DOCTORAL SCHOLARSHIPS PROVIDED BY THE INTERFACULTY COUNCIL FOR DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION (IRO)

As one of its contributions to development cooperation,every academic year KU Leuven selects exceptional students from developing countries as scholarship candidates to obtain their PhD from the largest university of Flanders, Belgium. The programme is managed by IRO, the University's Interfaculty Council for Development Cooperation. The aim is to give students the opportunity to do their full PhD research at KU Leuven; therefore, other types of agreement (e.g. sandwich programmes) are excluded from the programme. Over the past ten years, the IRO Doctoral Scholarships Programme has supported more than a hundred PhD graduates. Having obtained their doctoral degree from KU Leuven, the PhD holders are now utilising their expertise back in their home countries either at a university (by doing academic research), government bodies, civil society organisations or in various sectors of the industry. KU Leuven is situated at about twenty kilometers from Brussels, the capital of both Belgium and Europe. It is the oldest university of the Low Countries. As such, it has a long-standing tradition of hospitality towards students and scholars from abroad. Currently, almost 7,000 international students (about 15% of the total number of students at KU Leuven) have found their home away from home in Leuven. Eligibility  The applicant must be a citizen of one of the countries on the OCDE DAC table that are considered as: Least Developed Countries, Low Income Countries or Low Middle Income Countries. The applicant may not possess a citizenship from an EU country. The applicant may not posses a long-term EU residence permit. The candidate's latest master’s degree must have been awarded no more than ten years prior to October 1st, 2018 (including the ongoing calendar year). The candidate must hold an academic qualification at least equivalent to a high distinction. Degrees obtained with a final score equivalent to second class second/lower division will not be taken into consideration. The research project must have excellent academic quality, with a special focus on the development relevance of the proposal. The vacancies that are published on the KU Leuven website are already funded and thus, cannot participate for this scholarship. The candidate must demonstrate a development-oriented motivation. The candidate must be supported by a KU Leuven promoter. The candidate must be supported by a local co-promoter at the candidate's home country or where most of the research will be carried out and which must be one of the countries on the OCDE DAC table that are considered as: Least Developed Countries, Low Income Countries or Low Middle Income Countries. The candidate must be supported by excellent recommendations from relevant referees. The candidate must follow the application procedure and complete his file before November 13th 2017. Please make sure to fill up the application form with the following instructions: First name and last name EXACTLY as written on the passport. Status: Doctoral Programme (diploma contract) or Predoctoral programme. Academic year: If you apply between September and October 2017, you must select 2017-2018; we will change this manually once the call for applications for 2018-2019 opens. Starting from November 2017, you must select 2018-2019. Is this application also intended as a scholarship application? Yes. Name of the scholarship agency: IRO Doctoral Scholarship Please do not submit your application unless it fulfills the conditions enlisted above. Incomplete or late applications will not be taken into consideration without exception.  ***Please note that the format and the procedure of this scholarship programme will change. Consequently, the information available on this page may not correspond to the new call. The website will be updated in autumn. The