The third edition of the CMU Portugal initiative “Affiliated Ph.D. Programs” has open applications until March 31 to award up to 12 Scholarships funded by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) The selected candidates will be hosted by Portuguese University and benefit from a research period at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh of up to one year.
Credit: CMU Portugal
The third edition of the CMU Portugal initiative “Affiliated Ph.D. Programs” has open applications until March 31 to award up to 12 Scholarships funded by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) The selected candidates will be hosted by Portuguese University and benefit from a research period at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh of up to one year.
The 12 Ph.D. scholarships are available for the 2023/2024 academic year in selected cutting-edge areas of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) with a focus on CMU Portugal-related areas: Computer Science, Electrical and Computer, Engineering Engineering and Public Policy, Human-Computer Interaction, Language Technologies, Robotics, Software Engineering.
Launched in 2021, the Affiliated Ph.D. Program initiative has 21 active students, spread across 6 Portuguese higher education institutions: Universidade de Aveiro, Universidade de Coimbra, Universidade de Lisboa, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Universidade do Porto e Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE). According to Inês Lynce, co-director of the CMU Portugal Program: “the national coverage of candidates has been excellent, we have candidates from Institutions all over the country, and we hope to have even more since these scholarships can be awarded to any eligible candidate for a doctorate at any university in Portugal.”
The Affiliated Ph.D. Program initiative also has the objective of strengthening the collaboration between Portuguese higher education institutions and Portuguese companies, encouraging potential candidates to submit applications involving collaboration with a Company in the work plan. “We currently have Affiliated students collaborating with top companies such as Unbabel, Outsystems, NOS Comunicações or Farfetch, which is without a doubt an added value for students, but it also proves that some of the main national ICT companies are committed to investing in our students and in collaborating with the CMU Portugal Program”, explains Nuno Nunes, National co-director of the Program.
The scholarships are available on a competitive basis and will fully support the tuition fees, plus a monthly stipend for up to 4 years, including financial support during the research period at CMU. After the Ph.D. conclusion, candidates will be awarded one degree granted by the Portuguese Host Institution.
The admissions period will run from February 15, 2023, at 12:00 (GMT) to March 31, 2023 at 12:00 (GMT).
More on how to apply is available on the “Admissions and Scholarships” page on the CMU Portugal website.
The Affiliated Ph.D. Program was launched for the first time in the 2021/22 academic year with 12 selected students, and in 2022/23, a group of 11 new students entered the Program.
About Carnegie Mellon Portugal Program (CMU Portugal)
The mission of the CMU Portugal Program is to place Portugal at the forefront of innovation in areas focused on information and communication technologies, through state-of-the-art research, excellence in postgraduate training, and a very close connection with Portuguese industry. The Program, funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology, is the result of a collaboration between the Portuguese government and the University of Carnegie Mellon (USA) in the area of Information and Communication Technologies, which began in October 2006 and has already been renewed until 2030. This international partnership involves, in addition to, Carnegie Mellon University, 15 Portuguese universities and +150 partner companies. The Program has supported 80 collaborative research projects, 12 of which were launched in 2020 in the Program’s most ambitious Competition to date.