KU Leuven Global Minds Doctoral Scholarships Programme
Programme Start Date: October, 2025
Deadline: 28th February, 2025
Country: Belgium
Institution: KU Leuven
Type: PhD
Eligibility Criteria:
Description:
Eligibility:
Candidates have to be citizens of one of the following countries:
Africa
• Benin • Burkina Faso • Burundi • Cameroon • D.R. Congo • Ethiopia • Guinea • Kenya • Madagascar • Morocco • Mozambique • Niger • Rwanda • Senegal • South Africa • Tanzania • Uganda • Zimbabwe
Asia
• Cambodia • Indonesia • Palestinian Territories • Philippines • Vietnam
Latin America
• Bolivia • Cuba • Ecuador • Haiti • Nicaragua • Peru
As one of its contributions to global development, each academic year KU Leuven selects exceptional scholars from institutions in the Global South as scholarship candidates to study for a PhD at the largest university in Belgium. The KU Leuven Global Minds Programme is managed by the University's Interfaculty Council for Global Development.
The aim of the GM Scholarship is to give scholars the opportunity to carry out 4 years of PhD research in a ‘sandwich’ system, which means that a maximum of 50% of the research will be financed by and carried out at KU Leuven, while at least 50% will be carried out and financed by the scholar's home institution, supported by a local co-supervisor. In this way, both KU Leuven and the home institution are partners in the co-financing of the research. In addition, KU Leuven offers a supervision allowance to the local co-supervisor at the home institution and to the supervisor at KU Leuven.
Candidates must be assigned by the home institution and receive sufficient financial support from that institution to carry out the research effectively. This ensures that the candidate is strongly embedded in the home country and can contribute to local capacity building after the PhD.
After obtaining their doctorate at KU Leuven, the doctoral candidates are expected to mobilise their expertise at the university in their home country in order to contribute to strengthening the capacity of that institution.