Research topics

Faculty Research Topics

Faculty research topics for the IRO scholarships are proposed by the three doctoral schools:

The mission of these doctoral schools is

  • to organize the international recruitment and placement of doctoral students.
  • to organize a doctoral training programme by which doctoral students develop their personal and academic skills, broaden their horizon and to interact with top-level scientists while discussing and conducting cutting edge research.
  • to promote the career perspectives of doctoral students through the training they provide, and also through the networks the schools have with organizations, industries and other universities.

Applicants for the IRO scholarship who do not yet have a particular research topic in mind may select a particular topic that interests them out of the faculty research topics. Also, you will need to include a one-page, written motivation explaining how the topic you chose can be approached and treated in a manner relevant to development co-operation.

The print-out of the research topic and your motivation need to be included in your application file. (New faculty research topics for the selection round 2012-2013 will be available by October 2011.)

Personal Research Proposal

Applicants for the IRO scholarships who already have a specific research topic in mind may submit their own, personal research proposal along with their application file, instead of one of the priority research fields.

Your first step is to contact a professor at K.U.Leuven to discuss the opportunities for pursuing doctoral studies with your proposed personal research topic. Within the websites of the three Doctoral Schools, namely "Humanities and Social Sciences", "Science, Engineering and Technology (Arenberg doctoral school)" and "Biomedical Sciences", you can find out which K.U.Leuven professors do research on which topics. Alternatively, you may also visit the webpages of the faculties or departments in order to get an idea of the faculty members' research interests. The contact information for each professor is provided accordingly.

Your next step is then to fill out the following form, indicating the name of the prospective professor-supervisor, the title, outline, tentative bibliography, provisional objectives, methodology and time-frame of your research. The form simply provides the basic structure of the proposal. The proposal itself may, of course, be longer than the two pages provided. In addition, you will need to include a brief motivation explaining how the topic you chose can be approached and treated in a manner relevant to development co-operation. Lastly, the prospective supervisor has to endorse your proposal by appending his or her signature.

Applicants for the IRO scholarship who are already enrolled in a doctoral programme at K.U.Leuven will only need to prepare a detailed progress report of their research, instead of a research proposal. The report must also be signed by the student’s supervisor.