Admission to doctoral education at NVS

Step 1. Establishment of a PhD position at NVS

The application for the establishment of a doctoral position is reviewed in an establishment meeting. The main supervisor must attend the meeting, preferably with one or several co-supervisors. During the meeting, the content of the application is discussed with a group of members from the department's research education committee (FoUK). The meeting takes c. 30 minutes. 

The committee's feedback is sent to the main supervisor within a week.

Send the following documents to doctoraleducation@nvs.ki.se:

• Form Establishment of doctoral position
  The form should be signed by both the applicant and the head of division
• Form Application for green light
  The form should be signed by both the applicant and the head of division
• Research plan (5-7 pages including references). Use the NVS reserch plan template which you will find in the Documents section.
• Supervisors’ CV (max 2 pages each) 
• Description of the competence and role of each supervisor in relation to the research project
• Description of doctoral education environment
• If exemption from advertising: Document verifying the reason for exemption
• Financial plan
  The form should be signed by both the main supervisor and the head of division. Any additional person responsible for the funding should also sign the financial plan
• In case of external funding: The head of organization signs the form and writes a certificate stating that there is funding for the entire study period and that there is time allocated for doctoral studies
• In case of external funding outside Sweden, a collaboration agreement is required

The director of doctoral studies, administrative head, and head of department sign the application only after it has been approved by FoUK. 

Please note, that no documents are sent directly to the head of department. 

An approved application is valid for one year.

Step 2. Recruitment

If the PhD position is advertised, contact the HR unit and caroline.mattisson@ki.se.  

You will find more information about the recruitment process on KI's web page.

Step 3. Admission decision

After your application for establishing a PhD position is approved and after the recruitment is completed, the PhD student is admitted to the doctoral education. 

Send the following documents to doctoraleducation@nvs.ki.se:

• Form Decision on Admission to Doctoral Education 
  Both the main supervisor and co-supervisors sign the form. The PhD student signs by hand on page 2 and the original document is sent to Heli Vänskä. For the adress, see below.
• Certificate of supervisor training (max 5 years old)
• Eligibility statement. Contact heli.vanska@ki.se for the current link to Varbi
• Description of the selection process
• PhD student’s CV
• Copy of the PhD student’s ID card 

The start date for the PhD student’s doctoral studies is usually the same as the date of the head of department’s decision. If the PhD student wishes for a later start date, enter it in the designated box on the first page of the application form.

Step 4. ISP and ISP seminar

No later than one month from the start date of the studies, a draft for an individual study plan (ISP) should be created in the digital system (eISP). You will forward it to the director of doctoral studies after the ISP seminar.

Please note, that it is the main supervisor who needs to create the study plan, as the supervisor who initiates the study plan is automatically assigned the role of main supervisor (this cannot be adjusted afterwards). 

Furthermore, it is important that the PhD student and the supervisor write a comment in the message log if significant changes have been made to the research plan since the decision to establish the PhD position was made. 

You will find information about the eISP-system and a user guide on KI's web page. 

Responsibilities of the main supervisor

The main supervisor is responsible for arranging the ISP-seminar at the division. The division's FoUK representative should attend, and if possible, even the second FoUK representative from another department who participated in the admission process. 

The seminar is held in English and is open to at least all the members of the division. For further information on how your division is arranging the seminars, contact your division's FoUK-representative.

The invitation, with cc to Heli Vänskä, should be sent at least two weeks prior to the planned seminar.

An ISP seminar should include the following elements:

• The FoUK representative welcomes everyone and gives a brief presentation of KI, NVS, and the department 
• The supervisor and the PhD student introduce themselves
• The PhD student presents his/hers research project and gives an overview of how the doctoral studies will be conducted
• The FoUK representatives and other seminar participants ask questions and provide constructive criticism to help and support the PhD student

The ISP seminar takes approximatelly an hour, including the Q&A session.

The purpose of an ISP seminar is to welcome the PhD student to the division. The research plan does not need to be reviewed as it has already been done during the establishment meeting. 

After the ISP seminar

The main supervisor and the PhD student update the individual study plan and make sure that it is correctly filled in and that all the mandatory documents are uploaded in the system (research plan, ethical permits, doctoral student’s CV).

No later than three months after the study start, the ISP must be established