4EU+ Joint Doctoral Programmes

1. Presentation and objectives

The ambition of the Alliance 4EU+ doctoral programmes (co-tutoring) is to strengthen and support research collaborations between the partners in the 4EU+ Alliance. We invite teams from 4EU+ member universities to bring their complementary skills and expertise to the fore to develop excellence research within our Alliance.

The 4EU+ Alliance advocates an innovative and transdisciplinary approach in its very structure. Four thematic flagships and transdisciplinary areas have been defined. These Flagships are the pillars of the 4EU+ Alliance and serve as guides in the implementation of its vision and common approach to education, research and service to society by focusing on four major societal challenges. These 4 Flagships are:

Flagship 1 : Urban Health and Demographic Change

Flagship 2 : Multilingualism, pluralities, citizenship

Flagship 3 : Digitisation - Modelling- Transformation

Flagship 4 : Environmental Transitions

Applications are invited from all disciplinary fields. The 4EU+ joint doctoral programmes (co-supervision) aim to offer doctoral contracts each year for the 3 years of the doctoral thesis, as well as support for mobility in the framework of this co-supervision. Therefore, the partner universities will jointly fund 3-year doctoral contracts, including one-year stays within one of the partner universities. To facilitate this one-year mobility, a “mobility supplement” will be granted to doctoral candidates.

For the year 2023-2024, Sorbonne University will fund 4 doctoral contracts, the Universities of Milan and Charles in Prague will finance 2 other contracts respectively. For this first edition 8 theses in co-supervision will be able to start in partnership between the University of Milan, Charles University and Sorbonne University. The University of Geneva is joining this year with its existing standard system of doctoral funding, which will foster collaborations with all 4EU+ members.

The university of the Doctoral Research project Director is the funding university. The university of the co-Director is the university where the one-year mobility should take place.

4EU+ is keen to maintain the spirit of our Alliance whereby each joint project should include three partner universities. Collaboration between the three universities could be arranged as follows: the two partners will be the co-directors of the supervision (cotutoring) and the third partner will be actively involved as an external referee for this doctoral study (collaboration, external examiner for the PhD…). Therefore, the third partner can be from any member university of the 4EU+ Alliance.

2. Eligibility Criteria

The eligibility criteria and selection procedures foreach doctoral research project will follow the rules defined by the local procedures at each institution. These include, among others, the following:

• at Sorbonne University the Doctoral Schools check the supervision rates and environment ofthe PhD and inform the Doctoral College. If the Director or the co-director of the joint Doctoral Research project come from Sorbonne University, all laboratories affiliated with one of the Doctoral Schools co-accredited by Sorbonne University can take part in the doctoral programme.

• At the University of Milan, the selected projects will need the formal approval by the relevant Doctoral School as it is mandatory to be included in the public call for candidates.

• At Charles University, the consent of the Doctoral School / Department is equally mandatory.

PhD supervisors deal with selected candidates like anyother PhD candidate (application, individual development plan, thesis defence,etc.).

3. Application procedure

Interested teams should complete the following form Application for co-supervised Doctoral Research Projects. Please send a copy of the application and the description of the PhD research project, in a PDF format, by email to:

• your Doctoral School or Department (depending on your home university’s organisation structure)

• 4EU+ team at the following address: 4euplus-su@admp6.jussieu.fr

• the Doctoral college:

4. Selection of the candidates and registrations

The allocation of doctoral contracts will be done in two stages, a first selection will be made based on the candidate's file (detailed CV, Master's transcript of records, one or more letters of recommendation, one should come from one of the co-supervisors andneed to be filed according to the procedure established in the call), then the selected candidates will be interviewed.

The adequacy of the project with the candidate's profile will be evaluated by a jury within the Doctoral School or by a commission formed by members from the three partner universities for their scientific expertise according to the selected projects depending on the leading institution. The jury will include as ex-officio members the head of the doctoral programme and representatives of the Doctoral Schools concerned.

At the University of Milan, admission to the doctoral programmes takes place through a public selection procedure involving the evaluation of qualifications and the comparative assessment of candidates. An Examining Committee, appointed in compliance with relevant Italian regulations will carry out the procedure. The Committee will be integrated by inviting the head of the doctoral program or a representativeof the interested doctoral schools as ex officio members for the interview.

5. Follow-up of funded co-tutoring

The support of Sorbonne University and 4EU+ must be indicated in all written and oral communications referring to the project.

6. Provisional timetable*

*Please note the following dates are indicative and may be subject to change

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