The Universidade do Porto (U.Porto), through the Faculdade de Ciências (FCUP), offers training in Astronomy at the PhD level for over 30 years, hosting the largest and most comprehensive set of academic degrees in Astronomy in Portugal. The Universidade de Lisboa (U.Lisboa), through the Faculdade de Ciências (FCUL), also has a long tradition of more than 20 years in the teaching of Astronomy and Astrophysics, and includes a unique expertise in the building of instrumentation for astronomical telescopes and space missions. Several PhD projects, in space sciences and technologies, completed at these Universities have a co-supervision or are double-degrees with other European universities.
The Universidade of Porto also offers an undergraduate degree and master degrees, in addition to the PhD program, all in Astronomy. The latter includes a set of courses covering topics of astronomy, training on the development of complementary skills for research and career development. The Universidade de Lisboa offers a similar PhD program, while the undergraduate and Master degrees are offered as specializations of the physics degree. Universidade de Lisboa also covers instrumentation (for space and astrophysics) in the Integrated Master and PhD program in Physical Engineering. This training in instrumentation benefits from large optical lab infrastructures and the expertise of more than 20 years in designing and implementing optical systems for industry, space, metrology and astronomy.
The degrees to be awarded to the fellows of the PhD:SPACE can either be:
- Doctor, 3rd Cycle in Astronomy (PDA Site) – Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade do Porto
- Doctor, 3rd Cycle in Astronomy & Astrophysics – Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa
These correspond to a 3 years degree. The PhD::SPACE fellows will need to register in one of these and follow the study plan and evaluation process established by each University. Both degree are organized in the following way:
- 30 ECTS – curricular component, including courses and/or research seminars
- 150 ECTS – training by research, including a thesis
For further details please visit the pages for each degree provided by the participating universities.
Under this program, and besides the formal training in Space Sciences, particular attention is also given to the development of special/complementary competencies. These will enable the students to work with complex challenges, which involve a multidisciplinary approach and a close dependence on observational data, instrumentation, mathematics and modeling techniques, data processing and analysis. The aim is to provide effective training in dealing with complex questions, searching for solutions and taking decisions in situations of limited or incomplete information, when the need to critically evaluate the adequacy of the results is required. The broad range of training activities, addressing personal communication skills (language, writing, and presentation) performed in an international and collaborative environment will be an asset for the students integrated in this network.
