How to apply for BIODIV Scholarships

 

Applications should be submitted by email to applications@biodiv.pt between 8 of May and 8 of June 2015 (24:00 GMT), with the following mandatory supporting documents (written in Portuguese or English):

  • BIODIV Application Form;
  • Curriculum vitae;
  • Motivation Letter;
  • Copy of the official academic certificate(s) of all awarded degrees (BSc, MSc) with the inclusion of the overall final grade;
  • Copy of the official academic transcripts of all awarded degrees (BSc, MSc) with the inclusion of the several classifications per course;
  • Evidence of equivalence/recognition of the academic degrees (BSc, MSc) completed abroad, and conversion of the grade into the Portuguese scale, testified by a Portuguese public institution for higher education (Not necessary for degrees completed in the countries with official conversion of grading scales – list available here). More information at ‘Direção Geral do Ensino Superior’ (www.dges.mctes.pt and info.naric@dges.mec.pt).

 

Motivation letters (1-2 pages) should include an explanation of why candidates want to enroll in the BIODIV Programme, in the context of their academic and professional track record, as well as an indication of the research topics they are interested in.

 

Students are integrated in PhD research projects under specific themes to be selected during the first year of the programme in accordance with the students' interest and guided by the Directive Board. BIODIV students can enroll in the ongoing projects in the research units with an extremely broad range of methods, theoretical approaches and applications (see further information at CIBIO-InBIO and cE3c).

 

All documents must be saved starting with "first name’ followed by ‘last name’ in capital letters (example: MariaSANTOS_CV.pdf). Spaces must not be used (these should be replaced by hyphens or underscores).

 

External links for documents (CV, Motivation Letter, Certificates) must not be provided, unless it is absolutely necessary. All documents must be sent as e-mail attachments.

 

 

 

Instruction on how to fill in the Application Form

 

To fill in and save the Application Form please use Adobe Acrobat Reader © X or (preferentially) XI. The form should be saved as PDF (and not as an image).

 

Each candidate is responsible for the information provided. An applicant who provides misleading, false or incomplete information may be excluded.

 

The first ranking of BIODIV applications will take into account – for criteria A and B - only the information provided in the Application Form.

 

It is mandatory to indicate in which university candidates are applying for a scholarship: University of Porto or University of Lisbon. Based on the merit of the candidates, the Jury Panel will select the best six candidates applying to the University of Porto and the best six candidates applying to the University of Lisbon. The evaluation panel may decide not to award all the scholarships if the curricula, experience and motivation of the candidates are considered insufficient.

 

The following information concerning awarded degrees (BSc, MSc) must also be provided:

  • official name of the programme;
  • institution granting the academic degree;
  • type of degree (Bologna, Pre-bologna or other);
  • original final grade and the corresponding scale (example: 8 out of 10);
  • grade conversion to Portuguese scale (0-20)* (example: 16 out of 20) - Application rules available here;
  • date of conclusion;
  • type and number of credits effectively completed;
  • official duration of the degree in years (and not the number of years spent to conclude the degree).

 

In case the candidate has already been funded by FCT, with a PhD scholarship of any duration, please tick the correspondent box in the form.

 

Concerning professional experience in research projects, only grants and paid positions should be considered (and not volunteer experiences).


In terms of publications, candidates should only indicate original works, either published or in press (with doi). Submitted papers will not be taken into account.

 

To complete the application form, candidates should indicate three people to act as referees who, at our request, will be able to evaluate their academic and research performance. 'Recommendation Letters’ should not be sent during the application process.

 

Click here to access the Application Form.