IDPASC – Portugal gathers the Portuguese universities, laboratories and research centres with a record of excellence in research and post-graduation in the area of PASC. The existing doctoral programmes of the participant higher education institutions provide the backbone for the present proposal. These institutions now merge their expertise and resources to endow Portugal with a common, national PASC doctorate programme, providing a solid and stable ground for future training and research in this field.
Particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology no longer have rigid boundaries. For this reason, a PhD programme with a wide coverage of PASC provides an important scientific added value. The institutions in this proposal gather the national expertise in this field and have a remarkable track record of scientific and technological know-how. However, each of them has specialized in different aspects of PASC. Only the IDPASC – Portugal institutions as a group can provide optimal ground for a wide training which can be tailored to the student's profile.
The available courses can be divided in four main areas:
- Particle and astroparticle physics;
- Astrophysics, gravitation and cosmology;
- PASC-related techniques and technologies;
- Transferable skills.
The IDPASC programme complies with the Bologna structure, which encompasses an academic training corresponding to 60 ECTS per year and a total duration of 3/4 years. In the first year the credits are equally shared between academic courses and research, while the remaining years are fully devoted to the thesis research subject.
The candidates will be registered in either a Physics (at UC, UP, UM, IST and FCUL), a Physics Engineering (UC, UP, IST and UM) or Sciences of the Earth and Space PhD program (UE).
They are involved in IDPASC-Portugal in the partner University where they are registered and pay the tuition fees
The optional courses of the first year are chosen among the courses (available soon) offered by the six participant Universities in each IDPASC-Portugal edition.
The thesis theme/project is chosen among the list of projects offered by the consortium of Universities participating in the IDPASC-Portugal.
The thesis theme/project chosen should be one of the projects offered by the University where the candidate will be registered (although the project can involve more than one institution).
The thesis is submitted and defended at the University in which the candidate is registered.
Upon successful completion, the student is awarded the PhD degree in Physics, Physics Engineering or Sciences of the Earth and Space (depending on the case) by the University in which he/she is registered.
At Universidade de Lisboa, FCUL and IST offer PhD programmes in Physics (at FCUL and IST) and Physics Engineering.
Universidade de Coimbra runs MSc and PhD programmes in Physics and in Physics Engineering
Universidade do Porto has a Physics Engineering PhD programme at FEUP and a Physics PhD programme at FCUP. FEUP researchers coordinate the European Training in Optical Interferometry. FCUP researchers at CFP develop highly international research in the PASC domain. Since 2009, CFP organizes the Mathematica Summer School on theoretical physics. It also coordinate the node participation in the ITN network – GATIS.
Universidade do Minho has a PhD programme in physics and recognised state-of-the art research in several applied physics domains.
Universidade de Évora runs a PhD programme on Earth and Space Sciences. UE research teams participated in several ESA projects in Earth-Space Sciences and in several international networks.
One of the main goals of LIP is to provide training for young scientists and to promote their integration in the laboratory funded research programme.
In addition, the higher education institutions in this proposal actively participate in advanced training international schools as organisers, lecturers and/or by encouraging their students to participate. In particular, as part of the IDPASC international network, the participant institutions have already jointly organized 8 editions of the IDPASC international school, held once per year for two weeks and covering core PASC subjects (particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology; theory, observations and experiments), and several IDPASC thematic schools.