Visiting PhD Fellow Program

Nordita's PhD Fellows visitor program is intended to offer selected PhD students the opportunity to spend time at Nordita and take advantage of the research environment and ongoing scientific activities at the institute and the AlbaNova University Center in Stockholm.

This can, in particular, include collaboration on research projects with Nordita academic staff and participation in Nordita Scientific Programs in areas of interest to the students, but should also be viewed as an opportunity to broaden their general knowledge, go beyond the topic of their PhD thesis, and to interact with researchers working in diverse areas of modern theoretical physics.

Visiting PhD fellows may also be interested in taking PhD-level courses offered at the Universities in Stockholm and Uppsala area.

Duration and Format

The visiting PhD fellowship covers 1-2 months of the accommodation in Stockholm as well as travel expenses up to 4000 SEK. Salary, fellowship or per diem are not provided. The applicants are encouraged to seek for extra external co-funding in order to extend their visit.

Requirements

The applicant must be registered elsewhere as a PhD student in one of the research areas covered by Nordita. The fellowship must be hosted by a Nordita academic staff at faculty or Postdoc level and must not be a PhD (co)advisor of the applicant. The topic of the project should be discussed with the tentative host from Nordita and go beyond the current topic of the PhD thesis in order to broaden the scope of the student. The co-hosting by an external faculty from the greater Stockholm area is encouraged but not required.

Application Deadlines

Applications are evaluated twice a year, with the submission deadlines:

• 10th of May for the visits roughly planned in following July–December, with the decisions announced by the 10th of June.
• 10th of November for the visits roughly planned in following January–June, with the decisions announced by the 10th of December.

Application

The application is prepared jointly by the PhD applicant and the Nordita host (external co-host). Please make sure to contact your hosts well in advance and discuss the prospective research plan.

The application should contain the following documents, prepared and sent by the applicant:

• CV of the applicant, including
  • applicant's name and e-mail
  • applicant’s home institute
  • start and prospective end dates and topic of applicant’s PhD thesis
  • name and e-mail of all applicant’s thesis advisors
  • name, institute and e-mail of one referee (if other than the thesis advisor)
  • list of publications
• A one-page description of the specific research problem to be addressed during the visit to Nordita, agreed with the host and co-host (reference list is not counted toward the one-page limit).

Prepared and sent by the host at Nordita:

• Motivational letter (preferably based on the following template [Word] [PDF] ), including
  • name of the Nordita host and, optional, external co-host
  • prospective dates of the visit (1-2 months)
  • possibility of additional co-funding to extend the duration of the visit
  • a brief description of the benefits of the visit, for applicant, and prospective links to other Swedish universities.

Prepared and sent by the applicants' PhD supervisor, or another referee:

• Approval letter for the visit of Nordita (preferably based on the following template), with clearly clarified co-funding limits: amount, travel, additional months..

Prepared and sent by the co-host from the Stockholm and Uppsala area (optional):

• Motivational letter (preferably based on the following template [Word] [PDF] ), stating their interest in co-hosting the applicant

All the application materials and the reference letters must be submitted via e-mail to visiting-phd@nordita.org, stating clearly the name of the applicant.