Admission to the ECARES Doctoral school is conditional on the payment of the admission fees. However, students have several funding options.

Full time doctoral fellowship

For PhD students, the most common scholarships are through research projects coordinated by a Professor. Individual grants are also possible. Some examples are the Mandat d’aspirant of the FNRS, FRESH, Wallonie-Bruxelles International, the Mini-ARC, Doctoris of INNOVIRIS, AXA research fund, National Bank of Belgium (seed money financing) and grants held by individual faculty member. For applying you need the approval of a supervisor and the authorities of the university. These sources are not available for students that are still enrolled in the Master training (usually the first 2 years, (see here for more information).

In addition there are many institutions (foundations and the like) that offer scholarships for Master and PhD students. The following list provides external links to some of these institutions. We encourage you to take the initiative, but do not hesitate to contact us if you need help and/or support.

• FNRS – Fond National de la recherche Scientifique
• Bureau des Relations internationales et de la Coopération (BRIC)
• Programme de Bourses d’Excellence Eiffel
• The Belgian Development Cooperation website lists all official bodies which offer grants in Belgium
• Cooperation Technique Belge
• Wallonie Bruxelles Relations Internationales
• Commission for Educational Exchange between the United States, Belgium and Luxembourg (Fulbright)
• Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie
• The Belgian American Educational Foundation
• The Association of Commonwealth Universities
• International Federation of University Women
• Le Fonds Lewin – De Castro
• Fondation Wiener Anspach (for students coming from Cambridge or Oxford)

Tuition fees

• For students from EU
  • 1st and 2nd year master: approx. €840
  • 1st year of PhD: approx. €840
  • Subsequent years: approx. €32/year
• Non EU students:
  • 1^st and 2^nd year of master: Depending on your country of origin, extra fees can be added for the Master and doctoral training years. Tuition fees vary from €840 for developing countries, approx. €2.800 for intermediate developed countries up to €4.175 for advances economies.
  • 1st year of PhD: approx. €840
  • Subsequent years: approx. €32/year
• See here for more details.

Financing your studies

There are several ways doctoral students finance their studies. The most frequent ones are:

• Full time doctoral fellowships using one of the funding options listed above.
• Research assistantship for one of the faculty members,
• Teaching assistantships (TA) (requires knowledge of French)
• Part-time jobs in organisations outside of ULB (e.g. policy think-tanks).

While most of our doctoral students are funded from one of these sources, funding is not guaranteed and is usually awarded on a competitive basis. Applications for the main sources of doctoral fellowships take place in August and February. Applications for TA positions take place in the spring/early summer.