Arab Fund Postgraduate Fellowships at ICTP

The ICTP-Arab Fund Programme supports 10 fellowships for PhD students from Arab countries to access ICTP’s research and training facilities in the years 2024-2027. The fellowships will allow fellows to visit ICTP for a total of 11 months, split into three visits over the three years. Fellows will carry out research/training towards their PhD within the Sandwich Training Educational Programme (STEP) at ICTP (see https://www.ictp.it/opportunity/ictpiaea-sandwich-training-education-programme), mentored by co-supervisors at ICTP in coordination with their supervisors at their home institutes.

Arab Fund photo

Fields of study: any of the ICTP fields of research

Duration: 3 years; stay of 3 months in year 1, 3 months in year 2, and 5 months in year 3

Fields of research

Mathematics

High Energy, Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics

Condensed Matter and Statistical Physics

Earth System Physics

Quantitative Life Sciences

Science, Technology and Innovation

Other

Medical Physics

Who can apply

PhD students who are nationals of and enrolled in a PhD programme in an Arab Fund Member States are eligible.

Arab Fund Member States are: Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Syria, Sudan, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen.

The programme aims at an equitable participation of fellows and encourages applications from women scientists. Priority will be given to young researchers.

Entitlements

The fellowship includes a stipend of EU 1,400 per month during each stay at the ICTP, as well as the costs of travel and medical insurance.

It is understood that, during all other periods not covered by the fellowship, i.e. when at the home institute, all support needed for continuing and finishing the fellow’s research work is provided by other funding sources.

Fellowships are awarded by the merit of the thesis proposed by the student and the home country advisor, as decided by the selection committee. Once a fellow is selected, he/she will be assigned an ICTP co-advisor in the appropriate research area. The advisors from both the home and the host institutes will jointly supervise the fellow's research. The two advisors are expected to coordinate the research and training work of the fellow, which is concluded when the fellow student obtains the PhD at his/her home institute.

How to apply

Interested candidates should apply to the STEP programme, following the STEP applications procedure.

The online application form is here.

Applicants should complete the online form (Part I). Once this form is submitted with also the contact details (email) of the applicant's PhD supervisor at the home institute, the home supervisor will receive a link to fill out the second part of the application (Part II). Only complete applications with both online forms (i.e., Part I & Part II) submitted by the deadline will be considered.

Applications and supporting documentation are accepted only via the ICTP online application system. Applications, supporting documents and additional information arriving by other means (email or regular post) will not be considered.

The online application form requires the following information:

PART I - Candidate's application

The online application comprises two parts where information must be entered:

Student's Profile - The first part is a profile of the applicant themselves. Once completed, it is saved (but may be updated whenever needed) and is thus available for all applications to ICTP.

Student's Application - Once the profile is completed the application for a STEP fellowship will become available. Students will be asked to:

provide the title of their PhD project (this could also be a thesis title);
describe the research proposal or training programme to be supported by this fellowship (please note that the area of research must be of relevance to the list of sub fields as in the announcement of this programme): this includes a summary of the research activity/project to be supported by this fellowship (one page minimum), reference to previous work/publications relevant to this project done by the applicants or his/her PhD supervisor and a time outline of the proposal including specific objectives to be achieved and dates;
suggest the name of a co-supervisor at ICTP;
upload a copy of their English proficiency certificate in pdf format (this can be any certificate or document, which gives proof of their ability to follow advanced level courses, to study and to write scientific articles in the English language);
upload any other document to support their application, such as an acceptance letter from a suggested co-supervisor or host Lab.

Once the application is submitted, students will be asked to send the invitation to their PhD supervisor at their home institute. Their Supervisor will receive an invitation email with a link to fill the second part of the application (Part II) along with the instructions on how to proceed with the application - including the deadline for the application.

Applications without the Supervisor's part won't be considered.

Note that logging out of the system saves whatever information has been entered (after clicking on the Save button). While it is possible to make changes or additions at any time to the profile, the application form itself is closed immediately after the deadline and can no longer be modified (it is however visible as a pdf file on your "Open applications" page).

PART II - Home Supervisor's part

This part comprises two sections where information must be entered:

1. Home Supervisor's Profile - The first section is a profile of the home supervisors themselves. Once completed, it is saved (but may be updated whenever needed) and is thus available for all applications to ICTP.

2. Home Supervisor's supporting information- Once the profile is completed the part regarding the student (Fellow)'s application becomes available.

The supervisors will be asked to:

Explain how the experience gained by the Fellow's participation in the STEP fellowship will directly benefit scientific research at their Institute;
Provide specific information regarding potential ICTP or European collaborators with expertise relevant to the Fellow's research project;
Give a justification of the applicant´s research plan;
Provide a list of recent publications on ongoing research work;
Provide the titles of the Ph.D. theses already supervised in the last 5 years;
Upload a recommendation letter for the applicant's participation in the programme.