Applying for PhD Studies

IMPRS-CMS welcomes

• Highly motivated students holding a Master's degree in physics, chemistry, or materials science.
• Exceptional students with a Honors BSc degree (4 or 5 years of study). Students can be admitted to the PhD program via fast track.

Note that not all PI's have openings for each round of the open call.
To find out which group leaders are offering projects in the current call, click here: Application Portal - Group Leader Profiles

Prospective applicants are welcome to contact potential supervisors directly to explore and further discuss available research opportunities. In cases where a supervisor extends an offer for a PhD position directly to you, please ask the supervisor to notify us.

• Register at our online application portal during the application period.
• There are two application periods every year:
  
  January 1st - February 28th
  August 1st - September 30th
  If you missed the deadline, please apply the next round.

• Please inform your referees well in advance about your application and the deadline for the reference letters.
• If it is necessary to change a referee during the application process, please contact us.

• Fill in all mandatory fields.
• Save and continue for each section.

• Upload your documents and certificates in PDF-format
• Save each section

• Make any final corrections if necessary. No changes are possible after submission.
• A successful submission of your application will be confirmed via email.
  
  Only complete applications submitted through our online application portal are considered.
  Please do not send applications to the coordination office via postal services or email. We are not able to accept those application and they will not be returned.

• Applicants are evaluated based on their submitted documents.
• Top candidates are invited (via online-video-conference) for a short presentation on a subject of her/his choice (e.g. MSc thesis), followed by personal interviews.
• The board of the IMPRS-CMS then prepares a final shortlist (less than 3 % of all applicants will get an offer for PhD studies).
• The final decision about admission will be communicated approximately 2 months after the application deadline. After receiving an offer for a PhD position, you should begin within 6 months.

• Curriculum vitae, academic records
• Recommendation letters, quality of the home university
• Comparison of the applicant's education profile with the program's research profile, comparison with other applicants
• Personal impression

IMPRS-CMS welcomes

• Highly motivated students holding a Master's degree in physics, chemistry, or materials science.
• Exceptional students with a Honors BSc degree (4 or 5 years of study). Students can be admitted to the PhD program via fast track.

• January 1st - February 28th
• August 1st - September 30th

If you missed the deadline, please apply the next round.
 

We request references from at least two scholars familiar with your academic work who can judge your potential as a PhD student.

During the registration process our database program will contact automatically your referees. Nevertheless, you should ask them in advance if they are willing to write a recommendation for you. 
 

Note that not all PI's have openings for each round of the open call.

To find out which group leaders are offering projects in the current call, click here:
 Application Portal - Group Leader Profiles

English.

Knowledge of German is not mandatory, but it is recommended.
German courses are offered in the institute to IMPRS students for free

Yes! Every admitted IMPRS-CMS student will get a working contract with all social benefits.

University of Stuttgart.
 

There is no fixed number of accepted students per year. The number of accepted applicants depends on the quality of the applicants and the need of the involved research groups.
 

Sorry, we don't take any students for internships and we don't have any postdoctoral positions in the IMPRS-CMS. Our program is designed for graduate students only. Please contact the departments directly.      

After filling in the form for Referee A, you need to press  “Email to Referee A” button  before you can proceed with Referee B.

If so, please submit a provisional transcript of records.

Yes. Please submit the translations together with the original documents.

Without the translated documents, we will not be able to proceed with the evaluation of your documents.

Note that not all PI's have openings for each round of the open call.

To find out which group leaders are offering projects in the current application call, click here
Application Portal - Group Leader Profiles

No, you can start the application without needing to contact the PIs beforehand.