PhD students
Education
Our center provides basic research training for students in biology, chemistry, bio-engineering, pharmacy, veterinary science and medicine. Research performed by PhD students is situated within the context of ongoing projects supervised by one of the staff scientists, and offers the opportunity of creative and independent but interactive research.
PhD students are funded through individual fellowships or grants, or by support secured by the group leaders. Research towards a Ph.D. degree consists of one or more original scientific contributions published in peer-reviewed international journals.
PhD students participate in all research-related activities (unit meetings, weekly lab-meetings, weekly in-house seminars, invited seminars or lectures within the Department), for which English is the standard language. In addition to these activities, the students enrol to the Ph.D. in Medical Sciences study credit program, as determined by the Faculty of Medicine, K.U.Leuven.
The group leaders from our center participate in the Doctoral School Programme Emerging of the KU Leuven Groep of Biomedical Sciences - International Doctoral School Biomedical Sciences
PhD Association
Chairs: Hasse Mol & Anke Vandekeere
A PhD is a wonderful journey and, as such, it is full of amazing people and experiences. However, the long and winding road towards graduation may hide unforeseen pitfalls. The PhD Association wants to create the ideal space for PhD students to support each other and to make their journey as smooth as possible.
The PhDA aims to foster interaction, collaborations and a sense of community. It also aims to provide resources for career and personal development and to represent the PhD students at executive level.
Any student of the Center is considered a member of the PhDA and is welcome to join its meetings, help with ongoing activities or suggest new ones.
PhDA activities
Next to educational purposes, the PhDA also organizes social activities for students to wind down after a hard day's work and get to know each other. A summer fest, game night or even salsa workshop: no idea is too crazy!
Interviews with PhD students
"Working at CCB formed me as a scientist and as a person. Every day I had the chance to interact with brilliant minds, learn new things, access the latest technologies and most importantly perform science with enthusiasm. I had access to the most interesting courses and I also got exposed to many realities outside academia that helped me make a choice regarding my future career. Last but not least, I made some good friends for life."
Dennis Pedri - Marine lab
“Since the very beginning of my PhD at VIB-CCB I was involved in a lively, challenging, and extremely high-quality scientific environment. This inevitably pushed me to grow as scientist and now, still with a lot to achieve, looking back I can realize how far I got!
Of course, this couldn’t have been possible without - what in my opinion - is the greatest strength of the VIB-CCB: the multiplicity of expertise. Also, the close and informal interpersonal network among all the researchers of the institution makes extremely easy to get access to the different expertise and collaborations that can help your research.
But the PhD is not all about work! The PhD is a journey - a roller coaster one might say - and if you are lucky enough, as I was, you can meet wonderful colleagues that can come on board with you and that I’m sure will be life-time friends!”
Margherita Demicco - Fendt lab
"Being a PhD student at CCB thought me how to solve scientific problems and come up with the questions myself. I can always count on professional guidance and support from my supervisor as well as my colleagues. Throughout the whole PhD process I have access to the best technologies that enable me to conduct my research on the highest level. Moreover, at our institute I could always be up to date with the research papers and top scientists because of regularly organized seminars during which I could listen to their talks. Thanks to social events like Holiday party organized by the institute it is easy to get to know fellow PhD students within CCB and start a collaboration or exchange ideas what also help to understand your own project more.”
Marta Ciwinska - Scheele lab
CCB's PhD association
