ELLIS 22/23 PhD Recruiting Round

 

The most recent call for applications for the ELLIS PhD Program closed on November 15, 2022. The program offers top talent from around the world a unique point of entry to cutting-edge machine learning research in Europe. Students in the program benefit from joint supervision within the ELLIS network, and spend at least six months at a partner institution in a different country or industrial research lab.

In its third recruitment round, the ELLIS PhD program attracted more than 1,900 interested candidates from 99 countries. After a rigorous review process, nearly 360 candidates were shortlisted for the next phase in the selection procedure. The interview stage will run until February 15, after which individual advisors will extend offers to the best candidates.

Below is an overview of the timeline and instructions for admission to ELLIS (see also our FAQ page).

The slides of the Information Session for Shortlisted Applicants (19/01/23) can be found here.

 

Timeline

• January - February 15: Interviews: Advisors can invite shortlisted candidates for interviews. This process is not centrally coordinated by ELLIS, but self-organized by advisors and their teams. The interview period runs until February 15.

• From late February onwards - May 1: Offers (self-organized by advisors) and admission to ELLIS: The interview stage ends on February 15. Next, if a good match is found, recruiting advisors will extend offers for open positions in their labs. During this stage, PIs can also conduct additional interviews if they haven't filled their positions. The hiring process is local. Advisors inform ELLIS about accepted offers by May 1. The student is then conditionally admitted to the program.

• May 1: Admission deadline: the primary advisor should confirm via email to phd@ellis.eu if the student accepted the offer and intends to join ELLIS.

• Until September 15: Finalize admission: Find a co-advisor and submit the Letter of Intent to phd@ellis.eu (signed by the student and two advisors).

 

Instructions for admission

1. Conditional admission to the ELLIS PhD Program (deadline May 1)

(a) CONDITIONAL OFFER (*): Recruiting advisors make conditional offers (*) for the ELLIS PhD Program.

(b) NOTIFY ELLIS: They confirm by May 1 via email to phd@ellis.eu if the student accepted the offer and intends to join the ELLIS program. From that point onwards, the student will be 'conditionally (*) accepted' to ELLIS. To finalize admission, see (c) and (d) below.

(*) Please note: As a meta PhD program, the ELLIS PhD program does not employ students nor grant degrees. Consequently, new students must be accepted to the respective degree-granting university in addition to being accepted as ELLIS students. In other words: the acceptance to the ELLIS PhD program is a conditional accept, and can only be finalized once the student is officially accepted at the degree-granting institution (see 2). If, for whatever reason, the student is not accepted at the degree-granting institution to start their PhD, the offer to become an ELLIS PhD Student is cancelled. ELLIS does not provide funding; potentially, the offer an advisor makes is conditional upon securing funding through another call or local process. All the official paperwork goes through the institution of the main advisor and the student has to comply with all their rules and regulations.

2. Next steps: Co-advisor & finalize admission to the ELLIS PhD program (deadline September 15)

(c) FIND CO-ADVISOR: Next, the student and main advisor should decide on a co-supervisor. The co-supervisor can be any ELLIS Member, Fellow or Scholar, but must (a) be based in Europe and (b) be based at an institution in a different country (Academic Track) or industrial research lab (Industry Track), where the student will conduct a research visit of min. 6 months. 

(d) SUBMIT LETTER OF INTENT: If all parties agree on the co-supervision, the student and two supervisors must complete the Letter of Intent, and send it to phd@ellis.eu to finalize admisison. 

Admission form and letter for the Academic Track: Download PDF
Admission form and letter for the Industry Track: Download PDF

 

Admission requirements - Admission to the ELLIS PhD Program via the central call

The candidate – Candidates who applied via the central call and were shortlisted following the review phase are eligible to join the program if they are hired by one of the recruiting advisors*.

Advisor requirements – Students in the program are co-supervised by 1 ELLIS fellow/scholar or unit faculty and 1 ELLIS fellow/scholar/unit faculty/member, both based in Europe**. At least one of the advisors must have participated as a recruiting advisor* in the ELLIS call. The program is offered in two tracks: if the co-advisor who will host the student for min. 6 months is based at an academic institution in a different country, the student will join the Academic Track; if the co-advisor is based at an industrial research lab, the student will join the Industry Track. These tracks have different requirements for activity during the appointment, but otherwise offer the same benefits to the candidate.

Degree – The degree must come from a European institution.

Activity – Each track has specific exchange or time-sharing requirements (see below). In addition, it is expected that students will publish the results of their research in top-tier venues in machine learning-driven fields. Intellectual Property (IP) that is generated during the research project will be arranged between the host and the exchange institution. The ELLIS Society does not claim any IP.

Additional requirements specific to the Academic Track

• International exchange: The PhD student must visit an ELLIS fellow/scholar/member (co-advisor) in another European** country for min. 6 months.

• Location: The two institutions must be located in different European** countries.

Additional requirements specific to the Industry Track

• Time-sharing: The candidate will spend a minimum of 50% of their time at the academic partner institution and a minimum of 6 months with the industry partner. This can be accumulative (e.g. 2 days per week) or consecutive (e.g. a block similar to an internship). In case there already is an extensive collaboration between an industry and academic partner at one site, e.g. a jointly funded and run industrial-academic lab, slightly different regulations may apply (for more information: phd-industry@ellis.eu).

• Location: The industry partner, industrial research lab, and industry advisor must all be based in Europe (regardless of HQ location), but can otherwise be in the same country/city as the academic partner.

(*) Recruiting advisors are listed on apply.ellis.eu under 'Available advisors' (applicant view) or in the Advisors List (faculty view).

(**) Both the Academic Track and Industry Track require that the home and host institution or industry partner are based in Europe (or associated countries with ELLIS units, e.g. Israel). There is one exception: if the student is in the Academic Track and the co-supervisor is an ELLIS fellow/scholar, the co-supervisor can be based outside of Europe.