PhD Programme in Cognitive Neuroscience

The International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) has PhD fellowships available for training and research in Cognitive Neuroscience. SISSA is a leading center for higher learning and research in Italy. The School is devoted to research in Physics, Mathematics, Biology and Neuroscience. Its purpose is to foster research and the training of young scientists at the graduate and post-graduate level. All of the activities at SISSA are in English.

For application please look at PhD Courses.

Features:

  • Courses covering a broad spectrum from molecular to cognitive neuroscience
  • Small research groups with close supervisor interactions
  • Concentrated 3-4 year PhD program
  • International staff and students
  • Excellent track record for job placement in top-quality institutions

How To Get In

To be admitted to SISSA's PhD programme, you need to go through a two-stage application process: the first is to send an application letter with your curriculum vitae. Then you have to attend a written and oral examination. Non-EU students unable to attend the admission exam can be evaluated by means of a Spring Pre-selection based exclusively on academic and scientific qualifications, as described in their application letter. Please refer to SISSA'S main page for the number of open positions, dates, deadlines and application forms. Note that only a very limited number of exceptionally qualified students (normally, zero) can be admitted by pre-selection.

Because of the applicants' diverse backgrounds, the entrance examination is only an attempt to ascertain the aptitude of each candidate for research - it is not intended to measure the amount of knowledge already acquired in neuroscience, which would be a very poor indicator of future success in research. Some of our best former students knew nothing about neuroscience when they came to SISSA.

A fair unbiased evaluation is favoured by SISSA's having no "internal" applicants, and by the need to recruit the most talented students to help carry forward challenging frontier research. Previous experience shows that the main victims of occasional mistakes by the admission committee are the admitted students themselves, who sometimes decide to leave without obtaining a PhD.

In view of this, applicants should strive to contribute with their application as informative a picture about themselves as possible. All material should be e-mailed to phd-cns@sissa.it, except for the signed application required in hardcopy for bureaucratic purposes. Applicants should ask for up to 3 reference letters to be e-mailed directly to SISSA.

Both the written and the oral "exam" are structured as a list of ideas or topics, that ideally should stimulate in the candidate the articulation or more or less coherent thoughts - written thoughts in one case, spoken and more improvised in the other.

Formally, the admission committee can award a maximum of 100 points: (i) 10 for scientific qualifications, (ii) 40 for the written exam and (iii) 50 for the oral exam.

  1. The following scientific qualifications will be considered:
    1. academic record (mark obtained for the Laurea, M.Sc. or equivalent degree);
    2. scientific output (publications and presentations at scientific meetings);
    3. other qualifications (post-graduate courses, awards, fellowships).
  2. The written examination consists of three essays chosen from a list which includes topics that are accessible to applicants without a specific background in Neuroscience (see below for examples from previous exams). Only those candidates who pass the written examination with a mark of at least 28/40 will be admitted to the oral exam.
  3. The oral examination will be mainly based on previous research work carried out by the candidate and/or on his/her research interests.

A minimum score of 70/100 must be achieved by the candidate to be considered eligible for admission. At the end of the written and oral examinations the admission committee will rank candidates by their scores. Candidates will be offered admission up to the number of places available. Applicants are asked to indicate that they are interested in the Cognitive Neuroscience curriculum of the PhD in Neuroscience.

Example Questions:

Some of the past years' written exams can be found here:
1995 - 1996 - 1997 - 1998 - 1999 - 2000 - 2003 - 2004 - spring 2005 - fall 2005 - fall 2006 - fall 2007 - fall 2008 - fall 2009 - fall 2010 - spring 2013
you can also find some of the old exam questions in the zip format and a collection of some more questions.

Student Fellowship

All Ph.D. students receive a fellowship the amount of which is set at the national level, currently at 15.010,32 Euro gross per year. The cost of living in Trieste is substantially lower than in bigger cities like Milan or in Northern Europe, and the fellowship normally covers all of the students' personal expenses. However, you should not expect it to be sufficient for many long-range trips home. If you want to earn some extra money, from the second year you can apply for a SISSA-internal part-time job (150 hours/year for 1500 Euro). There is a limited available number of these positions.