Instructions for granted EPFL-ETH Zürich summer schools

For any information concerning the administrative steps to be taken on the ETH Zürich side, please contact the Rector’s staff ([email protected])

EPFL doctoral candidates

The summer school must be registered in the course book of one of our doctoral programs, so that the EPFL doctoral candidates can obtain the credits. Please fill in the form Course proposal form for Summer or Winter Schools (PDF to downlad), and send it by email to the administrative assistant of the concerned doctoral program

Deadline: 28.02.2024

Please take note of the following:

• Title: maximum 50 characters including spaces
• ECTS credits: The summer school should grant 1 or 2 ECTS credits to doctoral candidates, depending on the decision of the EPFL doctoral program Director concerned
• Schedule: Dates when the summer school will take place
• Venue: Place where the summer school will take place
• Tuition fees (project subject to 7.7% VAT):

• Registration via: URL of the website of the summer school
• EPFL Professor in charge of validating the success of the summer school: The supporting professor should be mentioned in the first section of the form; he·she will be responsible to validate the success of the summer school for each participant
• Keywords: They will help finding the summer school on search engines

Please note that summer schools held in September or later will be published in the next academic year’s course book, in the summer

EPFL Master students

Please contact as soon as possible the relevant EPFL section to find out if credits count for EPFL Master students

List of EPFL participants

Please fill in the Template EPFL list participant (Excel file) and send it by email to the Doctoral School ([email protected])

Deadline: 2 weeks before the beginning of the summer school

Globally, the Organizing Committee is in charge of the whole organization, including marketing, of the summer school. The Doctoral School can help promoting the summer school by mentioning it on the webpage dedicated to EPFL-ETH Zürich summer schools 

Please provide the Doctoral School ([email protected]) with:

• 1 image (jpg or png, recommended image size: 1920×1080) that represents the summer school
• A short description (max. 850 characters, including spaces) of your summer school that can be placed below the image

Deadline: 28.02.2024

In order to promote your summer school on the ETH Zürich website, please ask your ETH Zürich co-organizer(s) to get in contact with ETH Zürich Rector’s staff ([email protected])

Other promotional suggestions:

• Create an event and publish it on the EPFL memento
• Broadcast on Polynex screens

You should create a website for the summer school that will provide all information regarding the program (day by day), content, speakers, location, registration, etc. Please go to the “Request a website” page to read the EPFL good practices. Then, click on “Get a WordPress site” button, fill out the form and click on the “submit” button. Finally, please forward the website link to the Doctoral School ([email protected]). Please note that the website should be linked to your unit, in order to have the rights to edit it

Deadline: 28.02.2024

EPFL Doctoral School kindly requests that you create an EPFL email address (e.g., [email protected]) for people to contact you easily. To obtain it, please contact the IT manager of your faculty to create the address through the web interface: https://services.epfl.ch. Then please forward the email address to the Doctoral School ([email protected])

Deadline: 28.02.2024

The summer school should be listed in the EPFL concerned doctoral program’s course book. That will allow every doctoral student participant to be registered in IS-Academia (by the Registrar’s Office) and obtain the ECTS credits; it’s also a good way to promote the summer school

To do so, please fill in the form Course proposal form for Summer or Winter Schools (PDF to downlaod) and send it to the administrative assistant of the concerned doctoral program

Please take note of the following:

• Title: maximum 50 characters including spaces
• ECTS credits: The summer school should grant 1 or 2 ECTS credits to doctoral candidates, depending on the decision of the EPFL doctoral program Director concerned
• Schedule: Dates when the summer school will take place
• Venue: Place where the summer school will take place
• Tuition fees (project subject to 7.7% VAT):

• Registration via: URL of the website of the summer school
• EPFL Professor in charge of validating the success of the summer school: The supporting professor should be mentioned in the first section of the form; he·she will be responsible to validate the success of the summer school for each participant
• Keywords: They will help finding the summer school on search engines

Deadline: 28.02.2024

Please note that summer schools held in September or later will be published in the next academic year’s course book, in the summer

The summer school must take place between March and September 2024, on premises of the ETH Domain or other locations of your choosing in Switzerland

If you plan to do your summer school on the EPFL campus, you can book a room using the form for occasional booking of rooms for internal or academic purposes available here

Please consider the Checklist for a sustainable EPFL event

The summer school should be opened to doctoral candidates of the ETH Domain – EPFL, ETH Zürich and the 4 research institutes – (at least 2/3 of participants), as well as candidates from selected Swiss and international institutions (maximum 1/3). In total, it should have 20-30 participants. Please make sure to respect this ratio, since it is one of the conditions to financially contribute to your summer school

Once you decided to admit participants, please provide them with the link to a registration form for final registration and payment. Only participants who subscribed and paid the fees will be registered to the summer school by the EPFL Registrar’s Office. Without this registration, no ECTS credits can be obtained

Once the registration is closed, please send the list of participants by email to [email protected]. The list should contain the mandatory following information (please see Excel template):

• For EPFL candidates: last name, first name, sciper number, academic level, amount paid and if they want the ECTS credits;
• For non-EPFL candidates: last name, first name, date of birth, gender, university, academic level, email address, amount paid and if they want the ECTS credits

The Doctoral School then will forward the list to the Registrar’s Office for registration

Deadline: 2 weeks before the beginning of the summer school

ECTS credits can only be given to doctoral candidates who:

• Paid their participation fees
• Followed the entire summer school
• Passed the final examination

Depending on the summer school, a written report, presentation, poster (on the new knowledge learned during the summer school), or group project will have to be submitted by the doctoral candidates in order to pass the summer school and obtain the related ECTS credits. The EPFL supporting Professor evaluates and grades the work

For EPFL Master students: It is their sections that decide wether or not the ECTS credits count for their Master studies. It is therefore up to them to contact their sections. However, sections should be made aware of the summer school in advance. You can find more information here

For ETH Zürich Master students: please contact the study coordinator of the respective study programs as soon as possible, in order to know if credits can count or not

At the end of the summer school, the Registrar’s Office will ask the EPFL supervising Professor of the summer school to enter grades (Fail/Pass) in their teacher portal on IS-Academia. From then on, EPFL students will see the ECTS credits appearing on their portal. External students (not registered at EPFL) received an email with their credentials for IS-Academia, and with this access they can upload their certificate of ECTS credits

No certificate can be given to participants. If they want a proof of their participation in the summer school, the ECTS credit transcript is proof

With the help of the administrative assistant of your lab, you will have to open a special account (third-party funds under the financial center of your unit) which will serve to pay all bills and receive money from participants and/or sponsors. Please make sure that the administrative assistant will be available to process the payment of invoices

Tickets for speakers should be booked through the EPFL travel agency and directly charged to the summer school account, to avoid paperwork related to reimbursements

For your information, ETH Domain speakers are not paid for their lectures

In parallel, you are asked to keep accounts (Excel file) to ensure you well manage your budget

Once the summer school is over, you will have to provide the Doctoral School ([email protected]) a detailed statement (Excel file) showing the amount – which cannot be greater than the amount initially requested – that is needed to balance the accounts, as well as the Infocentre entries or invoices confirming the information in the detailed statement (the Excel file), and the information on the participants, number and affiliated university (Excel file). Substantial deviations from the original budget or the origin of participants must be justified

After Doctoral School’s validation, with the help of the lab secretary, you will have to send us an internal invoice via Sesame for the amount to be reimbursed. If the amount which is necessary to cover your expenses is higher than the subsidy granted, you should find external funding

Deadline: 01.10.2024