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General Information

Five (5) Doctoral Scholarships (BD) will be available in the fifth edition. These scholarships are one year in duration, renewable for up to a total of four years and not of less than three consecutive months.

Eligible Applicants

The basic requirement for admission in the doctoralprogramme is holding a nationally recognized civil engineering Masters degree or an equivalent Masters degree in related areas, such as environmental engineering, mechanical engineering or architecture. Candidates holding a nationally recognized 5 year university-level degree with a 300 ECTS work load within the pre-Bologna system, related to the abovementioned areas, will also be allowed. In addition, the minimum grade of the candidates in the degrees mentioned above is “B-“ in the ECTS grading scale (corresponding to a score of at least 70%). If requested, candidates must demonstrate that their degree is equivalent to the degree required for the application, and provide official recognition documents translated/written in English.
Since English is the official language of the PhD programme, a minimum fluency in English communication is required. Students from non-English speaking countries are required to have one of the following certificates: TOEFL certificate paper based (minimum score 500), TOEFL certificate internet based (minimum score 61), IELTS certificate (academic version, minimum score 6.0) or other recognized English language certificate. The call is open to Portuguese citizens, citizens of European Union countries, citizens of countries outside European Union living in Portugal in the terms laid out by Law nº 23/2007, July 4th, modified by Law nº 29/2012, August 9th, citizens of countries with which Portugal has celebrated reciprocity agreements and citizens of other countries provided that the candidate undergoes a panel interview in the terms laid out by item c) of nº 1 of Article 14 of Regulations for Research Grants of the Foundation for Science and Technology.

Required elements

To ensure common entry standards, the application will be completed exclusively online in the doctoral programme webpage and should include at least the following information:

  1. filled in online application form;
  2. global curriculum vitae (please use the template available here);
  3. The official certificate of the university degree(s) (if applicable, in English);
  4. The official English language certificate;
  5. Statement of purpose, describing the interest of the candidate in the domains of the doctoral programme, personal aims and research topics of interest;
  6. Reference letters.

Selection and ranking criteria

The candidates selection will be based on an objective evaluation of the following specific criteria and weights:

  • Academic achievements (final classification and main area of the previous degree(s), as well as the school in which it(they) was(were) obtained; preference will be given to candidates with a Civil Engineering background) – 50%;
  • Relevant scientific activities (e.g. participation in research projects, authorship of journal and conference papers, patents, among others) – 20%;
  • Relevant professional experience (related with the programme’s scope) – 15%;
  • Motivation (based on the interview, statement of purpose and reference letters) – 15%.

The selection process will be carried out by the BoS. It includes academic staff in charge of the Programme at each university with at least one representative from each institution. The BoS will carry out the candidates’ selection right after the deadline for applications. All members will use an identical evaluation grid and the average of the marks given by each member to each candidate will be used to define a provisional ranking. The BoS will interview (if necessary, by video-conference) the candidates with the highest potential to be accepted in the PhD programme, thereby defining the final ranking and will prepare a selection list and a reserve list, so that the academic year is fully planned before it actually starts. To promote a large spectrum knowledge in all different areas related with risk assessment and management of civil infrastructures, apart from the criteria applying to the candidate’s selection, the granting of scholarships will obey to the following criteria regarding the participant institutions and the thesis themes:

  1. Throughout the duration of the InfraRisk doctoral programme the scholarships should be equally distributed among the institutions, i.e. 20% for each institution, if possible;
  2. Each institution shall receive a minimum of one scholarship per year, and a maximum of two scholarships;

Notification of candidates

The results of the selection process will be communicated via email to all candidates, and the list of approved applicants will be available at http://infrarisk.tecnico.ulisboa.pt/. In the case of an unfavourable award decision (i.e. for applicants not selected to receive grants), the applicant has a period of 10 days after disclosure, to be heard by the Selection Committee, by request of a preliminary hearing, pursuant to the Portuguese Código do Procedimento Administrativo. The final decision may be appealed to the BoS of the doctoral program, within 15 days after the respective notification.

Application form

Please submit your APPLICATION here. Applications may be submitted between March 8th and April 5th 2019, 17:00 GMT.

Publication of results

Please consult here the results of the selection process of call open between March 8th and April 5th 2019.

Scope
The Doctoral Program InfraRisk- is focused on the following main research domains within civil engineering: (i) Conduct hazard assessment; (ii) Perform vulnerability analysis of the several infrastructures, including the interdependence effects; (iii) Propose and prioritize solutions and techniques for the strengthening and rehabilitation of infrastructures; (iv) Contribute to define prevention and preparedness policies and measures aiming at the enhancement of socio-economic resilience.
Institutions
The Doctoral Program in Analysis and Mitigation of Risks in Infrastructures involves a partnership between four universities - University of Lisbon - Técnico Lisboa (IST), University of Porto - Faculty of Engineering (FEUP), University of Minho (UMinho) and University of Aveiro (UA) - the National Laboratory of Civil Engineering (LNEC) and ICIST (Instituto de Engenharia de Estruturas, Território e Construção). The degree attributed to the candidates will be a PhD degree in Civil Engineering from one of the partner higher education institutions.