How to apply

Application process

The selection process will be carried out via online through Wit website and will start with the announcement of the call.

The fellows’ selection process will be organized as a two-stages procedure including 6 main steps and will last 8 months approximately, according to the work schedule shown here. You will find all the details about the process in the Call document.

The online application will be open throught the duration of the call (2 months; from the the 18TH of January to the 18th of March). 

After administrative processing, the provisional list of applications that have been admitted, excluded and in need of rectification ( indicating the reasons for rejection or rectification) will published on the website. Applications that fail to provide proof of achievements indicated in the CV cannot be rectified.

Applicants will have a period of 7 calendar days to submit their amended applications on the website. After that period of time, the definitive list of admitted and excluded applications will be published on the website.

The evaluation of the applications in this phase will be carried out by an Evaluation Panel of 12 experts who will organise their work according to the four WIT areas, producing a report for each application. Each application will be evaluated by 3 experts, one of whom shall have an industrial (non-academic) profile.

The provisional list of pre-selected and unsuccessful applications will be published on the WIT website, allowing a period of five days to file any objections. Applicants will be notified by e-mail of the publication of the lists and unsuccessful applicants will also receive the Evaluation Summary Report.

After the final list of pre-selected applications has been published, applicants accessing the final selection phase will be required to prepare and submit the following documents:

1. Research Proposal:

Candidates must respect the 5-page limit and use the template available on the website.

2. Ethics self-assessment:

A template is available on the website.

These documents must be submitted electronically through the WIT website and within a non-extendable period of 30 days.

To draw up the pre-selection shortlist, the Evaluation Committee will be supported by the Evaluation Panel and a Group of international experts from an external evaluation entity. Each application will be evaluated by 2 members of the Evaluation Panel and 2 international experts.

The 16 selected candidates will be required to have a personal interview with the principal researcher from the chosen research group along with two members from the Evaluation Panel.
The purpose of the interview is to ensure the candidate’s suitability to receive the grant. It does not entail an additional score, but it is a verification of the candidate’s motivation, maturity and communication skills. It will also ensure that there are no circumstances that would make enrolment in the candidate’s chosen doctoral programme unfeasible. In the event that, during the interview, a candidate is deemed to be unsuitable for any reason to receive the grant or an inconsistency between the score obtained and the reality observed in the interview is detected, the Evaluation Panel will be asked to re-evaluate the application.


Evaluation criteria

The selection process is designed to be open, transparent and merit-based. The evaluation criteria will follow the methodology established for Horizon 2020 and ERC projects. 

Evaluation criteria for the Phase 1: 

  • Scientific achievements (CV) [Weight: 50%]
  • References [Weight: 25%]
  • Motivation and potential impact on the candidate’s career and proposed research idea [Weight: 25%]

Evaluation criteria for the Phase 2:

  • Researcher Excellence [Weight: 50%]
  • Proposed research proposal [Weight: 30%]
  • Career development [Weight: 20%]


Q&A on line session´s video

The 16h of February we organized this meeting in order to clarify different questions about the Programme and the application system.