How to register as a doctoral candidate

- This section needs to be updated to reflect the new 2022 ETH doctoral ordinance. New version coming soon. -

Signing a working contract does not mean that you are automatically registered as a doctoral student. To become a doctoral candidate at ETH Zurich, you must register separately with the ETH Doctoral Administration Office. You should do this before your contract start (main base ETH) or within six months of starting (main base MPI).

Since CLS doctoral fellows carry out at least 12 months of research for their thesis project outside of ETH Zurich and its associated research institutions, then, in addition to the other documentation, you must also submit an Application for an external thesis project (PDF, 203 KB) and an outline of your proposed research work (you can use this template, PDF 83 KB).

Matriculation takes place after the application is received, provided it is complete. Your ETH card is also issued immediately afterwards. However, the process of admission takes longer – up to several weeks. The admission letter (Zulassung) will be sent to your ETH student email address. Please forward a copy of this letter to the CLS coordinator.

Organising a short trip

CLS doctoral fellows and associated postdoctoral fellows are invited to arrange short-term stays of up to 4 weeks with their partner labs at the other institution, for research meetings and attendance of courses. Short-term stays are handled as business trips and CLS covers accommodation and travel costs.

For foreign nationals (in particular for third-country nationals coming from outside the EU/EFTA) a residence permit might be necessary for stays longer than 7 days (lead time of several weeks). A residence permit is required in all cases where repeat visits exceed 90 days within a 180-day period.

If you plan to arrange a short-term stay, please contact the CLS Coordinator at least 10 days in advance.

Organising your exchange

Discuss the starting date for your exchange with your advisor and co-advisor in plenty of time, for example during your annual progress meeting. During the exhange, the PhD fellow takes leave of absence ("Beurlaubung") from their home base and switches to a contract issued by the co-advisors institute. If a single 12-month exchange is impractical, it may be divided into two 6-month periods. Please take the ETH semester dates into consideration so as to optimise course participation. Allow at least three months to prepare for the exchange. Once the start date is fixed, inform the CLS coordinator who will in turn kick off the required contract procedures.

Visa requirements for exchange at ETH Zurich: non-Swiss citizens require a national visa. The ETH administration will coordinate with the Zurich authorities.

Visa requirements for exchange at the MPI side: third party nationals from outside the EU/EFTA will require a German national visa and must apply for this at the German Embassy. The MPI administration will support you with the required documents.

Useful links - MPI side

Useful links - ETH side

Student representatives

CLS student representatives are elected from and by the CLS doctoral fellow community. Our student representatives channel feedback on the program to the CLS management and help organise program events. All student representatives meet each other and the coordinator regularly. Depicted from left to right:

Paul Wrede (Stuttgart, Zürich), Robotics.
Advisors: M. Sitti (MPI) and D. Razansky (ETH).

Daniela Macari (Stuttgart, Zürich), Robotics.
Advisors: Chr. Keplinger (MPI) and S. Coros (ETH).

Julian Nubert (Zürich, Stuttgart), Robotics.
Advisors: M. Hutter (ETH) and K.J. Kuchenbecker (MPI).

Hamza Keurti (Zürich, Tübingen), Machine Learning.
Advisors: B. Schölkopf (MPI) and B. Grewe (ETH).