« back

Details of doctoral studies

General information

The doctoral study program (DSP) is accredited at the Faculty of Chemical Technology (FCHT) of the UCT Prague. DSP Bioinformatics is provided by the Department of Informatics and Chemistry and guaranteed by Associate Professor Daniel Svozil. UCT Prague consists of four faculties: in addition to FCHT, we also have the Faculty of Chemical Engineering (FCHI), the Faculty of Food and Biochemical Technology (FPBT) and the Faculty of Environmental Technology (FTOP).

Study rules

The study rules are described in the Study and Examination Regulations, Part VI. (Czech only)

The length of a full regular Ph.D. study is 4 years. During this time, the student receives a scholarship and has the opportunity to apply for projects of UCT Internal Grant Agency (IGA). If the student does not defend within 4 years from the beginning of the study, he/she can switch to combined study. Its duration is 3 years and during this time the student is neither eligible to receive a scholarship nor can apply for IGA projects. In total, it is possible to study Ph.D. 7 years, the dissertation must be defended (it is not enough just to submit it) within 7 years from the beginning of the study.

To be admitted to the defense, the student must:

  1. Have published at least one publication as a primary author in an international impacted journal.
  2. Have completed all exams for the subjects from his/her individual study plan.
  3. Complete an internship abroad of min. length of 1 month. This stay does not have to be in one piece, for example, four 1-week foreign conferences or other trips abroad are recognized.
  4. Attend an English student conference, which takes place at the UCT Prague three times a year (typically, March, June, November).

Supervisor

  1. In the case the supervisor is from the FCHT UCT Prague, he/she must be at least on the level of Associated Professor. If he/she has only Ph.D., he/she must be explicitly approved by the Scientific council of the FCHT.
  2. In the case the supervisor is from an institute of the Academy of Sciences, then there are two possible scenarios:
    1. The institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic in question has concluded a "Partial Agreement on Mutual Cooperation in the Implementation of Doctoral Study Programs" with the "Bioinformatics" program. Then the supervisor can be a supervisor with conditions for his titles corresponding to the point 1. As of today (January 2020) we have concluded this agreement with IOCB AS CR and IMG AS CR.
    2. The institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic in question does not have a "Partial Agreement on Mutual Cooperation in the Implementation of Doctoral Study Programs" with the "Bioinformatics" program. Then the thesis supervisor from the given institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic can only act as a supervisor-specialist and the student must have a formally assigned supervisor from the Department of Informatics and Chemistry of the FCHT UCT Prague.

Scholarship

All scholarships are tax-free (net income). It is necessary to distinguish between the cases when the place of dissertation execution is the department of FCHT and when it is the institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.

  1. The place of dissertation execution is the department of FCHT UCT Prague. The student scholarship consists of the following items:
    1. Fixed items
      1. Basic scholarship 7,700 CZK / month. For each unfulfilled study obligation, the scholarship is reduced by 500 CZK / month in individual years. The whole system is described in a detail in the document "Determining the amount of the basic doctoral scholarship" (Czech only) on the page https://www.vscht.cz/studium/doktorske-studium/doktorske-stipendium.
      2. Pedagogical scholarship 3,500 CZK / month. Assigned, if a student participates in teaching / seminars in a course, helps in supervising bachelor's or master's students, etc.
    2. Variable items
      1. VIGA (Scientific Internal Grant Agency) project (see https://www.vscht.cz/veda-a-vyzkum/iga/viga)
        1. Project A1 - the so-called subject grant. This grant is submitted every year by the guarantor of the program (Assoc. Prof. D. Svozil) and within its framework, students are also paid a scholarship, the amount of which is derived according to the student's performance as calculated by the application http://edoktorand.vscht.cz. Typically, the reward is between 1,500 CZK / month and 2,500 CZK / month, for particularly efficient students it can be up to 5,000 CZK / month.
        2. Project A2 - so-called research grant. This is a one-year project submitted by a student. Its purpose is to make students to formulate ideas and translate them into a grant application. The limits and restrictions for eligible funds can be found in the document "Announcement of the IGA competition" and these are then further specified by our faculty (FCHT). It is necessary to follow the faculty rules when applying! In addition to a scholarship of a maximum of 5,000 CZK / month, a doctoral student can also claim operating funds and/or travel expenses.
      2. Votoček's scholarship - the best 20 students at the UCT Prague receive an improvement of 6,000 CZK / month.
      3. Other IGA projects, see https://www.vscht.cz/veda-a-vyzkum/iga. Students can apply for grants for specific social (SIGA) or pedagogical (PIGA) activities.
  2. The place of performance of the dissertation is the institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. The student scholarship consists of the following items:
    1. Fixed items:
      1. Basic scholarship 7,700 CZK / month. For each unfulfilled obligation, the scholarship is reduced by 500 CZK / month in individual years. The whole system is described in detail in the document "Determining the amount of the basic doctoral scholarship" on the page https://www.vscht.cz/studium/doktorske-studium/doktorske-stipendium.
      2. Pedagogical scholarship 3,500 CZK / month. Rarely allocated to students at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. The student must provide some UCT course and the scholarship is paid only for the months when the course is taught.
    2. Variable items
      1. Research VIGA project (project A2). A student can apply for it only if she has at least 50% of the points with the affiliation of any UCT workplace (the affiliation does not have to be exclusive, i.e. it is possible to have two or more affiliations). If this condition is met, the doctoral student is not limited in any way, i.e. for the duration of the project (1 year) he/she can improve by up to 5,000 / month.
      2. No other funds (subject VIGA project A1, PIGA, SIGA, Votoček's scholarship, etc.) can be applied for.

Affiliation

Unless it is a real cooperation between the UCT Prague and the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, providing UCT Prague affiliation in their publications is not obligatory for doctoral students working at the institutes of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.

Foreign students

DSP Bioinformatics is open for the study to foreign students. There are two options how such a study can be realized:

  1. The student enrolls in the English DSP Bioinformatics. He/she has to pay a considerable amount for his/her study (65,500 CZK / year) and does not receive a scholarship. Very meaningless and counterproductive restriction, given by the Higher Education Act.
  2. The student is accepted into the Czech DSP Bioinformatics under the following conditions:
    1. In the 1st semetesr, he/she is enrolled into the English DSP Bioinformatics. He/she pays an administrative fee of 2,000 CZK to 3,000 CZK for studying in the 1st semester and does not receive a scholarship during this period. In the 1st semester, the student must complete a Czech language course at the UCT Prague, which ends with an exam.
    2. At the beginning of the 2nd semester, the student is transfered to the Czech DSP with all its benefits (does not pay for studies, receives a scholarship, can apply for IGA projects, etc.). Of course, it is clear to us that during the 1st semester the student cannot learn Czech, so the lectures are also given in English in the Czech DSP.

The foreign student must have arranged health insurance while staying in the Czech Republic. The rules are quite complex, they change dynamically and the most professional people to turn to is always the HR department of the institution. The rules are described in more detail in this document, below find just the outline:

  1. The student only takes a scholarship and is not employed at the grant
    1. If the student is from the EU country and is under the age of 26, then student’s state pays his/her insurance in his/her home country. Upon the request, this will be transferred from the home country to the country where he/she resides (i.e., the Czech Republic) and therefore nothing is necessary to pay in the Czech Republic.
    2. Students from non-EU countries must pay the insurance by themselves.
  2. If the student is employed on a full-time basis, then the health care is paid from his salary and he/she no longer has to pay anything.

Evaluation (scoring) of doctoral student performance

The doctoral student's performance is scored every year after filling in the results of the doctoral student's activity in the application ”edoktorand”. The awarding of points is governed by the rules described in the document "Overview of the point evaluation of the results of DSP students at the UCT Prague", which can be found at https://www.vscht.cz/studium/doktorske-studium. On the same page you can find the point evaluation of impacted journals and other important documents.