The UI doctoral grants fund

Application deadline is 15th of February 2024 - application form. 

Confirmation of the supervisor’s participation in the application.

• Criteria for the evaluation of doctoral grant applications

• Detailed evaluation criteria

Grant amount from The University of Iceland doctoral grants fund

• Grants are awarded to one, two or three years. From 2024 the grant is 5.700.000 kr. per year. 
• The monthly salary Is 475.000 kr. but when taxes and salary related expenses have been deducted the paid amount is around 350.000 kr. 
  • Salary related expenses are payments to pensions and unions, which are required by Icelandic law. There are also tax liability from incomes in Iceland.

Support fund of doctoral funds of UIce 

• The Support fund of doctoral funds of University of Iceland gives a support grant with each allocation from the Doctoral fund of University of Iceland. This grant is 100.000 kr. per year from the year. 

Arrangement of grant payments

• A contract regarding the transfer of grant is signed between The Division of Science and innovation, the student, and the supervisor. 
• Payements of grants from the Doctoral fund, be it from The Eimskip University fund, the Doctoral Grants of the University of Iceland Research fund or other relevant funds are transferred into the school / institute research account. 
  • Supervisor requests that the research account is set up for the transfers. 
• Transfers:
  • Transfers from the Doctoral Grants of the University of Iceland Research fund are made twice a year; 1st of January and 1st of July for 6 months each. If the grant period stars after 1st of January, the first transfer is made on 1st of July and if grant period starts after 1st of July the first transfer is made at the end of the year. 
  • Transfers from the Eimskip University fund are made 1st of every month and are made from Landsbankinn. First transfer is made in the beginning of the grant period. 
  • Last transfer (amount equal to one month salary) is made once an electronic copy of thesis is submitted to Division of Science and Innovation.
• Relevant school or institute makes an employment contract with the grantee who receives the grant in form of salaries in beginning of each month. The salaries are paid in arrears. 
   

The general requirements for a doctoral grant

• The student must be properly registered in a doctoral programme and register every year.
• The student must be studying full-time (although it is permissible to perform sessional teaching for part of the time covered by the grant, up to a maximum of 20% employment).
• The student must submit an annual progress report to the PhD portal (by 15 January each year). This also applies to those grant recipients who no longer receive monthly payments from the funds, but rather only the last one.
• The last payment (amount equal to one month salary) is withheld until after the doctoral defence. It shall be paid when the Division of Science and Innovation receives a copy of the thesis.

Further information is available from the Division of Science and Innovation Office (rannsoknasjodir@hi.is)

The evaluation of applications is based on Rules for the UI doctoral grants fund (in Icelandic). Also criteria and requirements for the quality of doctoral studies, in particular paragraph 4.4 Professional requirements of a supervisor to a doctoral student.  

Supervisor shall generally:

• have completed a doctorate or its equivalent in the relevant field of scholarship. A judgement of competence for the work of professor can replace a doctorate. 
• be recognised as an active specialist in the relevant field of scholarship.
• have published writings that, for example, are related to a student's project, in an area with stringent academic requirements.
• have considerable experience collaborating on research with internationally recognised specialists in a relevant field of scholarship outside the University of Iceland.

General critera of allocation:

• A doctoral programme should take no longer than 3-4 years from enrolment to defence based on full funding. 
• The prescribed length of study in each faculty shall be considered.
• For example, those students eligible to receive a one-year grant in 2024 are those in four-year programmes who commenced studies in 2020, or those in three-year programmes who commenced studies in 2021, except in cases where parental leave / illness has extended the period of study.
• Only those who commenced studies in 2022 or 2023 and those who enroll in 2024 may receive a full grant.

Evaluation of projects:

• Generally, one independent expert shall review each application before it is discussed by the review panel.
• Care must be taken to ensure that reviewers are experts in the academic field relevant to the application and are not applicants themselves.
• Furthermore, the connection between the project and the supervisor's academic field must be evaluated. 

Supervisor:

• Regulations for the individual funds shall apply to the eligibility of applicants to receive grants. In those cases in which the student's main supervisor works outside the University of Iceland, the student's tutor must meet the requirements of these regulations. In these cases, the benefit to the University of Iceland from the collaboration shall be evaluated in particular.
• The supervisor's publishing output over the last 5 years.
• If a supervisor has had a student that has been awarded a grant, and has not completed the doctorate in the time stipulated by the regulations of the faculty in question, the supervisor must account for the student's progress.
• The supervisor’s record in supervising students (graduation records).
• A supervisor may generally only have two students funded by UI doctoral grants fund at any given time.
• The Board of UoI Research Fund may make allowances for new teaching staff when evaluating supervision experience. New teaching staff are those who began working within the last five years and are in their first academic post (lecturer / research specialist).
• If the student is particularly strong academically, the application may be counted as stronger than the publishing output of the supervisor indicates. This, however, will only be considered if the proposed project is rated as excellent.

Student: 

• Student's publishing output.
• Applications from students who are also members of university academic staff are given low priority when awarding grants. Report on the student's academic progress since admission and study rate.
• The student's performance at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
• The student is responsible for accounting on the application form for parental leave / illness or anything else that may have extended the length of study beyond that which is considered normal.

Grading the application

• For the project: based on the reference and evaluation of the review panel.
• For the supervisor's output: based on an evaluation of the supervisor's publishing output and supervision experience (allowances shall be made for those members of teaching staff just beginning their careers). 
• For the student: based on grades at the undergraduate and graduate levels, other experience, publications and report on academic progress (Route A). 

References may be sought. 

Grants awarded via B route. Requirements for the awarding of a grant:

To ensure that those doctoral students awarded a doctoral grant via B route meet the same standards as those awarded a doctoral grant via A or C route, the board of the UI research fund makes the following requirements for the allocation of a grant:

• The grant shall be advertised in collaboration with UI school or related institute and/or the UI division of human resources and published on Starfatorg and via other international official channels.
• Supervisor appoints a candidate amongst applicants to the board of the UI research fund before November 15th on the year when grant is awarded. The appointment shall include the following:
  • Candidate‘s detailed CV
  • Certified transcripts of academic records from both undergraduate and graduate studies
  • Two letters of reference
  • A copy of the published advertisement as well as general information on where it was published
  • General description on the selection process, such as number of applicants, number of applicants interviewed, rationale for the candidate, et cetera.

If the above mentioned conditions are not met then the grant may be withdrawn.

The Board of the UI research fund evaluates whether the candidate meets the UI doctoral grants fund‘s requirements regarding grant recipients in accordance with the criteria and requirements for the quality of doctoral studies at the University of Iceland and the regulations of the relevant faculty. 

• Allocation 2023(The Eimskip University fund/The Doctoral Grants of The University of Iceland Research Fund/The Science Park of University of Iceland/ The Ludvig Storr Trust)
• Allocation 2022 (The Eimskip University fund/The Doctoral Grants of The University of Iceland Research Fund/The Science Park of University of Iceland)
• Allocation 2021 (The Eimskip University fund/The Doctoral Grants of The University of Iceland Research Fund/The Science Park of University of Iceland)
• Allocation 2020 (The Eimskip University fund/The Doctoral Grants of The University of Iceland Research Fund)
• Allocation 2019 (The Eimskip University fund/The Doctoral Grants of The University of Iceland Research Fund)
• Allocation 2018 (The Eimskip University fund/The Doctoral Grants of The University of Iceland Research Fund)

For older statistics, please contact the Division of Science and Innovation (rannsoknasjodir@hi.is)