1st Call

Publication of the call: from 27/03/2025
Application deadline: by 29/04/2025 (by noon local time)
Admission interviews (online): 28/05/2025 the interview will be held in person in room A2.01 at the Faculty of Education in Brixen-Bressanone or via MS Teams. Candidates who make a motivated request by 10/05/2025 can participate in the admission interview online. Requests must be submitted via mail PhD_Education@unibz.it 
Publication of ranking lists: by 16/06/2025

Confirmation of the PhD position - 1st Call

Applicants with scholarship: by 01/07/2025 
Applicants without scholarship: by 17/07/2025 
Enrolment: Starting from 02/07/2025 until 31/10/2025 (by noon local time)

Total Positions: 6

1st Call

Positions with university scholarships: 6

Research areas for which research proposals can be submitted: 

• Phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, lexicon; 
  sociolinguistics; 
• dialogue analysis, conversation analysis, discourse analysis; 
• language acquisition; 
• language teaching; 
• Germanic and Romance Philology and Historical linguistics; 
• language contact, Germanic and Romance dialectology, minority languages and multilingualism; 
• language policies and language planning 

At the following link you can find the detailed project description of the position with scholarship funded by the Autonomous Region Trentino Alto Adige-Südtirol - Project Region TrentinoAA-Südtirol, project title “Metalexicography of the Ladin language of the Dolomites”.

At the following link you can find the detailed project descriptions of the position with scholarship funded by EURAC research , project title “AI for Legal Text Quality Evaluation  ”. 

At the following link you can find the detailed description of the position reserved for the International Doctoral Track in cooperation with the University of Marburg.  

In order to apply to this programme you need one of the following qualifications:

• a postgraduate degree as per Italian Ministerial Decree no. 509/1999
• a postgraduate degree as per Italian Ministerial Decree no. 270/2004
• a degree of the former Italian university system, or an equivalent degree obtained abroad (university level education of at least five years).

If you have not yet achieved one of the above mentioned titles within the enrolment deadline, you will be admitted conditionally to the selection procedure and you must produce the degree certificate within the enrolment’s deadline. If not, your application is considered null and void. 

Prerequisites for admission to the doctoral programmes are an appropriate educational and/or cultural background and/or experience in the research. Qualifications in the field of interest of the PhD programme are preferred.

The Commission reserves the right to decide and to assess whether or not previous qualifications are suitable for admission purposes.

Language skills for English and for either German or Italian are evaluated during the admission interview. The language skills must be adequate for carrying out the research proposal submitted by the applicant 

Applications to the selection procedure can be submitted from the date of the announcement of the public competition.

Each application is subject to a payment for administrative expenses (50 €). This registration fee cannot be reimbursed under any circumstances.
In order to apply, you need to follow these steps:

1. Create an account at Application Portal and upload in electronic format a passport-size colour photo and a valid ID (passport or identity card, front/back);
2. In the application portal, select the PhD programme and pay the registration fee of 50 € (see instructions in the portal);
3. Fill in the online form in the same portal and upload the additional required documents (see the specific attachments to the call for each PhD programme).

Completing the application online is the only way to submit the application. Applications will not be considered if:

• incomplete or without compulsory entry qualifications/requirements;
• sent by e-mail.

It is necessary to upload the required documentation for each PhD programme chosen in the portal. A traffic light system indicates complete/incomplete documentation (missing documents will be marked in red).

Only documents uploaded by the deadline will be evaluated. It is advisable to apply online well in advance and to check the portal regularly to take note of any notes concerning missing and/or incorrect documents.

After the deadline, it will no longer be possible to complete/correct incomplete applications.
The University is not liable if the portal is overcharged, due to the net or to the software itself.

To apply to the PhD programme, applicants must include the documentation listed below. Incomplete applications will be excluded from the competition.

• if graduated in Italy:
  diploma supplement or self-declaration (following the Italian D.P.R. no. 445/2000) of the degree awarded with the exams passed (if graduated) or just with the exams passed (if not graduated yet);
• if graduated abroad: 
  diploma supplement or final degree certificate with exams passed (if graduated) or transcript of records (if not graduated yet) in Italian, German or English.
  For qualifications obtained abroad, also: scale of grades awarded by the home university (with a minimum final grade to obtain the qualification and a maximum final grade achievable).

The above must contain the following information:

• final grade,
• exams passed with grade and date of passing,
• credit points,
• scientific fields (the latter only for Italian titles),
• university where the degree was or will be awarded and date of graduation.

unibz reserves the right to request a description of the contents of the single courses and/or teaching hours where necessary.

In the application portal you must upload:

• Curriculum vitae (CV) in English or in Italian or in German (possibly following the EU format that can be downloaded here). The CV must be updated with all data and information of the current year.
• Master thesis, if already discussed (PDF file)
• Research proposal: research proposal written in English, German or Italian, with a description of the PhD project that the candidate wants to pursue. The proposal must not exceed the length of 9,000 characters (including spaces, excluding the bibliography), PDF file.
• Any preference for one of the two scholarships linked to a specific research topic or for the IDT-scholarship in cooperation with the University of Marburg must be stated in the research proposal. The preference expressed will be indicative of the interests of the applicant and not binding for the selection committee. 

Each applicant may submit no more than one research proposal.  

With this proposal, applicants compete for scholarships linked to specific research topics and for the IDT-scholarship in cooperation with the University of Marburg, as well as for the scholarships of the PhD programme referring to the general research areas.

The selection procedure consists of an assessment of the qualifications (max. 40 points) and a selection interview (max. 60 points). Candidates who achieve a minimum of 25/40 points in the assessment of qualifications will be admitted to the oral interview.
The following documents, which candidates must upload to the application portal, will be assessed:

• Master thesis: max. 10 points; 
• Description of the intended research project in English, German or Italian. The project description must not exceed a length of 9000 characters (including spaces; excluding bibliography): max. 25 points; 
• Curriculum vitae (CV): max. 5 points. 

Selection interview
The selection interview will be held in English and, at the applicant's discretion, in German or Italian. 

The following elements will be assessed during the interview: the submitted research proposal is discussed and language skills in English and in German or Italian are evaluated; the scientific background of the applicant in relation to the proposed project; the knowledge of the research methods required to carry out the project; the ability to assess the feasibility of the project; clarity of presentation; language proficiency in English and, at the applicant’s choice, German or Italian. A maximum of 60 points will be awarded.  

The selection interview is considered passed if a minimum of 40/60 points is achieved.

• Prof. Paul Videsott, unibz - President
• Prof. Chiara Melloni, uniVR
• Prof. Stefan Rabanus, uniVR.

To confirm your study place, you need to log in to the application portal and pay the following fees (€ 250 in total) using one of the payment methods indicated on the portal by the specified deadline.

• Administrative fees: € 50 
• One-off registration fee: € 200, including a € 16 revenue stamp

If you fail to meet this deadline, you will automatically lose your place. Once you have confirmed your place by paying the instalment, there is no refund of tuition fees unless you are a non-EU applicant living abroad and you have not received the necessary documents from the Italian authorities in your country.

There are no other fees to be paid.