UCLouvain - CSC PhD co-funding fellowship competition 2023
The University of Louvain (UCLouvain) has established an agreement with the China Scholarship Council (CSC) since 2017. This initiative is intended to support and expand the number of CSC — funded students enrolled at UCLouvain for the purpose of obtaining a PhD in order to foster contacts with the Chinese academic community and develop new partnerships with higher education and research institutions in the People’s Republic of China.
Pursuant to this partnership, UCLouvain organizes an annual competition in order to fund jointly with the China Scholarship Council 10 students who intend to study for a UCLouvain PhD.
Candidates pre-selected by UCLouvain will be advised to apply directly at the China Scholarship Council.
1. Eligibility criterion
To be eligible, candidates must be supported by a UCLouvain academic supervisor.
2. Procedure
The application file must be submitted in electronic format (in one PDF file) by the candidate’s UCLouvain supervisor to the President of the Council for International Action (CAI) at appel-adri@uclouvain.be and gabriela.bidegain@uclouvain.be by January 31, 2023. The application will include the application form , the annexes listed on the form.
In the case of a partnership or collaboration with another institution in China, promoters are invited to carry out a self-assessment before submitting the application in order to identify possible risks that the partnership or collaboration may not respect the values and policies of the UCLouvain.
This evaluation is done by the promoter via the following form (accessible on Intranet): Self Assesment .
Questions related to the competition may be sent to Mrs. Gabriela Bidegain (gabriela.bidegain@uclouvain.be).
The pre-selection will be made by the UCLouvain Council for International Action (CAI) mid-March 2023. Candidates pre-selected by UCLouvain will be advised to submit a CSC application file at the China Scholarship before 31 March, 2023. Final selection will be announced by CSC early June 2023.
Applications will be examined by the relevant doctoral Commission. Admissible students will receive a PhD pre-admission, conditioned by the successful completion of their master, if applicable.
Applications of students pre-admitted to the PhD will be assessed jointly by academic members of the Research Board (CRec) and members of the Council for International Action (CAI). Based on this evaluation, the selection of recipients will be made by the Council for International Action (CAI) mid-March 2023. The result of the selection will be announced to the candidate, the supervisor and the China Scholarship Council.
All the candidates pre-admitted the PhD, regardless of their selection for co-funding, will be encouraged to apply to the CSC by 31 March 2023.
Final results will be published by the CSC in June 2023.
3. Selection criteria
The beneficiaries of the co-funding support will be selected based on the following criteria:
• the scientific merit of the applicant (curriculum vitae, letter of support of the UCLouvain supervisor, etc.),
• the quality of the research project (originality of the project in relation to the ‘state of the art’ of research in the field, method, feasibility of the project in the proposed time, link and relevance with the ongoing activities of the host unit),
• the quality of the environment (adequacy and quality of the teams at UCLouvain and in the partner institution(s) that supervise the PhD student),
• the relevance of the proposed research work for the candidate’s career plan and for his/her reintegration prospects in the academic and research environment of P. R. of China,
• the present and future collaboration potential in terms of collaboration with higher education and research institutions in the People’s Republic of China, and the added value for the host UCLouvain lab.
The project is expected to respect, wherever relevant, the dimensions of human rights, ethics and integrity, academic freedom and gender equality.
4. Co-funding support
Selected candidates will receive co-funding support in the form of a maximum monthly accommodation allowance of €400 for each month spent in Belgium throughout the duration of their C.S.C. funding.
Furthermore, successful candidates will be exempt from paying of tuition fees.
5. Publication of the call
As soon as available, you will find the information about this call in Chinese on the China Scholarship Council website.
6. Apply outside co-funding competition
Students who would have missed the co-funding competition deadline may still apply to CSC for PhD scholarship. To this end, they will apply to the relevant CDD for PhD pre-admission with their supervisor’s help. If accepted, they will receive a pre-admission letter to include in their CSC application. More details about this procedure.