PhD Guidelines

Preface
Malaria remains a global health problem, with 300 to 500 million clinical cases and 1 to 3 million deaths annually. The BioMalPar consortium recognizes the necessity to train young scientists in malaria research, not only to sustain Europe’s excellence in this field but also to train talented investigators from endemic countries in order to establish a sustainable academic environment in these countries in a research area that is most relevant to their immediate public health problems. For these reasons, the BioMalPar consortium has decided to establish an international PhD programme under the aegis of EMBL. The PhD programme will support highly qualified scientists to conduct collaborative research projects between two or more institutions.

Eligibility
Candidates must hold, or anticipate receiving before enrolment, a university degree in the life sciences or medicine from an internationally recognized university or institution, that would formally qualify them to enter a PhD or equivalent programme in their home country. In case of qualified graduates with a Bachelor degree, a Master degree or comparable research experience is strongly recommended.

Recruitment
Suitable candidates will be selected on a competitive basis and will be interviewed by the two PhD advisors and representatives of BioMalPar, nominated by the Executive Board.

Selection of cooperative research projects
By means of an open call, i.e. advertisement in appropriate scientific journals and on the webpages of BioMalPar and the participating institutions, BioMalPar will solicit applications for integrated and collaborative projects on innovative malaria research. Eligible are institutions from the European Community and associated member countries, which include members of the BioMalPar consortium. Only collaborative research projects encompassing two or more institutions are considered. The application should include:

• abstract,
• introduction,
• objectives,
• work programme,
• justification of cooperative research,
• detailed career development plan for the PhD student including nomination of two supervisors, proposed formal training courses, secondments, attendance of national and international meetings,
• designation of one of the sponsoring institutions as the degree-granting institution.
  

The applications will be evaluated by the BioMalPar Executive Board or by reviewers appointed by it.

Supervision of training programme and progress reports
The Executive Board will appoint a member of the BioMalPar consortium as Director of BioMalPar PhD Studies, to oversee the operation of this programme according to the agreed standards and procedures.
Except for special circumstances leading to a different decision by the Executive Board, the length of the PhD studies under this programme is 3.5 years. The Board (or the Director if delegated by the Board) will select two affiliated members to constitute, together with the two supervisors, a PhD Thesis Advisory Committee (TAC) for each PhD student. The TAC will review annually the student's progress and make written recommendations accompanying the student's written report. Unless otherwise authorized, the committee will meet with the student in person for each review. The first yearly review will take place within the student's first year in the BioMalPar programme, and will constitute a Qualifying Assessment. The student will prepare a Project Proposal that introduces the problem to be solved, reviews critically the experimental approaches that are proposed, and summarizes his or her initial results. The quality of preparation and oral defense of the Project Proposal will be judged by the TAC and must be accepted by the committee unanimously for BioMalPar funding to be continued past the first year. In case of non-acceptance, and at the discretion of the Director of BioMalPar PhD Studies, a second Qualifying Assessment may take place within two months for a final decision concerning continuation of support. The Director of PhD Studies joins the TAC for this decision.

Administration of the PhD programme
The PhD fellowships and associated costs, such as travel for TAC meetings, will be met from a special BioMalPar fund held by EMBL.
PhD students will be given BioMalPar PhD programme contracts by EMBL. Students will have two or more bases of operation, one in Heidelberg and the others corresponding to the respective supervisor’s institutions. They will be treated as being principally based in Heidelberg, Germany, and when not training in Heidelberg they will be treated as being on secondment to their other bases.

Financial support
Students will receive a stipend similar to that for EMBL PhD students. This will be tax free, but subject to deductions in respect of EMBL Health Insurance. The gross monthly grants in 2004-2005 will be € 1 710.00. There will be no pension contributions or provisions. Additionally, students will be entitled to a family allowance of € 170.00 if they are married or have dependent children and a child allowance of € 185.00 for each dependent child.
No financial commitments will be made by EMBL except as requested by the BioMalPar Director of Graduate Studies, and none that extends beyond the end of the European Commission funding of the BioMalPar Network of Excellence.

General standards for the PhD degree
BioMalPar will adopt the standards for the PhD degree as recommended by the Committee on Education of The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, which are also consistent with those of the EMBL International PhD Programme.

Standard in the PhD degree in the Molecular Biosciences

EMBL International PhD programme statutes