As of 15 February 2017, the FNR standardises the requirements for PhD supervisors across its funding instruments. These new requirements apply for all new applications submitted to the FNR, involving the supervision of one or more FNR-funded PhD candidates.
By definition, the supervisor is the intellectual authority guiding the doctoral candidate and taking the responsibility for the good conduct and implementation of the PhD project. The supervisor is thus the individual who does the main supervision of the doctoral candidate and earns the credit for it.
Supervisors of FNR-funded PhDs must have adequate supervision rights, i.e. they have been formally entrusted by the degree awarding institution with the supervision of PhD candidates.
For prospective supervisors whose application for supervision rights is in the process of evaluation, supervision rights must be available at the latest when the FNR-funded project starts, otherwise the FNR reserves the right to cancel the PhD budget.
In the special case where the PhD supervisor is based in Luxembourg and the degree awarding institution is a university abroad, the FNR acknowledges that the requirement for supervision rights needs to be differentiated, depending on the rules and requirements of the degree awarding institution. The university rules for external supervisors and the practical arrangements with the degree awarding institution need to be described in the project proposal and are subject to evaluation by the FNR.
As a general rule, supervisors of FNR-funded PhDs must have an employment contract for at least 3 years of the duration of the PhD project they are to supervise. Moreover, PhD candidates must be employed at the same institution than their supervisor, except for AFR-PPP, where it is possible for a PhD candidate to be employed at a company, while the supervisor is employed at a public research institution.
For research projects funded under CORE, OPEN, INTER, ATTRACT and PEARL with one or more PhDs, the FNR expects that the project PI assumes the role of PhD supervisor.
These new requirements are included in the FNR general guideline ‘FNR requirements for principal investigators and supervisors’ under chapter 2 (the document has been updated).
Download updated FNR requirements for principal investigators and supervisors (PDF)
