There are 2 deadlines every year to submit the applications in the doctoral program in energy:
- April 15th
- December 15th
The commission of the doctoral program in energy individually evaluates the applications in:
- May
- End of January
The candidates receive a notification email of their status maximum 1 week after the commission of the doctoral program in energy met.
PhD candidates at EPFL are hired by laboratories and thus receive a salary that allows them to live in decent conditions in the Lausanne area.
The eligible applicants must possess a Master degree or a title judged equivalent. You must speak English fluently as all the courses and the reports during your PhD studies will be in that language. The TOEFL exam is highly recommended for the applicants who have not studies at least 3 years in English.
The candidate to the doctoral program in energy must have obtained a Master diploma or a title judged equivalent in a technological discipline such as mechanics, electricity, civil engineering, envrionmental science, physics, architecture or chemistry.
The persons having achieved a Bachelor in 4 years can apply but the doctoral program in energy may set conditions at the beginning of the PhD studies. It is usually a number of additional credits to be obtained during the 1st year of the PhD studies.
If you have questions: [email protected]
PhD studies in EDEY begin all along the year: the starting date depending on when the laboratory for which one will work has an open position. There is no notion of “semester” as in Bachelor/Master studies.
The laboratory directors/thesis directors have the most up-to-date information on available PhD candidate open positions. Vacancies mainly depend on status of other PhD candidates who are finishing their thesis, as well as the available funding for upcoming projects. The administration of the doctoral program in energy does not manage this information and cannot provide any details about possible positions.
The process of filling the online application is mandatory. This is why we advise you to apply and only then contact any potential director by email before the committee meeting. You will be much more likely to receive an answer if you contact the potential thesis director who are working in your research area.
Here are the steps to receive a letter of admission from the doctoral program in energy :
- You have to fill the online application form
- Your application must be complete (= received the 3 letters of recommendation)
- EDEY Committee must evaluate you (see below the 2 annual deadlines)
- EDEY Committee must confirm that you are deem fit to persue a PhD at EPFL
- A lab director must have an open position for you and be ready to hire you.
If one of these step is not fullfilled, the letter cannot be issued.
For doctoral studies information in energy, click on this link.
We remind you here that there are two deadlines during the year: April 30th and December 1st and that you need three letters of recommendation in your online application in order for it to be presented to our Committee.
The PhD studies begin all along the year. It depends on the date the laboratory for which you will work has an open position. There is no semester like in Bachelor/Master studies.
Once we have your complete online application file, our doctoral commission will carefully examine it on the basis of academic criteria. The decision of accepting or rejecting it will depend on your degree, your abilities, your motivation and to a lower extent, on the number of available places.
Do know that your referees are valid 1 year starting the date of your application submission even if you want to apply for another deadline.
Uploading your TOEFL or other English language diplomas on the EPFL online application form is not mandatory in the doctoral program in energy but strongly advised.
The doctoral program in energy has no specific requirements for TOEFL or GRE grades. Please take note that your English proficiency must be quite high as all the courses and the papers you will produce during the PhD studies will be in English.
If a laboratory director is interested by your application, he/she will most certainly interview you by phone first and assess your English level at the same time.
EDEY committee meets to evaluate applications around a month after the application deadline or sometimes even later. Consequently, no communication about the outcome of your application will take place before the committee meets.
If you are a PhD candidate from a Swiss or a foreign university, you can attend a PhD course at EPFL as an external auditor and receive a certificate for an equivalence of ECTS credits after you passed the exam. A registration fee may be requested.
For further details, please send an email to [email protected].