How to register as a doctoral candidate

Signing a working contract does not mean that you are automatically on track towards a doctoral degree. 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). Your CLS advisor who is an ETH Professor should be named on the registration as the doctoral thesis supervisor; your other CLS advisor (usually on the MPI side) should be named as the second advisor. If not named at the time of registering, the second advisor must be named using this form:  Registration: Second advisor, PDF 223 KB.

For CLS doctoral fellows with an MPI main base, in addition to the other documentation, you must also submit an Application for an external thesis project (PDF, 768 KB) and an outline of your proposed research work (you can use this template, PDF 217 KB, Word 73 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 doctoral 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.

Following registration, the registered advisors and the status of your doctoral studies are visible in your myStudies profile.

Organising a CLS 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. NB: After starting an MPI contract, for social security reasons a foreign business trip is only possible after working at least four weeks at the institute.

For the detailed procedures to set up a short trip, doctoral fellows should refer to notes shared during the orientation and contact the CLS coordinator at their current base. MPI-IS based people can find internal information here.

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 exchange, the PhD fellow usually takes leave of absence ("Beurlaubung") from their home base (MPI-side) or ends the contract (ETH-side) and switches to a contract issued by the co-advisor's institute. After the exchange, the employment at the main base is re-established. 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.  Once the start date is fixed, inform the CLS coordinator who will in turn kick off the required contract procedures. MPI-IS based people can find further internal information here.

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:

Vivian Nastl (Tübingen, Zürich), Machine Learning/ Social Questions. Advisors: M. Hardt (MPI) and N. Meinshausen (ETH).

Malte Prinzler (Tübingen, Zürich), Digital Avatars. Advisors: J. Thies (MPI) and O. Hilliges (ETH).

Anna Kerekes (Zürich, Tübingen, Machine Learning. Advisors: G. Rätsch (ETH) and B. Schölkopf (MPI).

Taiki Nakano (Zürich, Tübingen), Robotics. Advisors: F. Dörfler (ETH) and M. Muehlebach (MPI).