IBEC Doctoral Certificate of Excellence and the Doctoral Award for predoctoral researchers

REQUIREMENTS

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1. Three months of an international research placement. The visit may be to a university, a hospital, a company or a research centre. Visits of at least 2 weeks can be accumulated in order to reach the 3-months period.
   For stays within Spain, IBEC direction will assess whether they can be considered for the award.
   
2. One indexed peer reviewed international publication, as first author (with IBEC affiliation), or alternatively, one contribution to a patent as inventor.
   
3. Two oral presentations at an international meeting as the presenting author. One of these may be a flash presentation delivered at the IBEC Symposium, or a lecture given during a PhD Discussion session.
   
4. Attendance in the following courses organized by IBEC (or proof of attendance to similar external courses) is required:
   • One course on writing skills (or alternatively, two peer-reviewed international publications as the first author, including the mandatory publication mentioned in point 2).
   • * Presentation skills (or alternatively, three oral participations at international meetings as the presenting author, including the two mandatory oral presentations mentioned in point 3).
   • * One course on Research integrity
   • * One course on Technology Transfer and/or Intellectual Property (IP) rights.
   • One course on Open Science
   • One additional optional course
   * mandatory
   
   Participants can download their attendance certificates for IBEC courses via IBECnet under the Training section. If you were unable to attend a course, please provide a brief explanation so that your case can be considered.
5. Participation in outreach activities (fairs, outreach blog, work with high school students, giving talks, etc) (minimum 10 hours).
   
6. Attendance to Scientific Seminars or scientific talks: A minimum of 20 seminars is required (it can include thematic network at IBEC or any seminars outside IBEC). In cases where the PhD fellow is seconded to another institution for more than 3 months, the minimum number of seminars will be reduced proportionally based on the duration that the fellow is physically present at IBEC. IBEC maintains a record of attendance, whether it is online or in person.
   In case a seminar is not carried out at IBEC, proof of attendance must be provided.
   
7. Attendance to IBEC PhD Discussions: A minimum of 12 IBEC PhD Discussions must be attended. In cases where the PhD fellow is seconded to another institution for more than 3 months, the minimum number of discussions will be reduced proportionally based on the duration that the fellow is physically present at IBEC.
   If the candidate has served as the chairman of the PhD discussions or has been a member of the IBEC PhD Committee, the minimum number will be reduced to 10. If both circumstances apply, the minimum number will be further reduced to 8.
   
   IBEC is keeping record of attendance (online or in person).
   
8. The PhD thesis must be submitted within 4 years of admission to the doctoral programme. If the PhD thesis is submitted in less than 4 years after admission to the doctoral programme, the required number of attendances to IBEC seminars and PhD discussions will be proportionally reduced.
   
   Due to the exceptional circumstances following requirements will be revised case by case: 1 and 8.
   
   In exceptional cases, these requirements can be substituted with outstanding achievements (e.g. awards, licensed patent, spin-off created, etc.) subject to the approval of IBEC’s Directorate. Participation in IBEC’s Short Stays programme or active involvement in any of IBEC’s commissions or working groups will also be considered, including:
   
   • Charter & Code (HRS4R)
   • Research Integrity
   • Harassment: CoPTA
   • Gender & Diversity Commission
   • LGTBIQA+ working group
   • PhD committee
   • Postdoc committee
   • Work council
   • Health & Safety committee
   • Sustainability commission
   • OTM-Recruiting working Group

THE CERTIFICATE OF EXCELLENCE:

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All PhD fellows meeting the requirements will receive a certificate at the IBEC Symposium and a prize of 250€.

PROCEDURE:

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Once the PhD fellow has defended his/her PhD thesis, he/she will submit the application form to peopleunit@ibecbarcelona.eu together with the following documents in PDF format:

• Short CV (max. 4 pag)
• Summary of the PhD thesis (max. 1 pag)
• Certificate of the PhD thesis defense
• Certificate showing the date of admission in the doctoral programme
• Certificates of oral participation at international meetings as presenting authors (programme, diploma, etc)
• Certificates of attendance at the training courses
• Certificates of participation in outreach activities
• Certificates of mobility stays
• Certificates of attendance to non-IBEC seminars

In order to take into account publications that might be under review or in preparation at the time of the PhD thesis defense, the application form may be submitted up to one year after the defense.

Notwithstanding, the other merits (courses, seminars, training, etc) are related to the PhD period.

If the candidate meets all the requirements, they will automatically receive the prize of 250€. The certificate will be issued at the following IBEC Symposium. 

If the candidate is not able to attend the symposium, he/she will receive the certificate by mail. 

Download the application form here

Additionally, all candidates that received a Doctoral Certificate of Excellence will be eligible for a Doctoral Award. The awardees will receive a prize of 500€ in an award ceremony at the IBEC Symposium..

To be eligible for the Doctoral Award, 4 or more candidates who meet the requirements must have submitted to the call. 

If one year due to a lack of participants entering the competition, the Award is not awarded, those candidates presented in previous calls will be automatically reserved for subsequent years until the minimum of 5 candidates is met.

The awards that will be awarded will follow the following proportion of candidatures presented:

• From 5 to 9 candidates: 2 awards
• As of 10 candidates: 3 awards

Each year, an interdisciplinary committee composed by IBEC Deputy Directors, and the Heads of Strategy and People Unit will be in charge of  selecting the awardee/-s  based on scientific results according to San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), that will consider the scientific content of research outputs, rather than publication metrics or the identity of the journal in which they were published,  as well as other merits and contributions to the IBEC Community.

In case of Conflict of Interest the evaluator will not participate in the evaluation process.

For questions or doubts don’t hesitate to contact our People Management Unit.

Updated in July 2025