CYD Master Thesis Fellowships will provide a living allowance and research funds for six months, enabling fellows to complete a Master thesis at the CYD Campus under the supervision of a professor at a higher education institution in Switzerland.
The CYD Master Thesis applicants can select one master thesis topic out of several topics defined by the CYD Campus, or they may propose their own thesis topic (in which case, they must select “other” on the application platform). The full list of topics is available here.
This program is highly competitive, and the primary evaluation criterion is excellence, as measured by academic records and professional accomplishments. Candidates applying for a CYD fellowship are expected to have excellent grade transcripts.
Mission
The CYD Master Thesis Fellowships are open to researchers at master level who are willing to engage with issues cutting across the frontiers of cyber-security and data science, with a particular emphasis on:
- Protection of confidentiality, integrity, and availability of cyber and cyber-physical systems.
- Information sharing, data fusion and crowdsourcing.
- Data science & AI methods for analysing cyber- and technology-relevant data.
- Security, privacy and digital trust technologies.
Eligibility requirements
- Citizens of any nationality may apply for the CYD Master Thesis Fellowships.
- No age restrictions apply.
- Applicants must be enrolled in a Master program at a higher education institution (university or school of applied sciences) in Switzerland and have the endorsement of a professor employed in this institution willing to supervise them.
Funding
Eligible costs include and are limited to:
- Living allowance equal to CHF 2’000.- per month for a maximum duration of 6 months.
- Research costs: a maximum amount of CHF 1’500 can be granted for research costs (only for specific equipment needed for the project, not general IT material).
Research and conference costs can be granted during the fellowship upon submission of a request with a justification for the funding.
How to apply
Please read carefully the application guidelines.
Explore the Application toolkit.
All required documents must be submitted via the online submission platform.
All documents must be submitted in English.
Deadline
Rolling call for Proposals
Selection process
The selection process includes two stages.
In Stage 1 the submitted applications will be evaluated by a CYD Campus internal committee chaired by the Director of the CYD Campus, based on the following criteria: the fit of the candidate with the CYD Campus and the fit of the candidate’s Stage 1 application with the aims of the program.
Shortlisted applicants will be assigned a prospective CYD Campus mentor. This prospective mentor will interview the applicant to determine if he or she is willing to endorse the applicant for Stage 2. Only those applicants who are endorsed by their prospective CYD Campus mentor will be able to proceed to Stage 2.
Final decisions are made by a committee chaired by the Director of the CYD Campus and composed of 3-5 members representing the CYD Campus and Swiss higher education institutions.