As part of the celebration of 70 years Lovanium, four scholarships will be awarded to students from the University of Kinshasa (UNIKIN) and the Catholic University of Congo (UCC) in the 2025-2026 call.

About the Scholarship:

As one of its contributions to global development, every academic year KU Leuven selects exceptional students from developing countries as scholarship candidates to obtain their PhD from the largest university of Belgium. The KU Leuven Global Minds Programme and the Lovanium Doctoral Scholarships are managed by the University’s Interfaculty Council for Global Development.

The aim of the GM / Lovanium 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.

The PhD degree will be awarded by KU Leuven.

The scholarships will be awarded to outstanding proposals that address a development-related research topic, preferably linked to one or more of the Sustainable Development Goals.

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.

Programs of Study:

K.U. Leuven and your Home Institution

Area(s)/Level of Study:

PhD Research Degree

Scholarship Details:

The scholarship covers tuition fee, monthly allowance, insurance, travel costs, research allowance, etc. For the full benefit list, refer to this link.

Citizen of one of the countries included in the scholarship country list:

Africa: Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, D.R. Congo, Ethiopia, Guinea, Kenya, Madagascar, Morocco, Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, Zimbabwe, South Africa

Asia: Cambodia, Indonesia, Nepal, Philippines, Palestinian Territories, Vietnam

Latin America: Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Haiti, Nicaragua, Peru

Eligibility Criteria:

1. The applicant must be a citizen of one of the countries included in the scholarship country list.
2. Candidates who have citizenship of the EU will not be selected. The same applies to applicants with a long-term EU residence permit.
3. The candidate’s latest Master’s degree must have been awarded no more than ten years prior to 1 October 2022 (including the ongoing calendar year).
4. The candidate must have been awarded an academic grade equivalent to High Distinction or higher. Degrees obtained with a final score equivalent to second class second/lower division will not be taken into consideration.
5. The research project must be of excellent academic quality, with a special focus on the development relevance of the proposal.

READ THE FULL ELIGIBLITY CRITERIA AT THIS LINK.

Application Guidelines:

The application procedure entails two steps: (1) first the candidate should obtain admission to a doctoral or predoctoral program preferably 2.5 months before the scholarship deadline. Applications started after 15 January 2022 (every year) might not be finalized in time. (2) Only once this admission has been obtained, can the candidate apply for a Global Minds PhD scholarship. The scholarship application deadline is 29 April Yearly.

It is very important to visit the official website of the application procedure (see link below) for detailed information on how to apply for this scholarship.

Website:

Official Scholarship Website: https://www.kuleuven.be/english/international/development-cooperation/funding-possibilities/research-possibilities/phdcalls

U Leuven is situated at about twenty kilometers from Brussels, the capital of both Belgium and Europe. It is the oldest university of the Low Countries. As such, it has a long-standing tradition of hospitality towards students and scholars from abroad. Currently, more than 11,000 international students (about 18% of the total number of students at KU Leuven) have found their home away from home in Leuven.