The ITM offers doctoral programmes in fields ranging from molecular biology to health systems research, in collaboration with Belgian and foreign universities. The actual doctoral degree is awarded by the university, following public defence of the thesis. Each PhD student is jointly supervised by an ITM supervisor and a university supervisor or a supervisor from the student’s home institution, in case of a sandwich PhD. The research work takes place at the ITM and/or in the field. The doctoral research and course work will typically take four years. The programme curriculum consists mainly of a comprehensive original research project, resulting in a thesis based on one’s own publications in international peer-reviewed journals. Depending on the university, course work is optional and tailored towards the individual needs of the candidates.
Currently, around 100 doctoral students are working on their PhD at the ITM. Half of them are from developing countries and completing a sandwich programme, with activities that are divided between the ITM and their home country. Several project-related PhD sandwich scholarships are provided under the ITM-DGDC Framework Agreement. In addition, each year the ITM offers a few ‘individual’ sandwich PhD scholarships for alumni.
If you feel passionate about research and would like to make an original contribution to the research fields in which the ITM is active, please discuss the opportunities for doing PhD research with the appropriate ITM professor. For more general information about PhD research at the ITM, please contact the Research Coordinator.