Apply for funding to employ a doctoral student together with an international partner university
As a researcher at KTH, you now have the opportunity to apply for partial funding of SEK 500,000 per year during a four-year period to employ a doctoral student together with one of KTH's international partner universities.
KTH is implementing an initiative for 12 joint doctoral students to strengthen relations with certain partner universities. The funding is supported by central KTH funds of 500 000 SEK/year to employ a doctoral student. The applicant must make sure to have an equal amount (approx. 500 000 SEK/year), which has to be stated in the application. The funding can come from the school/department or from external funds.
The doctoral student should be employed during the academic year 2025/26 (latest by 30 June 2026).
Mobility is a requirement for the doctoral student, but there is no requirement for a degree at both universities. The doctoral student must spend at least one year in total at one of our partner universities, which can be divided into several shorter periods. The supervisor at the partner university must be stated in the application.
Collaborations with a partner university that also appoint a doctoral student to the project will be prioritized.
Universities involved in the project are:
- Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China (Agreement for Joint PhD available)
- Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (Agreement for Joint PhD available)
- Technical University of Denmark, Denmark
- Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong
- Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India
- University of Tokyo, Japan
- University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom
For your application to be granted, the following is required:
- Relevance to KTH's strategies for research and international cooperation
- Excellence in collaboration
- Potential for increased future research collaboration
- That you are employed at KTH and have the right to be the main supervisor for doctoral students (full professor or docent)
Contact persons for the partner universities
Click to see contact persons at KTH for each partner university.
Interview with Vice President Stefan Östlund
Stefan Östlund, Vice President for Global Relations at KTH, answers questions about the initiative.
What does this investment mean?
— This means that we build strong ties between researchers from KTH and the partner universities. Jointly supervising doctoral students increases collaboration and will lead to increased co-publication.
Who can apply?
— Any KTH researcher with the right to be the main supervisor for doctoral students.
What can the individual researcher or department get out of this?
— Increased international collaboration and opportunities to create new research projects with the partner university.
How does it all work in a purely practical way?
— You must first make initial contact with a suitable colleague at one of the partner universities. Many researchers already have these contacts as we previously had "seed-funding" programmes in several cases. If you agree, you write a project description and report how and in what way the collaboration benefits KTH. The application itself is made through the application form.