How to apply

Eligibility criteria

• Eligible applicant is an early-stage researchers, who do not have a doctoral degree.
• Eligible applicant holds a Master’s degree or an equivalent degree in relevant discipline. Accepted disciplines of the previous degrees will be listed in the call under project descriptions. The degree must have been completed when the application time ends. The total grade of the Master’s degree must be at least on the level good.
• The applicant must not have resided or carried out their main activity in Finland for more than 12 months in 36 months immediately before the deadline of the application call.
• The applicant must prove their English proficiency with an English Test accepted by the University of Turku Graduate School. Applicants are exempt from doing an English language test if they for example hold a Bachelor’s degree (or higher) completed in English in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK, the USA, Switzerland or in an EU/EEA country (this list is not exhaustive).  Please carefully check the language requirements on the website of the University of Turku Graduate School: https://www.utu.fi/en/research/utugs/how-to-apply/language. Please note that the University of Turku Graduate School has updated language requirements in terms of the countries where a previous degree completed in English is sufficient to demonstrate the required language skills on 21 December 2023. Updated requirements apply to the UTU-GreDiT applicants.

UTU-GreDiT offers 30 research projects, the associated UTU-GreDiT research group and the planned secondment hosts for you.

In addition, you can also propose a research project linked to the topics of UTU-GreDiT. Please familiarise with the research done at University of Turku.  If you are proposing a partner(s) beyond the listed partners on our website, a letter of commitment from partner(s) is required. Please request the formal template from UTU-GreDiT coordinator.

Please, note that you can only apply one UTU-GreDiT PhD project. If you apply more than one position, the application submitted first through the online recruitment system will be evaluated.

Do you have a question about a specific PhD project, do you want to notify the supervisor about your interest in the project, or do you want to receive notifications regarding the call?

Please fill in the expression of interest form found here: https://link.webropol.com/s/expressionofinterestutugredit

• Attach scanned original master’s degree certificate and transcript of study records (in the language that the degree was completed in). If the original degree certificates or transcripts of study records are not written in English, Finnish, or Swedish, official translations to one of these languages must also be submitted. An official translation refers to a translation of the educational documents issued by the awarding institution, or a translation made by an authorised translator.
• If you need to verify your language skills with a language test, make sure that you book your test time well in advance. Link to www page describing when a language test is not required.

The research plan (maximum length of research plan is three A4 pages including references, font Times New Roman 12pt, margins 1,5cm and spacing 1) should include your name, title of the planned research project and description the research objectives, methods and required infrastructure or other resources. If the research plan exceeds the maximum length, only the first three pages will be considered.

The research plan should follow the guidelines for the responsible conduct of research (Link to the guidelines:  Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) | Finnish National Board on Research Integrity TENK). The research plan can be checked with the Turnitin OriginalityCheck plagiarism detection software.The use of artificial intelligence (AI) to assist in the preparation of the research plan wider role than checking grammar or generating short expressions should be clearly indicated in the research plan.

Curriculum vitae (maximum length of the curriculum vitae is two pages) of the applicant including the list of peer-reviewed scientific publications with full reference details. A recommended template for the curriculum vitae is available on the website of the Finnish National Board of Research integrity.

A motivation letter (maximum length of the motivation letter is two pages) is a freeform document, in which an applicant is expected to describe their motivation for pursuing doctoral studies and for conducting research, as well as their research interests. Applicants should also describe their interests toward the research groups at UTU and/or Associated Partners.

An applicant must fill in and deliver the ethics self-assessment form prior to signing a work contract at UTU. The template is available above. The form follows the ethics issues checklist and instructions of European Commission.

Applicants can submit the reference letters on the electronic form as an attachment, or referees can send letters directly to the Programme Coordinator of UTU-GreDiT (utu-gredit@utu.fi). Reference letters are not compulsory attachments.

After the application period ends the eligibility of the applicants will be checked by the Programme Coordinator of the UTU-GreDiT Programme and the student admission services of UTU. If an applicant does not complete the compulsory attachments, the application will not be considered in
the evaluation. The applicants will be informed about the results of their eligibility, including any reason for ineligibility and process for appeals on procedural grounds.

The applications will be evaluated by the external evaluators by three main criteria: 1) quality of the applicant 2) applicant’s motivation 3) quality of the research plan.

• The eligible applications will be evaluated by external evaluators.
• The shortlisted applicants will be invited to interviews.
• The Selection Committee will make a selection proposal to the Programme Board. The Programme Board will make the final decision according to the proposal. The decision includes 25 selected applicants and an ordered waiting list of those applicants who were among the best selected applicants.
• All the applicants will be informed of the final decisions.

If you are unsatisfied with the evaluation process, leave a written justified appeal to UTU-GreDiT coordinator in seven days after receiving the evaluation.

You are warmly welcome to the UTU-GreDiT community!

Please, read more about appointment conditions and University of Turku services from UTU-GreDiT application guidelines.