How to Become a PhD Advisor
Each ELLIS PhD student or postdoc is co-supervised by one ELLIS Fellow/Scholar or Unit Faculty and one ELLIS Fellow/Scholar, Unit Faculty* or Member based in different European countries, and conducts an exchange of at least 6 months with the international advisor during their degree.
One of the advisors may also come from industry/business, in which case the student will collaborate closely with the industry partner, and spend min. 6 months conducting research at the industrial lab.
*The term 'Unit Faculty' comprises ELLIS Fellows, Scholars and Members who have been appointed by a Unit Director to be part of the respective Unit.
Participate as ELLIS Fellow, Scholar, or Unit Faculty
If you haven't joined the ELLIS Society yet, please learn how to become an ELLIS Member, Fellow or Scholar first.
ELLIS Fellows, Scholars and Unit Faculty can participate in two ways:
1. Recruit new PhDs students via the yearly central recruitment round
ELLIS Fellows, Scholars and Unit Faculty who are based in Europe (and associated countries) and have open positions can sign up to recruit new PhD students via the yearly ELLIS PhD call, which collects applications from across the world on a central pan-European platform. Our central portal pools thousands of applications from across the world and provides access to comments and reviews from other PIs in the system.
Applicants use our platform to find and be found for PhD opportunities in machine learning and related fields offered by fellows, scholars and unit faculty in the ELLIS network.
PIs use our platform to indicate to applicants that they are looking for PhD students, and to find talented students that could be a good match for their labs.
In September each year, Fellows, Scholars and Unit Faculty will receive an invitation to register for that year's round; PIs need to re-register each year. They are expected to contribute to the reviewing process.
Since the ELLIS PhD Program is a metaprogram on top of local graduate programs, funding for the PhD contracts must be provided by the advisor(s). The hiring process is local and must comply with local regulations and policies.
2. Nominate existing PhDs or postdocs to the program
ELLIS Fellows, Scholars or Unit Faculty may nominate PhD students or postdocs who are working with them to become ELLIS PhD Students or Postdocs in the academic, industry or interdisciplinary track. Note that Postdocs in all tracks are currently only recruited via nomination.
Learn more about the requirements and the nomination process.
Participate as ELLIS Member
ELLIS Members can nominate existing students to the program provided the other advisor is a Fellow, Scholar or Unit Faculty, and the other nomination requirements are fulfilled.
Within the program's central recruitment process, ELLIS members may be contacted by one of the participating fellows, scholars or unit faculty if they are interested in acting as a co-advisor of a selected student. The student and primary advisor decide on a co-advisor together after an offer has been made; all ELLIS members who are based in Europe qualify as co-advisors as long as the advisor, exchange and time-sharing requirements are fulfilled (for details and exceptions, see the admission requirements for the program's central recruiting).
Note: Members who have been appointed by a Unit Director to be part of a Unit are considered to be part of the Unit Faculty and can participate as recruiting advisors in the central ELLIS PhD recruitment, provided they are entitled to supervise PhD candidates at the respective institution.
