phd thesis netherlands

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At Maastricht University, a PhD degree is not just a study but a serious research project that adds new knowledge to a given field. There are three ways to become a PhD candidate at UM, which are outlined below. As a PhD candidate, you’ll spend most of your time conducting original research and writing a dissertation. You might also follow courses relevant to your research or have teaching responsibilities as well. Most candidates take four years to complete their dissertation and earn their degree. Requirements for our PhD programmes vary, but you will at least need a master’s degree, a high level of English proficiency and a strong academic record.

There are three ways to obtain a PhD at Maastricht University:

Apply for a paid phd position.

As a paid PhD candidate, you’ll be an employee of the university and will conduct research in conjunction with a faculty, research school or institute. You can search for a PhD vacancy on Academic Transfer or contact a faculty directly.   Paid PhD positions

Note: FHML/MUMC+ discerns 4 types of PhDs.

Enrol in a PhD training programme

Several of our graduate schools and research institutes offer PhD training programmes. In these programmes, you will follow a number of courses as well as write a dissertation. We have both full-time and part-time programmes.

  PhD training programmes

Obtain external funding & pitch your idea

Do you have a specific research proposal that does not match one of our vacancies? Then you can also obtain external funding and pitch your idea to one of our faculties, graduate schools or research institutes.

  Externally funded PhDs

Why Maastricht University?

The Netherlands ranks second worldwide in the number of publications per researcher and third worldwide in the impact of research publications, according to the Netherlands organisation for international cooperation in higher education (NUFFIC). At Maastricht University, PhD candidates are respected as full-fledged members of our research community. You'll be treated as a peer and will be given all the support you need for your research. There is a high level of interdisciplinary and inter-institutional cooperation at UM, and PhDs often complete their dissertation alongside their career. Such a commitment requires hard work and fortitude. And it especially requires the capacity to innovate, to come up with new ideas and new ways of seeing and applying knowledge.

International environment

Maastricht University was the first university in the Netherlands to strive for internationalisation. Almost half of our students and 40% of our academic staff come from abroad. Each faculty, school and institute has extensive international partnership networks and the university encourages international research collaborations. Students and researchers have many opportunities to study and work abroad, and our graduates are eagerly sought in the international labour market and research community.

Active PhD community

At Maastricht University, we have a vibrant PhD community. There are many ways to connect with your peers on a social and professional level:

• PhD Academy Maastricht
• Young Researchers Academy
• Central PhD Candidates Platform
• PhD candidates Network (PNN)
• Meet & Greet Maastricht
• Representative participation for UM
• ProVUM Maastricht
• European Council of Doctoral Candidates and Junior Researchers (Eurodoc)

Current PhD candidates

In the overview for current PhDs, you can find more information on:

• additional courses
• professional development opportunities
• practical matters
• Scholarships

  Overview for current PhDs

Research master's

Have you finished your bachelor’s and would like to pursue a PhD? Then you should consider one of our research master’s programmes, which specifically prepare you to be successful as a doctoral candidate. In some of these programmes, more than 90% of the students go on to become PhD candidates. You can find the research master's programmes in our master's overview.

Master's programmes

Defending your thesis

A PhD Defence ceremony is a formal occasion with strict protocols governing each person’s role, responsibility, and even the language used. It all works a bit like a trial, hence the term ‘PhD defence’. If you are a PhD candidate at the end of your trajectory you need to formally request permission for a public defense ceremony soon. In this website you find information on practical matters you need to arrange before and during your doctoral research and explains how to go about your your PhD defense.

  More information

One step closer to an anti-stress pill

Why are some people more sensitive to stress than others? Dennis Hernaus was hired as a PhD candidate to study the relationship between stress and dopamine levels of patients using PET scanners. He found that low dopamine levels are associated with increased sensitivity to stress and vice versa.  

Wrestling with medical-ethical dilemmas during WWII

Is it okay for a doctor to make someone ill or appear ill if it saves them from being boarded on a train and sent to a death camp? Hannah van den Ende studied the experiences of 534 Dutch-Jewish doctors who wrestled with this type of ethical dilemma during WWII.  

Studying HIV-related stigma in virtual reality

Stigmatising behaviour is often unconscious. People don't usually realise that they treat HIV patients differently. But the consequences are real. Henna Toppenberg and her PhD supervisor Rob Ruiter are using virtual reality to gain more insight into this behaviour so they can help bring about change.  

A Beginner's Guide to Dutch Academia

Detailed information on Dutch research and higher education can be found in  A Beginner's Guide to Dutch Academia. 

Hortense Jongen winner of The 2018 Dissertation Prize

The 2018 Dissertation Prize, this year awarded for the best doctoral dissertation from the inner city faculties, went to Hortense Jongen from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Her thesis is entitled: ‘Combating corruption the soft way: The authority of peer reviews in the global fight against graft.’

Search in Open Access Publications

TU Delft researchers present the results of their research in academic publications. 

TU Delft Repository

The TU Delft Repository gives full text open access to 52.000 PhD theses, journal articles, conference papers, patents, speeches and other TU Delft publications. TU Delft puts a lot of effort into making all Delft PhD theses available online from the first doctoral conferral in 1905. There are now 8.500 doctoral theses full text available, almost the complete set of promotions affiliated with TU Delft and its predecessors. 

Delft research through research information system Pure

Pure is a system proving information about ongoing research at TU Delft. It is intended as a management information system and contains short descriptions of research, publications and authors. 

NARCIS - National Academic Research and Collaborations Information System

TU Delft Repository is contributor of NARCIS , the national platform of scientific research. The Narcis platform gives access to 636.000 Open Access publications, of which 42.000 are from TU Delft. Besides scientists and students also teachers, entrepreneurs, governments and journalists make use of this platform.

TU Delft Open Access policy and Funding of Open Access are managed by TU Delft Library 

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PhD-theses by Dutch universities

• Over the years there has been an increase in the number of dissertations within the four science clusters.
• The biggest percentage increase is seen in Medical sciences.
• The University of Groningen, University of Amsterdam and Leiden University have summited biggest amount of dissertations in 2022.

How did the amount of dissertations develop between 1997 and 2022?

Analysis From 2000 onwards, the total number of PhD-theses shows an increasing trend. 2017 shows a small decrease in the number of PhD-theses after which it increases again until 2019. The decrease in 2020 might be a consequence of the corona crisis during which PhD-students were delayed and defenses were postponed.

This trend of positive growth is visible in every cluster. From 1997-2022, the share of the Medical cluster in the total number of PhD-theses has grown from 26% to 38%. The relative share PhD-theses of the Science & engineering cluster has decreased (from 44% to 39%), as has the share of the Humanities cluster (from 10% to 6%). The relative share of the Behavioural & social sciences has remained relatively stable, at 17%.

How many dissertations were submitted by Dutch universities in 2022?

Analysis   The number of dissertations is related to the size of a university. Groningen University (RUG), the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and Leiden University (LU) constitute the top 3 with respect to the number of PhD-theses. The Open University (OU) produces the smallest number of PhD-theses.

Definitions and abbreviations

For an explanation of the used definitions and abbreviations we refer to the webpage  Definitions for Science in Figures .

Onderzoeksoutput universiteiten vanaf 1997

file type xlsx - file size 42.32 KB

Related publications

• Scientific publications by Dutch universities
• Publication output by scientific field, international benchmark (WoS)
• Scientific publication output per university (WoS)
• Scientific publications in the Netherlands by institutional sector (WoS)
• Scientific publications, international benchmark (WoS)
• NWO and KNAW institutes: scientific publication output and citation impact (WoS)

ITC PhD theses

• Subject guides
• Announcements

Subject guide

Bachelor and Master theses of Leiden Universtity

As a rule, printed BA and MA theses were not included in the library collection. Starting 2010, BA and MA theses of the Faculties of Archaeology, Humanities, and Social and Behavioural Sciences are included in the Student Repository of Scholarly Publications. These theses are not included in the catalogue, but the titles can be found in Google Scholar.

If you are looking for an unpublished thesis it is advised to contact the secretariat of the department where the author of the thesis concerned has graduated.

At the Wijnhaven library you can find theses of Public Administration that were handed in between 2010 and 2011. The theses are available for loan.

Bachelor and Master theses of other Dutch universities

Erasmus University Thesis Repository

Radboud Educational Repository

TU Delft Education Repository

University of Groningen Thesis Research Portal

Utrecht University Student Theses Repository

UvA Scripties Online

VU Online Scriptiedatabase

Leiden PhD theses

Digitized Recent PhD theses (from approximately 2005 on) by Leiden PhD students are available digitally through Scholarly Publications . The site offers free access to these PhD theses. However, in some cases a thesis may be under embargo temporarily and access to its full-text version will only be granted later. Printed All Leiden PhD theses are included in the Catalogue , file tab Leiden Collections. Narrow down your question by typing dissertation  in a second search field.

Dutch PhD theses

Recent PhD theses (from approximately 2005 on) from all universities in the Netherlands are available digitally through OpenAire , a database with free access. However, in some cases also here a thesis may be under embargo temporarily and access to the full-text version of the thesis may only be granted at a later date.

For paper versions of Dutch PhD theses that cannot be found in the Catalogue  refer to WorldCat . This database contains the holdings of all Dutch university libraries and the Koninklijke Bibliotheek. 

International PhD theses

Many recent scientific publications, including PhD theses, are offered full-text in repositories on the internet, free of charge. The websites mentioned below offer access to collections of repositories:

The British site OpenDOAR (The Directory of Open Access Repositories)  offers access to more than 1500 repositories world-wide. All included repositories have been reviewed and approved by OpenDOAR staff members. The site maintains a user-friendly interface.

OATD (Open Access Theses and Dissertations) is a resource maintained by several US University Libraries, for finding open access graduate theses and dissertations published around the world. OATD tries to index only graduate-level theses and dissertations that are freely available to download, they leave out closed-access and embargoed ETDs.

The British site ROAR (Registry of Open Access Repositories) also offers access to repositories world-wide, but, contrary to OpenDOAR, is filled automatically.

OpenAIRE (Open Access Infrastructure for Research in Europe) gives an overview of, and offers access to more than 8.000.000 of Open Access publications from 460+ data providers, with links to funding, datasets and more.

OIAster (originally a project by Michigan University, USA) offers access to scientific publications world-wide. Since December 2009 this database has been integrated in WorldCat .

DART-Europe   is a webportal that provides access to more then 360.000 scientific dissertations from more then 500 European universities. DART stands for Digital Archive of Research Theses

EBSCO Open Dissertations : a free database containing hundreds of thousands digital dissertations and theses. Its contents are harvested from repositories of research universities from around the world.

Through the Catalogue (tab Database Search) you are offered access to the following databases of PhD theses:

China Dissertations : contains full-text PhD theses from 1999 on. Access only with a ULCN account and matching password.

Proquest Dissertations & Theses Global  database with data (not full-text, but abstracts) of mainly North American PhD theses beginn https://opendissertations.org/ ing in 1637.  It is possible to order the full-text on payment. Access only available with a ULCN account and matching password.

•   Utrecht University Student Theses Repository Home

Utrecht University Student Theses Repository

The theses platform Utrecht University Student Theses Repository gives access to Open Access theses that have been published in the past fifteen years by students from Utrecht University and the University Medical Center Utrecht. The theses can also be found in international search engines such as WorldCat and Google (Scholar).

Theses will remain publicly available for a fifteen-year period. Please note: this is also true for theses which were publicly available before September 2021. After fifteen years they are automatically taken offline. You will find a manual on how to search for theses on this page.

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PhD at TU/e

• Open PhD positions
• I'm a PhD candidate at TU/e
• Defenses and ceremonies
• Chat with our students
• Becoming a PhD candidate
• Life as PhD
• After your PhD

Do you have a master's degree, and do you aspire to a career in scientific research? Then consider a PhD position at TU/e. For four years, you will conduct (paid) in-depth research within a specific field of research. At a top international university known for its strong ties with industry, right in the middle of Brainport (the smartest region in the world).

What does a PhD at TU/e entail?

In four years, you will become an excellent, independent researcher. A professor will assist you in conducting in-depth, groundbreaking research in the field of your choice. You will work together with other research groups, industrial partners, and research institutions, depending on the subject of your research. After successfully defending your dissertation, you will be awarded the PhD title.

A PhD program offers you a great deal of freedom to conduct research into socially relevant topics. You can develop your ideas in an environment with state-of-the-art research facilities. 

• Explore our research groups

Why become a PhD candidate at TU/e?

If you choose to pursue a PhD at TU/e, you will be given the space and support to excel in your field. In addition, our small-scale and personal approach makes it easy to communicate and collaborate with other departments and research groups. Also, PhD candidates are valued employees at our university. Most have an employment contract and therefore receive a salary during their training.

Meet some of our PhD candidates

Open culture.

The Netherlands has an open, friendly culture and a population that speaks English well. At TU/e you will find students from more than 80 different countries, who come together in one of the many communities. We embrace diversity and inclusion, as it adds to our success and pleasure in education and research. TU/e is a university where students and lecturers know each other on a first-name basis and work together on innovative projects with real-life significance.   

State-of-the-art research facilities

To conduct groundbreaking research, to attract outstanding scientific talent, and to train new generations of engineers, we have ultramodern research labs and facilities at our disposal. Some of our labs are unique in the Netherlands, or even in the world.

PROOF program

As a PhD candidate, you will plunge into an intensive learning experience over a period of four (or five) years. Learning takes place all the time, both consciously and subconsciously: on the job, when interacting with others, while (informally) researching, and during courses and workshops. To support and facilitate the development of your competences, TU/e offers a dedicated training program for PhD candidates.

Is a PhD track right for me?

To successfully pursue a PhD, you must be able to work and write independently. In addition, you have an above-average interest in technology, are a go-getter, and can think analytically. Of course, you enjoy doing research and finding out the underlying cause of things. Finally, you need to have a suitable prior education. 

• More information about requirements

Or an EngD (Engineering Doctorate)?

Do you want to continue your education, but not spend four years doing in-depth research? In that case an EngD program might be something for you: a two-year, paid, full-time program to become a technological designer. You will expand your technological knowledge, gain practical experience with the latest methods, and work on your professional skills. The main difference between an EngD program and a PhD track is its focus. A PhD is aimed at establishing yourself as an independent researcher. On the other hand, an EngD prepares you for a high-level position in industry. 

• More information about EngD

CHAT WITH OUR STUDENTS

They are happy to answer your questions and share their experiences!

Events and information for PhD's

Watch the program video where a PhD candidate and an EngD trainee will tell you more about their experiences at TU/e. Ask your question(s) directly to one of our PhD students. Or visit our Graduate School Event on campus!

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Program videos

Want to know more about our bachelors, masters, EngD or PhD programs? Watch one of our program videos presented by our staff and students.

Master's Open Day

Visit the TU/e during the open day of our Graduate School

Fact & Figures PhD candidates

1650 phd candidates.

About 1650 people are working as a PhD candidate at TU/e.

PhD Defenses

Every year about 225 PhD’s defenses take place.

Male Female Ratio

About 33% of the PhD candidates are women, 67% are men.

International environment

About 60% of our PhD candidates have an international background. The other 40% have Dutch nationality. English is our working language.

Average duration

On average, the duration of the PhD trajectory at TU/e is one of the shortest in the Netherlands.

Satisfaction

PhD candidates assess their PhD trajectory on average with a 7.5 (on a scale of 1-10).

Dr Veronika CH

Writing a PhD thesis in the Netherlands

This post summarizes the process I went through to write and publish my thesis in 2015 at the Delft University of Technology. From what I understand, my experience is representative for computer science and other technical PhDs in the Netherlands. I am not sure how things generalize beyond that.

PhD by publication

In my department it was standard to do a “PhD by publication”. Although you do have a formal thesis in the end, the goal is to publish four first-author journal papers in the four years of your employment . These papers would go “as is” as four chapters into your thesis, and you would add two general introduction and discussion sections to complete it. You could of course also add other chapters if you have more papers or want to add unpublished material.

Different groups have different guidelines on what counts as “publishing a journal paper”. Peer-reviewed conference papers, or papers that you have submitted and are under review at a journal, could also count. My “thesis” was approved when I had 2 accepted journal papers (but, one of these was a second-author paper), 2 journal papers for which I had submitted major revisions, and 1 conference paper that was under review. I write “thesis”, because at the time of approval I didn’t have a single document called “thesis.pdf”, but an outline of which papers would become chapters, and their status of acceptance.

I think that when I started my PhD, I was aware of the PhD by publication, but I thought I would write a “real” manuscript to satisfy the perfectionist within me. But I changed my mind when I realized that’s the only result I would accomplish – my PhD would count just as little or just as much. Since I spent the last year of my PhD revising papers , I was quite happy to choose the easier (but just as effective) option.

There was not a lot of writing to do – only a general introduction and discussion chapters. I got started about 9 months before my contract ended, but I definitely didn’t work on my thesis full-time. I do think it was good to start early, because it gave me some time to digest what I’ve done in the years before and gain new insights. Perhaps that is a disadvantage of a PhD by publication, because it does not “as naturally” lead to taking a step back, as I would imagine you need to do if you have to write an entire manuscript.

I also appreciated having the 9 months to write my propositions, which I defended together with the thesis – see my earlier post about this.

Next to writing two chapters and propositions, I just put together the papers I had into a single LateX project/template. I spent a few hours battling with incompatible packages, but after it compiled, it was amazing to suddenly see all my papers form 100 or so pages of thesis.pdf.

After getting thesis.pdf approved by my supervisors and the plagiarism check of the university, it could be sent to my thesis committee and I could plan a defense date. I believe this happened around January 2015, and my defense was scheduled for June 2015. I’m a bit foggy on the details on this, but I think at this point it is assumed that you will in fact successfully defend your thesis.

In the time in between, you could get comments from your committee on possible revisions, and when enough committee members approve, you can go ahead and print your thesis. In my case, two committee members had suggestions for revisions. One committee member suggested a few points for the discussion, but also said that the thesis was approved regardless of whether I had time to implement them. The other commitee member essentially wanted a “major revision”. But, this committee member responded way after the deadline, so since all the other committee members had approved, I had already printed my thesis. Talk about a scare though…

Before the defense, you have to publish/print your thesis. There are several companies that specialize in this, and you get a bit of budget from the unversity to do the printing. The main things you need is a thesis.pdf that is formatted correctly (not a problem since my latex template already took care of that) and a cover.

I spent quite a bit of time thinking about my cover – since I wasn’t working on a specific application, it was difficult to come up with something that would illustrate my topic. Once I had the concept in mind, my friend Hella Hekkelman made the illustration for me – I’m still very happy about it:

Here is it in action:

To see more examples of cover design, check out another friend Carolyn’s post how she designed her own cover.

With the thesis and cover, I ordered about 120 copies of my thesis from the publisher. This is a a relatively normal number, since you give copies to people from your department or in your field. I have even heard of people printing 300 or more! But, everybody advised me not print too many, so I got exactly the amount that the university budget would cover. In retrospect, I wish I would have invested a bit more into it, because a year after my defense, I had already ran out of copies.

Update April 2019 : If you have cats on your PhD cover, definitely order more! Proefschriftmaken.nl was kind enough to give me a discount, and I just ordered 30 more books! 

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2 thoughts on “Writing a PhD thesis in the Netherlands”

Thanks for the interesting short read. I am currently looking for Ph.D. vacancies in the Netherlands. I am studying (bio-)physics and have a keen interest in machine learning. Unfortunately, other than the foundation in maths there is no expertise in that in physics. Would you say that a Ph.D. is an excellent opportunity for ‘changing the field’ or is there no way to compete with computer scientists?

Thanks! I’m probably not the best person to give advice, but I think there is value in having people non-CS backgrounds, and that your math foundation would really help you and give you an advantage over students who did CS in the Netherlands (I did and I feel like I didn’t have enough math). It’s difficult to predict what will happen to the field and who you will be competing with. If you decide to go for it make sure you enjoy the whole process, even if research-wise you don’t get any groundbreaking results.

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Publication doctoral thesis

Below you will find important information with regard to the publication of your doctoral thesis. 

As required by the promotion rules (article 16 and 17), researchers who want to take their doctoral degree have to hand in two weeks before the promotion date: 

• One copy of the thesis (the book) 
• If applicable, a copy of the accompanying propositions 
• A digital version of the thesis with cover;  upload  your publication through  Pure  or if you don't have access anymore, please send it to  [email protected]   
• An abstract in English of 250 till 350 words (not the entire summary) 

It is possible to impose an embargo when your thesis is not allowed to be published publicly yet. 

The University Library adds your thesis to: 

• The collection of the University of Twente (it will be indexed in the database behind FindUT)
• The collection and catalogue of the Royal Library of the Netherlands ( Koninklijke Bibliotheek ) 
• UT Research Information , the public portal of all UT scientific output 

Adding your thesis to  Pure , the back-end system of UT Research Information, guarantees inclusion in  NARCIS  and international search engines  Google (Scholar) ,  OAIster , and  BASE . This increases the availability, visibility, the recognition, and the citation score of your scientific work. 

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Thesis repository

The Erasmus University Thesis Repository contains over 60,000 theses from 2009 until the present. Most of these are master theses. 

In the thesis repository, you can search by:

• faculty/institute (affiliation)
• study (series)

with both Dutch and English terms.

The repository contains theses from all faculties and institutes at EUR, with the exception of Erasmus MC and Erasmus School of Law . Would you like a list by faculty/institute, including the number of theses? Click on “show all” at “Affiliation” on the left of the search screen.

There is open access to the full text of many of the theses in the thesis repository. The full text of theses of Rotterdam School of Management and part of Erasmus School of Economics can only be accessed by the EUR community. For these theses, you will see the instruction: Sign in to view additional files on the right of the screen. If you click on this link to go to the full text, an ERNA account is required.

If you are looking for a specific thesis and you can’t find it in the thesis repository, try sEURch . Here you will find the details of online theses up to 2013 inclusive and of printed theses up to 2014 inclusive. Like books, printed theses may be borrowed. 

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PhD programme

Celebrating 250 ISS PhD graduates

The stories and knowledge of our doctoral alumni

The International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) offers a four-year programme leading to an internationally recognized degree. 

Our PhD researchers work on topics in the field of global development and social justice based on a strong theoretical footing and using cutting-edge qualitative and quantitative methods.

Providing a creative environment for critically-minded and independent scholars

The ISS’s aim is to provide a creative and lively  environment for  critically minded and independent scholars to contribute to positive social change, as well as global justice and equity. Many of our PhD candidates are experienced professionals with a track record in development, activism, academia and/ or public service, enriching the academic exchange with their experiences and views.

Part of our broader research programme

All PhD researchers are invited to participate in our global research programme and in at least one of the research groups:

• Civic Innovation
• Development Economics
• Political Ecology
• Governance, Law & Social Justice

Collaborative research schools

All PhD researchers at the International Institute of Social Studies are part of the CERES Research School for International Development  which offers a PhD training programme aimed at increasing the skills and knowledge required for writing a viable, implementable and academic research proposal.

They are also part of the Erasmus Graduate School of Social Sciences and the Humanities  which offers  dozens of courses  to nurture innovative and interdisciplinary research excellence.

PhD researchers 'in the driver's seat'

Researchers join a diverse and close-knit community of scholars.

At the moment, 153 PhD candidates from 49 nationalities countries are enrolled in the PhD programme. Many of them work at their own desk in the ISS building, discussing their research with their peers and supervisory team, refining their research proposal, or are in the final phase of writing their thesis. Those in the second and third years of the programme are usually away doing fieldwork, collecting original data to answer their research questions.

Our philosophy is that PhD researchers are 'in the driver’s seat' for their project, working closely with our multidisciplinary and passionate faculty engaged in global development research.

A PhD researcher’s fieldwork activities benefit from belonging to a dynamic and vibrant community,  complimented by rigorous preparation including safety and security training, access to the ISS global network along with experienced and thoughtful guidance and solid institutional support.

ISS occasionally has vacancies for fully-funded PhD candidates, and takes part in several scholarship programmes. However, ISS does not have a scholarship programme of its own, and most PhD candidates organize their own funding , through their government, a foundation, or self-funding.

Candidates find that the PhD trajectory provides them with space to reflect on their experiences and that the degree opens opportunities to continue or change their career path.

PhD researchers speak

Current and past PhD researchers tell us why they decided to do their PhD at ISS.

The dissertation writing exercise was probably the best thing that I ever did in my life.

'Grounded ... in the art of doing independent academic and policy relevant research ...'

Interesting things will only happen if you're willing to listen

International opportunities with our PhD degree 

Contact the PhD team

If you have any questions about doing your PhD at the International Institute of Social Studies, please contact the PhD support team.

PhD vacancies at ISS

No vacancies found.

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Our phd researchers.

Current PhD research profiles and publications lists

Request the ISS Study Guide

All you need to know about our MA programme

250 ISS PhD graduates

Celebratory booklet

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• Materials and Interface Chemistry

Research output : Contribution to journal › Article › Popular

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• Cleaning Engineering 100%
• Water Medicine and Dentistry 100%
• Doctor of Philosophy Medicine and Dentistry 100%
• Species Medicine and Dentistry 100%
• Surface Material Science 100%
• Leaf Engineering 66%
• Surface Energy Material Science 50%
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T1 - PhD-Thesis

AU - Carcouet, C.C.M.

N2 - Self-Cleaning is a dream-to-come-true property for various coatings. Once again, Mother Nature is a great source of inspiration, providing many examples of self-cleaning. Amongst them, probably the most elegant example is the lotus leaf. Despite growing in muddy water, the lotus leaves always remain clean. The self-cleaning property originates from a combination of low surface-energy species and dual-size surface topology, leading to a syperhydrophobic surface.

AB - Self-Cleaning is a dream-to-come-true property for various coatings. Once again, Mother Nature is a great source of inspiration, providing many examples of self-cleaning. Amongst them, probably the most elegant example is the lotus leaf. Despite growing in muddy water, the lotus leaves always remain clean. The self-cleaning property originates from a combination of low surface-energy species and dual-size surface topology, leading to a syperhydrophobic surface.

M3 - Article

JO - T-licht : verenigingsblad van T.S.V. 'Jan Pieter Minckelers'

JF - T-licht : verenigingsblad van T.S.V. 'Jan Pieter Minckelers'

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PhD Programmes

The university.

Every year, several hundred national and international PhD candidates start their research at Utrecht University. Partly thanks to them, we work on top-quality research. In doing so, cooperation between scientists and social partners is of paramount importance.

Research themes

We concentrate our research around four research themes : Dynamics of Youth, Institutions for Open Societies, Life Sciences and Pathways to Sustainability. Within these themes, we collaborate interdisciplinarily with research institutions, industry, government and civil society organisations. We connect thinkers to doers to work together for a better world.

We have been doing this for years, but we are ambitious. We focus on integrating science and society even more. Together, we solve key issues for current and future generations and contribute to contemporary social issues such as safety, health, social cohesion and sustainability.

This approach is appreciated, as global university rankings show time and again .

Want to know more about who we are? Then check out our organisation page.

Graduate Schools

Responsibility for the training and supervision of PhD candidates at Utrecht University falls under the Graduate Schools (except Graduate School of Teaching). A Graduate School consists of a number of substantively related Master's programmes and PhD programmes. Thus, Graduate Schools create a context in which master students, PhD candidates and researchers meet and stimulate each other.

For research and employee matters, PhD candidates rely on one of our seven faculties. In these faculties, our research groups are united. In the context of the themes mentioned above, these research groups cooperate interfaculty.

Utrecht University Heidelberglaan 8 3584 CS Utrecht The Netherlands Tel. +31 (0)30 253 35 50

Sweden and the Netherlands: 16 fully-funded PhD positions

Are you looking for exciting PhD positions at esteemed universities in Sweden and the Netherlands ?

Over 16 fully-funded multiple doctoral scholarships in diverse fields are available at various universities in Sweden and the Netherlands for the year 2024. These fellowships provide funding for doctoral researchers to conduct their research projects at universities, research institutions, and other organizations in these countries. These PhD positions are funded by prestigious sources including the MSCA doctoral program and other funding programs.

For detailed information on specific doctoral positions, please visit the provided links to explore corresponding PhD scholarships, which include specific requirements and application procedures.

PhD positions available in Swedish universities:

1.  Computational condensed matter physics, Linköping University

2.  Urban Freight Management, Chalmers University of Technology

3.  eDNA environmental monitoring, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet

4.  Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), Luleå University of Technology

5.  Medical Science - Regional differences in gestational duration, University of Gothenburg

6.  Computational Sciences within the national Data-Driven Life Sciences program, Umeå universitet

7.  Computational biology of infection, Lunds universitet

PhD positions available in Dutch/Netherlands universities:

8.  Donders Centre of Neuroscience - Motor Disorder Rehabilitation, Radboud University

9.  Human-aligned Video-AI, University of Amsterdam (UvA)

10.  Multivariate Dependence Modelling and Statistical Machine Learning Algorithms for Patient Risk Profiling, Delft University of Technology (TU Delft)

11.  Computational Cognitive Neuroscience at the Predictive Brain Lab, Radboud University

12.  Atmospheric Sciences - Unraveling the mesoscale organisation of shallow convective clouds for better climate projection, Wageningen University & Research

13.  Dynamic On-Body and In-Body Compression Systems, University of Twente (UT)

14.  Modelling Micropollutant Removal using Charge-Mosaic Nanofiltration Membranes, University of Twente (UT)

15.  Economic Life Cycle Costing and Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment of Hydropower, University of Twente (UT)

16.  Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Hydropower, University of Twente (UT)

Catharina de Pater successfully defended her PhD thesis at Wageningen University and Research on 16 April 2024

Catharina de Pater’s PhD research: Spirit in the woods; the Grounding of Spiritual Values in Forest Management.

• What is your research about? I did my PhD research on how forest spirituality is embedded in forest management, and what the implications are for forest management planning and practice. It was interdisciplinary research, drawing from both forestry science and religious scholarship. That enabled me to construct a conceptual framework to study forest spirituality in depth. My findings showed that forest spirituality is on the rise in the Netherlands and that it has practical consequences for forest management. Forest managers can facilitate harmless activities such as meditative walks by ensuring tranquillity and scenic beauty, but they draw the line when ecological values are threatened, e.g. by rituals disturbing animals or biodiversity. Forest managers see the need to learn and exchange more about forest spirituality and I recommend that this is taken up in formal and informal education
• How did you experience your defence? My defence was exciting and overwhelming. It was scheduled in the last slot on the 16 th of April. My supervisors, Arjen Wals (ELS) and Bas Verschuuren (FNP), convinced me that it should be proceeded by a mini-symposium on the subject. I thought it would be too much for one day, but they argued that they would organize it, which they did. In the end, over 100 people attended the symposium and the defence, and there was a lot of press coverage afterwards. It was completely overwhelming! Thanks ever so much to Arjen and Bas, the support staff of FNP and ELS, and all the encouragement from colleagues and friends!
• Do you have a nice anecdote from your time as promovendus? During our field research, we held a workshop with forest managers at a big national carousel event, the annual Area Managers’ Day. In that workshop we reported early results of our research, and did Mentimeter exercises to generate more data. In the end we asked them whether they would like to learn more about forest spirituality. Some participants wrote: “No” or “Not interested”. When we talked to one of them afterwards, he said: “I am the manager of a memorial forest, where people plant trees to remember their deceased loved ones. Spirituality is the main purpose of my forest!”
• What are your plans for the future? At the moment I am starting up activities at FNP as a part-time guest researcher on a voluntary basis. I have been invited to co-operate with an upcoming research project on forest spirituality in Europe, and to supervise Masters students who would like to study forest spirituality in different areas in or outside Europe using my framework or related approaches. I am also contemplating to follow up on various loose ends in my thesis, inventorise cases of forest spirituality in the Netherlands, and contributing to further theorizing. I also envisage outreach activities such as workshops on forest spirituality with forest managers. And if I can be useful for ELS, let’s talk!
• Do you have tips for future promovendi?

Tips for the last stretch:

• Start early with the preps, preferably as soon as the date is fixed.
• The procedures are clearly detailed by the PhD and Beadle Offices, read them carefully and don’t hesitate to ask questions (by mail). They are very helpful.
• Follow the courses ‘Last stretch of PhD’ and ‘Writing propositions’ as soon as the date is remotely in sight. They are very helpful.
• Make a time frame/action list with deadlines - the slides from the Last stretch course are a useful basis. Share the list with your paranymphs, and update it regularly.
• Think about propositions already now! I noted down ideas in my smartphone whenever I got them, so that I could reflect on them at any convenient moment.
• Thesis printing: keep a firm grip on the printer company (most likely WUR’s home supplier Proefschriftmaken.nl). They are congenial but their different work stations do not connect seamlessly:) It would be helpful if the secretariat keeps a recent paper sample catalogue, that saves time and efforts. Practice lay outing with advanced Word functions, doing it yourself pays off. NB: you will likely need an advanced PDF converter programme such as Adobe Creative Cloud. WUR-ICT issues licences for external PhD candidates for this purpose.
• Plan the mock defence well in advance, and let the paranymphs be in charge. Your mock opponents need time to prepare, and especially in busy months they may be called for other ‘mocks’ too.

Opt for being a paranymph for at least one of your fellow PhD candidates. It helps to familiarize yourself with the place, proceedings, and the emotional experience.

Tips for the whole PhD trajectory:

• Don’t be afraid of making mistakes, but show your commitment to whoever expects things from you. Better to send an incomplete draft to your supervisors than nothing at all.
• ·Keep up! It’s not easy to study an undiscovered area of research. Keep in charge but don’t hesitate to ask support from your supervisors and make use of the manyfold guidance opportunities provided by the university. In times of deep despair, I reminded myself that they had not engaged me for nothing, that they had expectations about the subject and trust in me. That helped.

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