Certificate of Excellence

In addition to the local university PhD degree, EURON offers an additional EURON PhD Certificate of Excellence, which will be awarded if the PhD student fulfils the required criteria in terms of training, networking, international mobility, and scientific publications. The EURON PhD Certificate of Excellence is recognized by the Governing Boards of the participating universities. Since one important requirement for the certificate is mobility, PhD students are encouraged to spend a period of at least 3 months abroad to receive international experience.

EURON PhD students may obtain a EURON certificate if they meet the following requirements:

• The PhD thesis is written in English.
• The PhD student has participated in EURON activities (courses, PhD days, organizational and outreach), totaling at least 6 ECTS*.
• The dissertation review committee or the dissertation defense committee should have one member of another EURON partner University.
• During her/his PhD project, the PhD student undertook a scientific exchange visit(s) preferably to other EURON research groups (or other international research groups) for a total period of at least 3 months (cumulative).
• The thesis should consist of one or more published (or accepted) paper(s) with a cumulative Impact Factor of at least 8**.

*1 ECTS is equal with 28 hours of work (including preparatory work and assignments)
**For 1st /last authorship of original research paper: Journal Impact Factor; for co-authorship: 0,5 x Journal Impact Factor; for 1st /last authorship of review paper: 0,25 x Journal Impact Factor

For more information whether you qualify for the certificate or if you have other questions, contact the EURON office (secr.euron@maastrichtuniversity.nl)