Financial matters: Research and travel grants and other facilities

Internal PhD candidates receive an annual working budget to conduct research, participate in workshops, or travel to conferences. This budget is typically €2000,- per year for 4-year PhD trajectories and €1,333 per year for 6-year PhD trajectories. The faculty’s financial department can assist with an overview of this personal budget (please contact Mrs. Debbie van Zuijlen-Aalbers).

If you would like to participate in several conferences or training programmes during one year – which sometimes happens during a PhD’s trajectory – , a number of other budgets can also be accessed. Several of these options are also available for external PhD candidates, as outlined below.

The Radboud Internationalization Fund was established by the university’s Executive Board to develop and reinforce the international character of the university and to promote the international mobility of its PhD candidates. Both internal and formal external candidates are strongly advised to always apply for this fund, which provides a fixed contribution for travel and/or accommodation expenses abroad. Currently, this financial contribution is €400,- for travelling within Europe and €700,- for travelling outside Europe. For more information, please visit https://www.ru.nl/phd/practical-information/funding/ or contact the International Office’s dedicated contact person, Ms. Paula Haarhuis.

The Erasmus+ Staff Training programme can be used by PhD candidates to follow training programmes within Europe. Types of programmes include language courses, 1-on-1 job shadowing, attending a Summer or Winter School, or participating in an International Staff Training Week. The programme is mostly meant for relatively longer stays (up to 60 days), and thus cannot be used to attend conferences. More details about the programme and the application procedure can be found on this page. While the programme is predominantly meant for staff development – and thus, mostly targets internal PhDs – external PhD candidates might also be able to make use of this opportunity, depending on the available funding for the year. More details on the matter can be gathered by contacting Rob van Leeuwen.

External grant options for PhD candidates – both internal and formal external candidates – can be found at http://www.grantfinder.nl/. This database is updated by NUFFIC, the Netherlands Organisation for International Cooperation in Higher Education. The Euraxess portal at http://www.euraxess.nl/ contains additional information on funding.

Moreover, Radboud University has subscribed to Research Professional, a comprehensive online grants database that can be used to search for funding opportunities and receive research news. The database allows users to conduct and save specialised searches by discipline, type of grant, country, etc. The IMR Research Services unit has set up a specialised search for PhD candidates, which can be accessed by visiting www.researchprofessional.com on campus, or by logging into the website (as a guest of the institution or by creating a personal profile) when outside the campus. Training for using this platform is available online at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1qgNtAazz0AnxA--S0AYAA, or by participating in online training sessions which Research Professional arranges for subscribers. For further instructions, you can contact Dr Milena Marchesi or Dr Rudie Trienes, or go to: http://www.researchresearch.com/.

Christine Mohrmann Stipendium

The Christine Mohrmann Stipendium is a research grant introduced by the university’s Executive Board in 1990 and especially targeted towards excellent women PhD candidates. The goal of the Stipendium is to help PhD candidates kick start their academic career after successfully finalizing their PhD research. Candidates awarded the grant – which provides each winning candidate with €3,500,- can use it to finance an extended research stay abroad. Women PhD candidates can apply for the grant in their second or third research year, by submitting a proposal to the SAC which outlines their research project – with a particular focus on its international nature – and the research stay(s) that would be undertaken with the help of the awarded grant (including an estimated budget).

For more details about the Christine Mohrmann Stipendium, please contact Anneke Verbogt. In addition, the financial department can provide advice regarding budgeting issues on this and other research proposals. For advice on these matters, please contact Mrs. Suzanne Coppen.

Reimbursement of thesis printing costs

The Radboud University regulations for the reimbursement of thesis printing costs apply to all IMR PhD candidates. A request for reimbursement, to a maximum of €2200,-, must be made within six months after the costs have been incurred. The following documents must be submitted when requesting the reimbursement of thesis printing costs:

• An invoice which shows the thesis printing costs; and
• A statement signed by the Beadle, attesting that he/she has received the required number of copies of the thesis from the candidate.

For more information and the application procedure, please visit: https://www.ru.nl/phd/phd-journey/finishing-your-phd/thesis-printing/.