1st Call

Application deadline: by 15 June 2023, 12:00 midday (GTM +2:00)
Admission interviews:  27/28 June 2023 (via MS Teams)
Publication of ranking lists: online within 14 July 2023

Confirmation of the PhD position - 1st Call

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)

2nd Call

In mid-June, another call for additional positions with scholarships in cooperation with companies (DM 117) will be published.

Total positions: 12
Positions with university grants: 4
Positions with other types of grants: 2
Positions without grant: 3
Positions MD 118/2023 under PNRR: 3

In the academic year 2023/2024, the Computer Science doctoral school offers 20 research topics.

You can find here the detailed descriptions (project description + required skills) of all Research Projects. Please read carefully the document, consider that you have to select up to five project proposals from the list!

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

• 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.

All applicants are eligible for selection, subject to verification of self-certified statements pursuant to Presidential Decree no. 445/2000 and subsequent amendments and additions. In the event of a false declaration, the university may order at any time, by order of the Rector, the exclusion of applicants from the selection process or from the PhD programme, without prejudice to the criminal liability arising therefrom.

Candidates with degrees obtained abroad that have not already been declared equivalent to an Italian degree.

On the basis of the documentation produced, the selection committee will declare the foreign qualification equivalent to a Master's degree, solely for the purposes of participation in this competition. Candidates with a foreign qualification will be admitted to the selection process with reservations and will be excluded from the PhD programme if it turns out, after verification, that the qualification does not comply with the requirements of this call for applications and therefore does not permit enrolment in the PhD programme.

The official language of the PhD programme is English. Therefore applicants must have very good knowledge of English.

The proficiency in English will also be assessed during the interviews.

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.

The application must be completed no later than 15 June 2023 at 12:00 midday (GTM +2:00). After this 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.

To apply to the PhD programme, applicants must include the documentation listed below. Incomplete applications will be excluded from the competition.

Attention: text exceeding the maximum allowed length (if clearly indicated for a document) will not be taken into account! Please respect the format/length indicated.

Diploma supplement or the Master degree diploma together with the transcript of records of all passed exams (=certificate with exams list of Master degree):

• 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:  certification that at the university in the country in which the degree was obtained they have access to a course of study similar to that chosen at unibz. They must therefore upload one of the following documents to the pre-enrolment portal:
  
  • The Diploma supplement, where it must be indicated, that the person has achieved at least 300 credit points (ECTS) and that the study title gives access to a PhD programme. In case of doubt, unibz reserves the right to request the Statement of comparability;
  • Statement of comparability of the qualification, issued by the Italian Information Centre on Academic Mobility and Equivalence (CIMEA), in the case the Diploma supplement is missing;
  • Declaration of equivalent value of the qualification, issued by the Italian consulate or embassy abroad.
• Curriculum vitae (CV) in English (possibly following the EU format that can be downloaded here). The CV must be updated with all data and information of the current year 2023.
• Presentation letter - Attachment A (In English, PDF format: it is mandatory to use the relative template in section “Attachments”): Highlight your reasons for applying to the doctoral programme in Computer Science, your motivations for choosing unibz (in particular the Faculty of Engineering) and your career perspective after completing your PhD. Include a brief discussion of your general research interests, of questions and objectives you are interested in, and add a summary of the skill set you already acquired (for instance in your master level research) as well as techniques and methodologies you are interested in to learn and apply in your PhD research;
• Research proposal – Attachment B (In English, PDF format: it is mandatory to use the relative template in section “Attachments”). In this document, the applicant should indicate up to five research topics in order of preference selected from the list of Research Projects presented in the call (see section “Research projects- details”). Briefly motivate your choices, and develop only the first choice into a more detailed proposal.

Other documents (facultative) to be included in the application if available:

• The PDF of up to three of your best publications (excluding theses);
• up to a maximum of 2 academic reference letters written in English provided by an university professor or by a researcher of research institutions, describing the work carried out and the quality of the same (the letters must be signed).

For the scholarships funded by external partners (FBK and Ministry), separate ranking lists will be established containing candidates who are also eligible according to the general ranking and who in addition indicated a preference for such scholarships and have a scientific profile that is particularly suited to the specific topics associated to these scholarship.

Please download the two Word files. Fill them in and upload them in the portal as PDF files. Please do not exceed the maximum number of characters indicated in each document!

• Attachment A – Presentation Letter
• Attachment B – Research Proposal

The project preferences indicated by the candidate are not binding for the purposes of the assignment of the position. It will be the competence of the Selection Committee to assign to the successful candidate the candidate the project considered most suitable.

The selection is based on:

• the evaluation of each applicant’s profile based on their curriculum vitae, qualifications, presentation letter and research proposal;
• the coherence with the research themes identified in the faculty’s specific part of the call;
• the evaluation of the reference letters and the publications,
• an interview

The following points will be awarded:

• up to a maximum of 50 points for the curriculum, qualifications and publications:
  • Educational and working curriculum (up to 35 points)
  • Experience abroad, participation at summer schools and conferences, contribution to research projects, scholarships (up to 10 points)
  • Publications (up to 5 points)
• up to a maximum of 5 points for the reference letters;
• up to a maximum of 10 points for the presentation letter and the research proposal on the basis of congruence with the research topics proposed in the call.

The Evaluation Committee will select the best applicants on the basis of a comparative assessment.

Candidates that have obtained at least 45 points in the evaluation of their application documents will be admitted to the next stage of the selection process. This will consist of an interview in which also the knowledge of English of the applicant will be assessed. The interviews will take place in video-call (Skype, MS Teams, etc.). Up to a maximum of 35 points will be awarded for the interview.

The final score is the sum of the score for the evaluation of the application documents, and of the score for the interview. The maximum score obtainable is 100.

Applicants that have obtained a final score of at least 70/100 are considered eligible.

Eligible applicants will be ranked according to their final score. The top eligible applicants will be admitted according to the number of available places with and without grant, according to their order in the ranking list. The remaining eligible applicants will be put on a waiting list. Applicants in the waiting list will be admitted to the program in case an already admitted applicant is not available or withdraws their application.