SPECIAL RESEARCH FUND 2020 CALL FOR DOCTORAL GRANTS

21 Jan 2020 - 15 Jun 2020

ATTENTION! The deadline for submission of applications has been extended until 15th June 2020.

SPECIAL RESEARCH FUND 2020 CALL FOR DOCTORAL GRANTS IN THE FRAMEWORK OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY CENTER IN UKRAINE SUPPORTED BY THE EUROPEAN UNION
STCU is pleased to announce the call for its 2020 Doctoral Research Grant. The call is open to all disciplines but the research topic shall be related to developments and trends of chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapons nonproliferation; strategic trade control; or national and international trade control systems.
Eligibility: The Doctoral Research Grant is open to postgraduate students (regardless of citizenship) holding a Master‘s degree from a University established in principle in Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, or Moldova. Applicants will have to be registered in a Ph.D. program in a European Union (EU) or European Economic Area university and shall have two supervisors. One supervisor shall hold an academic position in an EU or European Economic Area university where he/she will be registered and the other supervisor shall hold an academic position in a university in Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan or Moldova. Please note that the call is limited to candidates who don’t already hold a Ph.D. degree. Candidates currently engaged in the final stages of a Master’s degree should complete their Master’s degree before the end of this current Academic year (2019-2020), in order to be eligible for this Doctoral Research Grant.
The STCU Special Research Fund (funding provided 100% by the European Union) is offering a fixed price four-year contract to a qualifying doctoral student. The contract begins in September 2020 (subject to proof of Master’s degree completion). If duly justified, the start date may be changed at the applicant's request, subject to the mentors’ agreement. No contract may start later than November 2020.
The candidate should be eligible to obtain a long-term visa to study in the EU or European Economic Area before the grant will be allocated to start Ph.D. studies.
The selected doctoral student will be hosted simultaneously by the universities of his/her supervisors or with their supervisor(s) agreement, by any research center(s) or university(ies) conducting research relevant to his/her doctorate. A strong connection between the proposed doctoral research and the field of expertise of the proposed supervisors, as well as their demonstrated commitment to supervise the candidate, will constitute an important criteria in the selection process (evaluation parameters are outlined in the attached annex).
If the completion of the proposed research requires additional funding (i.e. to finance data collection, partly or entirely) outside the traditional costs of a Ph.D. (i.e. tuition, living costs, etc.), the budget applicant should include these costs in their cost proposal (as well as the traditional costs) to complete the research. No additional funding will be provided outside of the original estimate provided by the applicant, thus applicants are requested to pay attention to detail when composing their budget requests.
All information and documents required for the application must be in English. The application form and the list of necessary documents are attached to this document.
The application should be sent by email to phd.grant@stcu.int. The deadline for the call for applications is 15th June 2020at 12:00, Brussels time.
Late or incomplete applications will not be considered
After an initial screening based on applications, select candidates will be contacted for face-to-face (where possible, or if travel is difficult, video link will be utilized) interviews in a place to be confirmed at a later date by the selection committee.
If you have any questions, please contact: Prof. Maria Espona (maria.espona@stcu.int)
If you need any help to identify a potential supervisor in the EU or EEA, please contact: Prof. Dr. Quentin Michel, ESU Liege University (qmichel@uliege.be).


Materials for download
Special research Fund 2020 call
STCU Grant Proposal application form final
Evaluation parameters

Contact Person: Elena Taberko