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The Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG) is advertising six 4-year PhD positions for 2019. Doctoral students enrolled in the PhD Program at CRAG will acquire their PhD Degree from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) or the University of Barcelona (UB).  More details about the doctoral program at CRAG are available here: http://www.cragenomica.es/crag-phd-program

If interested in applying, please carefully examine the Application requirements and process and test out all available projects.

Application deadline is Thursday, August 30, 2018.  Applicants will be chosen by the Principal Investigator responsible for the selected project or projects (candidates can apply to more than 1 project). Successful applicants will begin their PhD projects in autumn 2019.

This four-year PhD grant is financed by the”National Programme for the Promotion of Talent and its Employability 2018″ from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities.

Application requirements and process:

Qualification

The program is aimed at international students who have completed one of the following choices by July 2019:

  • Studies that lead to an official Spanish (or by a different country of the European Higher Education Area) university degree in Biology, Biochemistry, Biotechnology, or associated areas and that have 300 credits (ECTS), of which 60 have to correspond to master level.
  • A degree in a non-Spanish university not adapted to the European Higher Education area which provides access to doctoral studies in Biology, Biochemistry, Biotechnology or related locations.

2. Candidates are chosen exclusively on merit, on the basis of the curriculum. Academic grades and the curriculum of applicants are assessed, in addition to reference letters and a motivation letter. No selection criteria for negative or positive discrimination are implemented.

3. Nominees can’t have a PhD Degree.

4. Candidates may not have now been hired as predoctoral students for over 12 months prior to the onset of the PhD Program.

5. Candidates may not have begun a pre-doctoral fellowship financed by the Spanish”Plan Estatal de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación Tecnológica” or some other preceding”Plan Nacional”.

How to apply:

Applicants must send the application materials directly to the Principal Investigator of this project or projects they’re interested in. Contact details are:

  • Curriculum vitae
  • A motivation letter, such as a short overview of work experience along with a statement of research interests and career goals (two pages maximum).
  • A scanned copy of this student’s certified Academic Record, such as a thorough record of analysis/transcript (a listing of attended courses and corresponding levels ): All these records must demonstrate the grades achieved in examination periods.
  • Copy of passport (international applicants only).
  • Any extra files considered applicable to the application, but please just provide documents which are important to encourage it. Don’t overload the application with documents and certificates of lesser importance.

Moreover, applicants need to ensure the submission of 2 reference letters from university lecturers or scientists with whom the applicant has worked or studied. Letters must be sent directly from the referees to the Principal Investigator of the requested project, and should likewise be obtained by the application deadline, August 30, 2018. Only letters using official letterhead and signature will be approved. Candidates are responsible for making sure that referees submit those letters, and ought to believe that referees may require a while to prepare and send their letters within the deadline. Applications without reference letters won’t be considered.

Please download referee request.

The doctoral program is currently in English. Thus, a good understanding of English is absolutely essential. We invite applicants to support the application with scores of globally legitimate language tests like TOEFL or additional evaluations. But they’re not compulsory: a verifiable education in English, or even a reasonably long stay in an English speaking country will also be persuasive.

More details about the research activities of all the study groups participating in this call are located at CRAG site.

Applicants should submit info in English (CV, and motivation letter including an outline of work experience). If the accredited academic documents aren’t in English, Catalan or Spanish, applicants should also attach a translation in these languages.

Applicants must send all of the necessary documents as PDF files of less than 10MB.

Please be aware we can only consider applications which are complete.

Selection process:

Applications will be assessed by the Principal Investigators that can host the fellows, and preselected based on their preferred application, grades, and reference letters.

Short-listed candidates will be interviewed by the Principal Investigator.

All these PhD positions are financed by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) and CRAG.  CRAG will aid the chosen applicants to submit the necessary documents in the Spanish MINECO site in fall 2018. Applicants who have never been successful but have received a favourable evaluation might be placed on a waiting list to cover potential renunciations and future positions.

Deadline: Thursday August 30, 2018

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