EC²/BIG-NSE PhD students: All batches

Between 2007 and 2018, the BIG-NSE recruited approximately 10 students per year, who usually finished their PhD within four years (average). After a few years, the school reached a more or less constant number of about 50 students, with about 10 PhD students finishing their degree each year.

Approximately half of these students received a BIG-NSE scholarship. These were the BIG-NSE's "scholarship holders". The other half were funded through means provided by the institutions participating in UniCat (industry grants, BMBF grants etc.). These were the "fellows" (in German "Kollegiaten") of the BIG-NSE.

No difference was made between scholarship holders and fellows. As far as recruitment was concerned, only the quality of the applicant was relevant, independent of the student's ability to provide funding for his/her studies.

As of January 2019, the "scholarship holders" are being recruited in a different way than the "fellows" (see more about this here). But the "treatment" of these two categories of students during their PhD remains the same in principle.

At present (status: August 2023), the BIG-NSE has 18 fellows and 37 scholarship holders (so far, more than 130 BIG-NSE PhD students have already finished their PhD). 

Links to the present and past lists of BIG-NSE scholarship holders/fellows may be found below.