FAQ

The programme is organized in 7 residential modules, consisting of 4-5 consecutive days each. This setup makes it perfect also for participants residing outside the Netherlands, as they only have to travel a limited number of times to Rotterdam. 

Year 1, Three residential modules focusing on research methods, essential skills, and developing your research proposal.

Year 2, One residential module covering field-specific specialisations, master classes, and a ‘back to campus’ module for presenting your work.

Years 3-4, A ‘back to campus’ module to support your ongoing research.

Years 5-6, Ongoing dissertation writing and finalisation. 

Have a look at our research areas (link “Open PhD projects”) and try to connect your idea to the themes described there. Have a look at the (academic) literature regarding these themes and topics: To what extent is your question already answered? To what extent is it new, and adds to the body of knowledge that is already there? Have similar problems been researched in the literature – and how have researchers approached them? Would that approach also work for your question?

The research proposal that you submit in your application (if any) will serve as a first point of departure with your potential supervisors, and will develop over the first year in the programme into a proper academic research proposal.  

No, this is not mandatory. It is mandatory to submit a sample of academic writing, which can be a research proposal, but could also be a thesis excerpt or a paper.

However, it increases your chances of acceptance.

You can find the information here.

If you already obtained a PhD degree, or in the process of obtaining such a degree elsewhere, you cannot be admitted to the PhD program or promotion at Erasmus University Rotterdam, unless a second PhD is in a significantly different scientific discipline, an exception must be requested from the Doctorate Board. 

We are sorry, but if you missed the deadline you will need to wait to apply next year. 

For the 2026 cohort we aim to have approximately 20/25 candidates. Our acceptance number depends on the number of supervisors available.

If you have a personal contact with a professor, you may contact them directly to see whether they are interested in your project and/or acting as a supervisor for your project. If you don’t have a connection yet, we advise you to contact a Professor or a Associate professor (within you are of interest), sending “they”/them a small Research proposal and see what happens. A full overview of faculty members is available here.

Currently we have no scholarships available.

The programme fee is € 10,000 per year for the first two years, €7,000 per year for years 3 and 4, and €6,000 for each subsequent year, up to a maximum of €46,000.