CIFE and the Institut für Europäische Politik (IEP) are happy to announce that the third year of the PhD Support Programme “The EU, Central Asia and the Caucasus in the International System“ (EUCACIS) was successfully completed. Starting in October 2016, the regular programme duration ended in September this year with a good record.
The programme has achieved its main objectives by providing intensive PhD training for its fellows, continuous support in the process of their doctoral work and assisting them in establishing networks in their region and in Europe. In order to achieve these goals, the EUCACIS programme has organized four international conferences in Almaty, Berlin, Tbilisi and Bishkek; it has conducted three PhD schools in Berlin and Tbilisi; and it has offered a research training stay to each of its fellows in Berlin and continuous online coaching. Besides writing their PhD theses, the EUCACIS fellows had to write and publish at least one research or policy paper and actively contribute to the project’s conferences and newsletters throughout the programme.
By the end of the third year, most of the fellows are in the course of submitting their doctoral theses, while four of the EUCACIS fellows have already submitted their PhD theses to their home universities, one of them already having successfully defended it. After defence and graduation, the EUCACIS fellows plan for their next career steps, sometimes achieving a promotion within the institutions where they are already employed, or heading for new academic or professional challenges.
In order to continue support for the fellows that were not able to submit their theses yet, the programme includes an extension period. Accordingly, several fellows were granted extended scholarships for finalizing their academic work. In order to give a last input to the PhD students and accompany the finalisation of their theses, a fourth and final PhD school is planned to take place in February/March 2021. The project will be concluded by August next year, when all twelve fellows will have completed their theses and the further academic work within the framework of the PhD Support Programme.
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