Co-tutelle PhD Projects - Doing Your Doctoral Research in an International Context

In this talk I shall introduce the concept of PhD projects done in co-tutelle. In such a project the PhD student has two supervisors at two different universities, one in the home country and one at a European university and does also part of the work at the European supervisor's institution, either in one longer or in several shorter visits. The two institutions sign an agreement which stipulates that the student will defend the thesis at both universities but that the two doctoral degrees are only valid together because they refer to the same PhD project. The big advantage of such a co-tutelle PhD project is not only the international experience of the PhD student during the PhD but also that they automatically qualify for the Joint APS-ICTP-EPS Travel Award Fellowship Programme (https://www.ictp.it/opportunity/aps-eps-ictp-travel-award-fellowship-programme-atap) which provides funding for visits to not only European universities but also to US universities after the PhD, while the young researcher sets up her own research group in her home country. I shall explain how to set up such a co-tutelle PhD project and report on my own experience with supervising PhD students in co-tutelle.