Belgian industrial Research and Development
Rules of participation
Rules of participation for MSc call 2011
The BiR&D's Master of Science Thesis programme calls for an interdisciplinary approach for all eligible theses. Hence it requests the involvement of students from technical as well as non-technical disciplines at one or more Belgian universities.
One integrated thesis is preferred, but interconnected Master Theses are also accepted so as to fully respect applicable university rules.
1. Two levels of theses are possible:
- for a so called basic project the involvement of two (or more) different faculties, out of the categories described below, from one university in Belgium is sufficient;
- for a so called large project it is mandatory to involve a minimum two faculties, out of the categories described below, from a minimum of 2 different universities in Belgium.
2. Categories of faculties:
To ensure a full multidisciplinary aspect of the programme, projects to be eligible must include at least one faculty (or institute) out of each of the two following categories or knowledge areas (terminology acc EC-DOC CAREERS):
- Cat 1. A coordinating faculty in the area of Science, Engineering and Technology, Biotechnology or Medical and Life Sciences
- Cat 2. One (or two) participating faculty(ies) in the area of Economics, Social Sciences, or Art Sciences
3. The coordinating faculty is leading the project and is sole contact for BiR&D..
4. The subjects of the theses should be of both industrial and societal value, with following societal focus fields: Ecology, Energy, Information Technology, Healthcare, Wellbeing.
BiR&D expects the combination of a significant scientific or technological component on one side, with a significant economical and/or societal component on the other side. BiR&D explicitly welcomes topics associated with the deployment of a new technology into a market.