profile on the portal.

The call opens every year around October on the ELLIS Society portal (apply.ellis.eu)

An official announcement is posted on the ELLIS news page when prospective students can start applying, along with the registration link for the current call. A slide deck with more details on the ELLIS PhD & Postdoc program and the application to submit on the portal is available on this page.

Please note that any application or material (e.g., CV, transcripts) submitted through any other means than the portal won't be considered.

Yes, under certain conditions. The central recruiting is the primary event for ELLIS faculty to recruit new students. Excellent students who are already doing a PhD with an advisor in the ELLIS network and would like to join the ELLIS program should first consider the light-weight application process via Nomination that is set up for students recruited locally, and is possible year-round (see ellis.eu/phd-postdoc, "Nomination" for the requirements).

If requirements for nomination are not fulfilled yet, these students may apply to the ELLIS program via the central recruiting if:

(a) they are still within the first 6 months of their doctoral studies (i.e. students who started on May 15 or later can apply in the next round with application deadline November 15).

and (b) their primary advisor is participating in that year's central recruiting round; only advisors in the list of “Available advisors” can accept students via the Central Recruiting. If they are no longer within the first 6 months or if the advisor is not listed as a recruiting advisor that year, ELLIS only accepts nominations.

Only advisors who participate in the current call (i.e. those that are listed on the portal in the "Advisor List") are eligible to recruit ELLIS PhDs. 

No. The ELLIS PhD Program is a meta program on top of existing graduate programs; it does not fund or employ PhD students (except from providing smaller travel grants). The program provides a matchmaking service between advisors in the ELLIS network with open positions and prospective students to facilitate the hiring process.

As such, the PhD is conducted at one of the advisors' institution (typically the main advisor's).

No. Currently, the ELLIS industry track is only able to consider active collaborations and cannot begin or arrange such collaborations.

Yes! This is the ideal way to begin an ELLIS industry track PhD or postdoc.

In order to accommodate the practices and regulations of various participating organizations across different European countries, there are only a few requirements that must be met before nomination (see requirements). Beyond this criteria, the exact details of each arrangement are left open and flexible for the partner organizations to determine along with the candidate. See this page for information on how to nominate candidates.

Because of the diversity in ways of working, requirements and regulations among academic institutions, companies, and between European countries, ELLIS cannot individually assist in setting up partnerships and collaborations that support PhD students or postdocs. However, it can recommend best practices and ways of working that help to serve the various needs of the collaborators. If you have questions about general setup or best practices, you can send an email to phd-industry@ellis.eu.