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

MANDATORY REQUIREMENTS

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. Completion of a Research Integrity course, either organised by IBEC or by an external recognised institution.

ADDITIONAL MERIT CRITERIA (SCORED BY THE EVALUATION COMMITTEE)

1. Completion of the PhD within the expected timeframe.
   Submission of the doctoral thesis within 4 years from admission to the doctoral programme will be positively evaluated.
2. Participation in knowledge transfer and translational activities:
   1. Participation in the creation or development of a spin-off company
   2. Involvement in technology transfer activities
   3. Completion of training programmes related to innovation, entrepreneurship, or technology transfer
3. Participation in outreach activities (fairs, outreach blog, work with high school students, giving talks, etc). List the activities and the hours for each one.
4. Participation in training activities, seminars, and PhD Discussion sessions will be considered positively by the Evaluation Committee.
   
   Candidates must provide a list of the activities attended, including: For activities carried out inside or outside IBEC, candidates must provide proof of attendance or equivalent documentation.
   • Type of activity (Training, Seminar, or PhD Discussion session)
   • Title/name of the activity
   • Date of completion
   • Indication of whether the activity was organised internally by IBEC or externally
5. Participation in IBEC programmes, commissions, and working groups.
   Participation in IBEC’s Short Stays programme or active involvement in any of IBEC’s commissions or working groups will be considered positively by the Evaluation Committee.
   
   Eligible contributions include, but are not limited to, participation in the following initiatives:
   • 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 who fulfil the mandatory requirements established for the IBEC PhD Certificate of Excellence will receive the Certificate of Excellence at the following IBEC Symposium.

Among the recipients of the Certificate of Excellence, the five highest-ranked candidates, according to the evaluation of the mandatory requirements and additional merit criteria, will receive a monetary prize of 250 €.

PROCEDURE

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Once the PhD fellow has defended their PhD thesis, they 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 submission for the defense of the thesis
• Certificate showing the date of admission to the Doctoral programme
• Certificates of oral participation at international meetings as presenting authors (programme, diploma…)
• Certificates or proof of attendance to the training courses, seminars and PhD discussions
• Certificates of participation in outreach activities
• Certificates of mobility stays

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.

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 2026