The Graduate School recruits new PhD Students for the International PhD Programme in Molecular Medicine twice a year. As the programme can be started in April and October, the selection of applicants takes place between March and September for the winter term and between September and March for the summer term. There are two ways of recruitment:

External Recruitment

The Graduate School asks professors and group leaders of Ulm University to hand in proposals for PhD projects twice a year. From these proposals, the Board of Directors and the PhD committee select some PhD projects that will be funded by the Graduate School. The funded PhD positions are internationally advertised in "Nature" and "Die Zeit". Other open positions can also be advertised here. The Graduate School preselects the incoming applications and invites suitable candidates who meet the admission requirements of our school to the PhD Selection Days. Before the invitation of applicants we inform the project leaders about suitable candidates, ask them to choose applicants for personal interviews and to propose appointments for these interviews. Only applicants who have at least one interview will be invited. On the Selection Days they give oral presentations on the topic of their master thesis and go through the personal interviews with project leaders.

Internal Recruitment

Project leaders who have contact to a suitable candidate and who wish to offer him/her a paid PhD position as well as project leaders who have PhD students in their lab who are not yet part of our PhD Programme can integrate these persons into the International PhD Programme in Molecular Medicine. As the external applicants (see above), these candidates have to apply for the programme formally and have to meet the admission requirements. The Graduate School evaluates the applications and invites suitable candidates to the PhD Selection Days. On the Selection Days the applicants have to give an oral presentation on the topic of their master thesis, but they do not have personal interviews with project leaders because they have already been offered a PhD position.

Please note: If you know an interesting candidate and want to integrate him/her into our PhD programme, please ask this person to apply directly at the International Graduate School in Molecular Medicine Ulm. Candidates can only be admitted into the programme if they meet the formal requirements and successfully pass our selection procedure. You can not select candidates on your own.

After the PhD Selection Day

Candidates who succeed on the PhD Selection Days can be admitted into the PhD Programme if a project leader officially agrees to accept this person as a PhD student. Therefore we ask both supervisors and applicants to provide a preference list of PhD candidates and PhD projects, respectively. The Graduate School will match applicants' and project leaders' preferences with each other. Please note that the candidates' PhD position will only be financed by the Graduate School if the project leader has applied for funding through the Graduate School in advance. If this is not the case, the project leader has to finance the candidate through other resources.

Successfull candidates will receive an official letter of admission 2-3 weeks after the PhD Selection Days. The Graduate School helps the new students with the preparation of their stay in Ulm, such as visa and contract affairs, seeking accommodation, health insurance etc. International candidates are additionally supported through our mentoring programme Mentorship for Molecular Medicine PhD Students.