1st call

Application deadline: 15 June 2023, 12:00 midday (CEST)
Admission interviews: online 21 - 22 - 23 June 2023
Communication of the evaluation of the project proposal: by 20 June 2023
Communication of the interview details: by 20 June 2023
Publication of ranking lists: by 14 July 2023

Confirmation of the position

Applicants with grant: starting from 14 July 2023 until 27 July 2023;
Applicants without grant: starting from 27 July 2023 until 04 August 2023.
Enrolment: Starting from 27 July 2023 until 31 October 2023, 12:00 midday (CEST)

3rd Call

Application deadline: by 11 September 2023, 12:00 midday (CEST)

Admission interviews: 15 September, 2023, online via Microsoft Teams
Publication of ranking lists: by 28 September 2023

Confirmation of the position

Applicants with scholarships: starting from 28 September 2023 until 16 October 2023;
Enrolment: Starting from 17 October 2023 until 31 October 2023, 12:00 midday (CET)

Total positions: 8

1st Call

Positions with university grants: 4 
Positions with grants covered by MD 118/2023 (PNRR): 2 
Position without grant: 1

3rd Call

Positions with grants covered by MD 118/2023 (PNRR): 1

1st Call

• Research areas: PNRR/Public Administration 1 grant under Ministerial Decree no. 118/2023.
  Topics: Conservation and promotion of musical heritage in public administration.
  Project description: The project examines, from an international perspective and in the light of technological innovations in the sector, the legal framework for PA activity in the field of music heritage and the related promotion methods.
• Research areas: PNRR/Public Administration 2 grant under Ministerial Decree no. 118/2023
  Topics: CLOSING THE GAPS? Towards transformative knowledge partnerships for the development of social policies and services.
  Project description: The project aims to investigate challenges and possibilities of establishing effective knowledge partnerships aimed to close the gap between academic research and the development of social policies and services.
• Research areas: 01 - Permanent Education – Processes and Projects of Education and Development with a Focus on South Tyrol
  Topics: Education for Economic Citizenship in school contexts: lines of research.
  Project description: The doctoral project will address aspects of citizenship education declined in the field of financial literacy. The case study will focus on schools, especially primary schools, experimenting with different pedagogies/didactic paradigms, to educate to the economic-financial approach from childhood. Research areas: learning theories, competence frameworks, gender gap, teacher training.
• Research areas: 01 - Permanent Education – Processes and Projects of Education and Development with a Focus on South Tyrol
  Topics: Children's Rights and Education for Sustainable Development - Kindergarten and Primary School as Spaces for experience-based Learning for Democracy and Natural Ethics.
  Project description: The study, which uses reconstructive methods of empirical social research, focuses on the question of how institutions of education (in South Tyrol) meet and can meet the challenge of enabling children to think and act in a sustainable way that is oriented towards a democratic, peaceful, responsible and interspecies coexistence in a planetary context.
  
• Research areas: 02 - IN-IN Education: INnovative and INclusive Education
  Topics: Children’s views on (educational) equity.
  Project description: The qualitative study combines approaches of primary school research and childhood studies: focused are children's views on equity and educational equity.
  
• Research areas: 02 - IN-IN Education: INnovative and INclusive Education
  Topics: Professionalisation of teachers for collaboration and team-teaching in inclusive primary schools in international comparison.
  Project description: The internationally comparing study focuses on collaboration in inclusive primary schools in Italy and a second country. Implications for the professionalisation of teachers shall be drawn from the findings.
  
• Research areas: 03 - Psychology and wellbeing promotion in educational contexts
  Topics: Life-skills promotion in educational settings.
  Project description: Since 1994, the WHO promoted the development of educational programmes to increase life-skills in school. The project is aimed at creating and testing ad-hoc activities to develop life-skills from primary through high school.
  

• Research areas: 03 - Psychology and wellbeing promotion in educational contexts
  Topics: Executive functions and social-emotional skills in the transition between pre-school and primary school.
  Project description: The general aim of the study is to investigate early risk and protective factors beyond potentially socially maladjusted developmental trajectories in the transition from preschool to primary school.  The study will focus Executive Functions and socioemotional-skills.

• Research areas: 05 - Aesthetic experiences and communication
  Topics: Health is Education! Promoting Physical and Mental Health trough Physical Activity.
  Project description:The proposal promotes research activities on the role of physical activity in wellbeing and health promotion, adopting an educational point and view and focusing on adolescents and young adults.
• Research areas: 05 - Aesthetic experiences and communication
  Topics: Digital environment for Heritage Education.
  Project description:The proposal promotes research activities on heritage education in a digital environment, in formal and informal settings, exploiting the communication, processing and shaping potential of digital tools.

• Research areas: 06 - Educational Contexts, Disciplines and their Teaching in the Nursery and Primary School
  Topics: Plant Blindness: Can science education prevent it in primary school pupils?
  Project description:Plant Blindness is the inability to see or notice the plants in one's own environment. Is it possible to avoid this through science education in primary school? If yes, what is the most efficient way?

• Research areas: 06 - Educational Contexts, Disciplines and their Teaching in the Nursery and Primary School
  Topics: Metaphors in STEM Education.
  Project description:Metaphors are used by scientists, teachers, and textbooks when presenting, describing, and explaining science. The project will explore their use with respect to both real phenomena and abstract concepts in different disciplines (physics, mathematics, biology…).

• Research areas: 07 - Socio cultural worlds: institutions, welfare, social professions, environment and population
  Topics: Social Vulnerability and Health Outcomes in Older Adults: The Role of Informal Support Networks.
  Project description: A low socio-economic status and lack of social support and networks can be significantly associated with the health of older adults. The project aims to explore the impact of informal care on older people’s health, analysing different types of data.
• Research areas: 07 - Socio cultural worlds: institutions, welfare, social professions, environment and population
  Topics: Sustainable Welfare: A Comparative Analysis of Linking Social and Environmental Policies in Europe.
  Project description: The project aims to investigate the relationship between social welfare policies and environmental sustainability in European countries. By comparing and contrasting policies and practices in a range of contexts, the aim is to identify best practices for achieving sustainable welfare outcomes.
• Research areas: 08 - EduSpaces teaching and learning environment
  Topics: The EduSpaces university laboratories of educational research: what theoretical foundations, methods, and activities for integration.
  Project description: The EduSpaces of the Faculty of Education are university laboratories for research, teaching and learning that have developed over time to meet the needs of primary education with different research topics, from basic theoretical and empirical research on teaching and learning to pedagogical and disciplinary research in collaboration with schools and other stakeholders.

3rd Call

• Research areas: PNRR/Public Administration 1 grant under Ministerial Decree no. 118/2023.
  Topics: Conservation and promotion of musical heritage in public administration.
  Project description: The project examines, from an international perspective and in the light of technological innovations in the sector, the legal framework for PA activity in the field of music heritage and the related promotion methods.

All citizen, regardless of sex, age and nationality may apply to be admitted to a PhD:

• Applicants holding a postgraduate degree as per Italian Ministerial Decree no. 509/1999, a postgraduate degree as per Italian Ministerial Decree no. 270/2004, a degree of the former Italian university system, or an equivalent degree obtained abroad;
• Applicants achieving one of the above mentioned titles within the enrolment deadline. In this case applicants will be admitted conditionally to the selection procedure and they must produce the degree certificate within the enrolment’s deadline. If not, their application is considered null and void.

If the required document is not uploaded by the time of enrolment, the applicant will be enrolled with reservation.

All candidates have to be proficient in at least two of the three languages of the programme: Italian, German, English. Language certification at B2 level (CEFR) in two of the three languages of the PhD programme (Italian, German, English) is a prerequisite for participating in the selection process according to the table of the unibz recognized language certificates.

Knowledge of the language may also be demonstrated by qualifications (secondary school/bachelor/master) related to a programme held entirely in the language to certificate. In this case, Italian and EU candidates must declare this on the pre-enrolment portal, both in the section related to the general application and in the one related to the language certificates. Also non-EU citizens must upload a copy of their diploma and any additional documentation indicating the language of instruction related to the foreign qualification in both sections. Candidates demonstrate their language proficiency in the application portal (in the section “upload language certificates”) after they have created an application in the section “create/manage applications”.

Candidates without the certification of language proficiency are excluded from the admission procedure.

Applications to the selection procedure can be submitted from the date of the announcement of the public competition.

Each application is subject to a payment for administrative expenses (30 €). This registration fee cannot be reimbursed under any circumstances.
In order to apply, you need to follow these steps:

1. Create an account at Application Portal and upload in electronic format a passport-size colour photo and a valid ID (passport or identity card, front/back);
2. In the application portal, select the PhD programme and pay the registration fee of 30 € (see instructions in the portal);
3. Fill in the online form in the same portal and upload the additional required documents (see the specific attachments to the call for each PhD programme).

Completing the application online is the only way to submit the application. Applications will not be considered if:

• incomplete or without compulsory entry qualifications/requirements;
• sent by e-mail.

It is necessary to upload the required documentation for each PhD programme chosen in the portal. A traffic light system indicates complete/incomplete documentation (missing documents will be marked in red).

Only documents uploaded by the deadline will be evaluated. It is advisable to apply online well in advance and to check the portal regularly to take note of any notes concerning missing and/or incorrect documents.

After the deadline, it will no longer be possible to complete/correct incomplete applications.
The University is not liable if the portal is overcharged, due to the net or to the software itself.

In the application portal, applicants must upload, otherwise excluded:

• if graduated in Italy: diploma supplement or self-declaration (following the Italian D.P.R. no. 445/2000) of the degree awarded with the exams passed (if graduated) or just with the exams passed (if not graduated yet);
• if graduated abroad: diploma supplement or final degree certificate with exams passed (if graduated) or transcript of records (if not graduated yet) in Italian, German or English.
• Language certification at B2 level (CEFR) attesting proficiency in two of the official languages of the programme – Italian, German, English – according to the table of the unibz recognized language certificates: 
  (in the case of Italian public institutions, the certificates MUST be replaced by a self-declaration).
• Curriculum vitae containing:
  a) a list of research experience;
  b) if available, a list of publications with the respective online links.
• Research project written in Italian or German or English (max. 3 pages, 10,000 characters using the attached template, Times New Roman 11 font, 10,000 characters including spaces) to be uploaded to the portal and containing the following information at the top of the first page:
  a) the main research area, classified among the research areas mentioned in the table "Research areas" above,
  b) the topic, which is coherent with one of the above-mentioned research topics.
  One of the topics proposed in the table above can be chosen.

Only one research project can be submitted per application.

1st Call

1. Please download the Word file
2. complete the file and upload the research project to the portal as PDF/A file.

3rd Call

• Please download the Word file
• complete the file and upload the research project to the portal as PDF/A file.

Research project can be written in Italian or German or English (max. 3 pages, 10,000 characters using the attached template, Times New Roman 11 font, 10,000 characters including spaces).

Admission is based on the successful outcome of the selection procedure. The selection procedure consists of the assessment of a research project, which applicants upload to the application portal, and a personal interview. The interviews will take place in video-call: MS Teams.

Those candidates whose project receives a minimum score of 40/60 points will be admitted to the oral examination.

The research project to be submitted/uploaded to the portal contains the following information at the top of the first page:

1. the main research area, classified among the research areas mentioned in the table "Research areas" above, 
2. the topic, which is coherent with one of the above-mentioned research topics (see the table "Research areas"). One of the topics proposed in the table above can be chosen.

Maximum length 10,000 characters using the attached template, font Times New Roman 11.

The research project can be completed in Italian, German or English, according to the free choice of the applicant.

Evaluation criteria for the research project:

• Formal register and terminological accuracy;
• Task completed according to the title indicated, which is coherent with the research topics of the doctoral programme;
• Clear and logical argumentative structure;
• Demonstrated knowledge of scientific debates in the field;
• Originality of the proposed research project;
• Clear methodological approach for the proposed research project.
  The evaluation criteria of the oral test take into consideration the following criteria:
• The quality of discussion on the subject of the research project submitted, on issues of general culture, and on personal research interests;
• The ability to present an argument for one’s own research project with reference to the theoretical and methodological assumptions of the research field;
  To be successful in the oral examination, candidates must receive a minimum mark of 40/60.

Composition of the Admission Board:
Prof. Giulia Cavrini, President
Prof. Annemarie Augschöll
Prof. Demis Basso.
Substitute members: Prof. Monica Parricchi, Prof. Elisabeth Tauber, Prof. Beate Weyland.

Online admission interviews: 15/09/2023 at 15 (local time) via Microsoft Teams. Click here to start the interview.

At the end of the exam period, the Admission Board will draw up a rank list of candidates (see Article 6 of the public competition announcement, general Call).