Erasmus Mundus (EMJD-DC) Scholarships

Overview

Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctorate in Distributed Computing (EMJD-DC) intends to become a permanent reference model for international doctoral studies in Distributed Systems and beyond. Students carry out their research work over up to four years in two universities from different countries, with additional mobility to industry in most projects. Joint training schools will cover both scientific topics and transferable skills, such as project and scientific management, communication, innovation techniques. EMJD-DC will initially award double degrees, however a task will study pathways to the implementation of a Joint Degree.

The research projects address some of the key technological challenges of our time, mainly but not exclusively: ubiquitous data-intensive applications, scalable distributed systems (including Grid and Cloud computing, and P2P models), adaptive distributed systems (autonomic computing, green computing, decentralized and voluntary computing), and applied distributed systems (distributed algorithms and systems, working in an inter-disciplinary manner, in existing and emerging fields to address industrial and societal needs in the European and worldwide context.

The consortium partners assembled in EMJD-DC have a high international reputation in the research fields described above. They complement each other very well in their specialisation fields of research, and in the corresponding training offers. The first language of all training and research activities will be English, but students will be exposed to local languages.

Our Consortium has a strong track record of participation in international projects for research and education, and in particular with each other. Three consortium members already collaborate in the Erasmus Mundus Master in Distributed Computing. The majority of partners are also participants in the ERCIM consortium, all belong to theCluster University network, and several EU Research Projects. EMJD-DC is supported by several labs with direct links with the industry, mainly the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), the Swedish Institute of Computer Science (SICS), the Centre of Excellence in Information and Communication Technologies (CETIC),INESC-ID Lisboa and several industrial labs such as Telefonica Research (TID), Ericsson, and SME asEuranova and Peerialism.


Partners

BarcelonaTech UPC, Spain (Coord)
Université Catholique de Louvain UCL, Belgium
Instituto Superior Técnico IST, Portugal
Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan KTH, Sweden

The following figure illustrates the structure of the EMDJ-DC program:

Admission requirements

To be eligible for the EMJD-DC programme applicants need to fulfil the admission requirements based on previous studies, English proficiency and documentation.

1. Previous studies: A completed Master’s degree

Applicants must have completed a higher education degree of computer science or areas related to distributed computing in the M.Sc. level of the European LMD system (300 ECTS credits), or equivalent academic qualifications from an internationally recognized university. Excellent grades from courses in distributed systems, operating systems, networking, programming languages, computer architectures, and theory of computing are expected.

Conditional acceptance

Students in their final year of Master education may also apply and if qualified, receive a conditional offer. If the applicant has not completed her studies, she should include a written statement from the degree administration office (or equivalent department), confirming that she is enrolled on the final year of her education and stating the expected completion date. If the applicant receives a conditional offer, the candidate should present the degree certificate to the Admissions Office before enrolment.

2. Language requirements: Proof of English proficiency

Applicants must provide proof of their English language proficiency, which is most commonly established through an internationally recognized test.

IELTS 

A minimum overall mark of 6.5 is required, with no section lower than 5.5 (only Academic Training accepted). IELTS-tests are verified online by EMJD-DCadmissions office. Please upload a copy of the test together with the application.

TOEFL 

English test results from TOEFL should be sent directly from the ETS test centre to KTH Admissions Office (institution code 7966, department code 99). Please upload a copy of the examinee score report together with the application. Please also note that neither TOEIC nor institutional TOEFL are accepted as sufficient proof of English proficiency.

The following TOEFL test scores are accepted as a minimum:

• Paper-based test: total result of 575 (written test, grade 4,5)
• Internet-based test: total result of 90 (written test, grade 20)

University of Cambridge / University of Oxford Certificates

• Certificate in Advanced English (minimum grade C).
• Certificate of Proficiency (minimum grade C).
• Diploma of English Studies (minimum grade C).

English proficiency tests are waived for the following:

• Applicants with a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree from a university where English is the only language of instruction, in accordance with the recommendations in the edition of the International Handbook of Universities that was current the year the degree was awarded.
• Applicants with a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree entirely taught in English. It should be clearly stated in the transcripts or degree certificate that the language of instruction was English. Other documentation regarding language of instruction will not be accepted.
• In some cases English proficiency can be fulfilled from upper secondary education, e.g. a British GCE O-level (minimum grade C), a German Abitur with English as first foreign language “Grundstufe” (ausreichend at least 5/15) or Leistungsfach or French students who have taken English as LV 1 in Série L (littéraire) Langue Vivante or Série ES, Langue Vivante. Proof thereof must be enclosed in the application.
• Students with 30 higher education (HE) credits from an EU/EEA country or Switzerland where the language of instruction of the course is English. The language of instruction must be clearly stated on the official documents.
• Students with 30 higher education (HE) credits from Great Britain, Ireland, Malta, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, or English speaking parts of Canada. The language of instruction must be clearly stated on the official documents.

Required documents for EMJD-DC

Note that all applicants – regardless of prior applications – need to submit a complete application package consisting of the following documents before the application deadline.

1. Personal profile details (collected by the web-based application, no additional document needed)
2. A correctly certified copy of the Master’s degree in original language and translated into English. (Read also about conditional acceptance in case of ongoing studies).
3. A correctly certified copy of the transcript of records in original language and translated into English. All courses taken must be included.
4. Proof of English proficiency.
5. A Curriculum vitae including details on the academic career of the applicant, contact details and photo.
6. A copy of the passport or some other kind of identification in English.
7. Two letters of recommendation from professors of the most recently attended higher institution or from employers if relevant. Please include email addresses and, if possible, telephone numbers of the professors.
8. Publication list and Patents in English if applicable.
9. Your “Candidate Application form” (editable DOC, non-editable PDF).

All documents must be uploaded to the EMJD-DC admission web site as part of your application.

Document requirements

Copies of degree certificates, transcript of records and statements should be stamped and signed by the degree administration’s office of the issuing institution, or by a Notary Public. The documents must be both in original language and in officially certified translations into English. Applications that are not supported by officially certified documents will not be processed. Applications with fraudulent documents will invariably be rejected.

For students selected for a scholarship, the original paper documents will be required as part of the enrolment process.

Doctorate fellowships

There are excellent fellowship opportunities for students accepted to an Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctorate programme. An employment contract will be given to all selected PhD students during the study time, which is between 3-4 years.

Doctoral candidates eligible for an EMJD Fellowship

Two different EMJD fellowships can be awarded to doctoral candidates:

• Category A fellowships can be awarded to  third-country doctoral candidates selected by EMJD consortia who come from a country other than a European country ^{(note 1)} and who are not residents nor have carried out their main activity (studies, work, etc.) for more than a total of 12 months over the last five years ^{(note 2)} in one of these countries. The only exception to this rule applies to third-country doctoral candidates who have previously received an Erasmus Mundus masters scholarship in order to follow an EMMC.
• Category B fellowships can be awarded to  European doctoral candidates selected by EMJD consortia as well as to any doctoral candidates selected by EMJD consortia who do not fulfil the Category A criteria defined above.

Fellowship candidates fulfilling the eligibility criteria for both Category A and B  – e.g. students with double nationality – must select the Category of their choice. As a result, they are entitled to apply only to one of the two categories of fellowship at a time.

How large is the fellowship?

Monthly allowances in the form of employment contracts, depending on the rules at the particular university, will be provided to all successful EMJD-DC candidates during 3-4 years depending on each individual doctoral plan. This applies to both category A and B students.

The basis of these contracts is that all students selected for the EMJD-DC programme should thus be able to participate full-time, independently of the personal financial situation.

The financial conditions are:

• Fixed contribution to the travel, installation and any other types of cost: 7500 € for category A, 3000 € for category B if mobility foreseen to 3^rd country partners.
• A monthly gross salary of 2800 € (before deduction of any taxes or contributions) that corresponds to a net salary of around 1300-1500 € (to be fixed in the doctoral candidate agreement depending on national legislation).
• Participation costs (tuition fees, supervision fees) and insurance are included in the fellowship. In addition, contribution to e.g. travels to the yearly workshop are provided for up to a certain limit.

Application instructions

An application consists of two steps. Please read the admission requirements and application instructions before sending your documents.

Step 1. Create a user account

Create a user account at the admission website at UPC. A user account can be created in advance, before making your actual application. If you already have a UPC user account, please use the existing one and do not create a new one.

Once you have a user account you can apply to EMJD-DC in accordance with the application deadlines.

Step 2. Make a web-based application

Login to your account. Go to the Application management. On “Course type” select “Doctoral degree”. Click on “Create application”.

On a pop-up window, select “ERASMUS MUNDUS JOINT DOCTORATE IN DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING: 2012-1” and fill out that form. Look at “Research topics” to select the topics of your interest requested in that form.

Select “Personal details” and fill out that section. Upload the required documents (PDF format) in the “Records” section.

You can logout and return to your account any time to complete your data or add supporting documents. When your application is complete, select “Applications” and submit your application for evaluation by pressing the “Send request” button.

Your application will move to the “CONFIRMED” state when it is validated by the admission team, any time before theapplication deadline.  After the evaluation is done, the state of your application will change to ACCEPTED (can be conditional or not) or REJECTED.  You will receive an email notification every time the state of your application changes.  Look at the user’s guide (manual candidate) when you are logged in for more details.

During the selection process, the candidates may be contacted for final face-to-face interview through the Internet.

At the end of each selection stage candidates will have the possibility to appeal against the decisions of the EMJD-DC Selection Committee.

Appeal procedure

In case of non-selection and if a candidate has grounds to believe that his/her application file, although complete, has not been processed through the selection procedure, he/she may engage an appeal procedure by writing a complaint letter to the EMJD-DC Coordinator.

The applicants will be informed via e-mail about the appeal procedure at least 7 working days before the deadline for submitting the appeal. An EMJD-DC Appeal Form will be provided to applicants containing detailed rules about how and when submitting the document.

Admission

The application process is open since October 15, 2011 and closes on January 23, 2012.

Contact

Dr Leandro Navarro
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
Department of Computer Architecture
Jordi Girona, 1-3, D6
ES - 08034 Barcelona
Spain
Email: emjd-dc@ac.upc.edu
http://emjd-dc.eu/


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