Extraordinary PhD Award

• Recipients: PhD students with theses defended at USC in the 2019-2020 academic year in the period from 1 September 2019 to 31 August 2020.
• Requirements: That the thesis be qualified by the tribunal as "outstanding" and be awarded the "cum laude” mention.

Applicants will be eligible for the extraordinary award in one of the five major areas of expertise: Sciences; Health Sciences; Social and Legal Sciences; Arts and Humanities; and Engineering and Architecture.

The list of applicants, classified by major areas of knowledge, who are eligible for the special award, is published together with this call on the USC Electronic Notice Board and the link to the call will be available on the EDIUS website.

The number of awards given will be the result of dividing the total number of theses that qualify for the extraordinary prize for each area of knowledge by 8, and rounding this figure to the nearest whole number.

Deadlines: 23/09/2021 - 03/10/2021.

Applications, together with the associated supporting documentation, should be addressed to the Director of the USC International PhD School (EDIUS) and submitted via the USC website on this form.

The application requires identification by one of the following means: USC credentials, personal certificates admitted in the @signature validation platform, certificates included in the electronic National Id, agreed passwords of the Cl@ve system, or by means of credentials from third party identification services widely used in electronic relations.

Under no circumstances will applications or associated supporting documentation received by email or courier be accepted.

For the purposes of the evaluation process, only the information contained in the application on the closing date for submission of applications will be taken into account. No subsequent change or update of the merits contained in the application will be possible.

Once the applications have been reviewed, the provisional list of candidates submitted together with the assignment of the major area for which they are competing will be published on the USC Electronic Notice Board, and a link to the announcement will be available on the EDIUS website.

Interested parties may file arguments against the provisional list within 10 calendar days. Once this period has ended and the arguments have been assessed, if applicable, the final list of candidates submitted will be published on the USC Electronic Notice Board, and the link to the notice will be available on the EDIUS website.

Arguments may be presented through the USC website at the following link, or in those places indicated in article 16.4 of Law 39/2015. The deadline will be determined in the notice on the electronic board.

There will be no appeal against the publication of the final list of candidates.

Any argument will be understood to have been answered by the publication of each step of the procedure on the EDIUS website, of which the relevant communication will be made to the interested parties.

While the application is being made, interested parties must upload documentation justifying the merits indicated in Annex II of this call to the website, in accordance with the general and specific criteria established for each area.

Merits related to the thesis will be considered for evaluation, bringing the candidates together between the following dates: from the beginning of the PhD thesis to the day of the thesis defence.

There will be five tribunals to bestow the extraordinary awards, one for each major area of knowledge.

The tribunal shall consist of at least three full members and three substitutes. All of them must have granted at least six years of research.

The following are not be allowed to form part of the tribunal:

• Directors, co-directors or tutors of the theses that opt for the extraordinary award.
• Those incurring in the causes of abstention and disqualification established in Law 40/2015 of 1 October, on the legal regime of the public sector.

The Sectoral Committee in Arts and Humanities will propose to EDIUS the tribunal corresponding to the major area of Arts and Humanities.

The Sectoral Committee on Science and Engineering will propose two tribunals to EDIUS, one for the major area of Science and the other for the major area of Engineering and Architecture.

The Sectoral Committee on Health Science will propose to the EDIUS the tribunal corresponding to the major area in Health Science.

The Sectoral Committee on Social and Legal Sciences will propose to EDIUS the tribunal for the major area of Social and Legal Sciences.

The EDIUS, on the proposal of the relevant sectoral committee, will appoint the tribunals responsible for drawing up the proposal for the award of the extraordinary PhD awards. The appointment will be published on the USC Electronic Notice Board, and the link to the announcement will be available on the EDIUS website.

The nominated members of the tribunal will be required to sign a document of compliance that they meet the requirements to be part of this.

The tribunal will assess the merits by awarding each candidate a final mark in accordance with specific scoring criteria it will determine, taking into account the general criteria set out in Annex II to the call and approved by the relevant Sectoral Department.

Procedure

The chairman of the tribunal shall, within 20 calendar days of appointment, call a meeting of the tribunal.

The chairman of the tribunal will call all members to a meeting at which specific scoring criteria will be agreed. The tribunal will issue a Certificate of Incorporation and the Minutes of the Session in which the merits presented by the participants will be evaluated.

At the following session, the tribunal will evaluate the merits presented by the participants, and will issue the Minutes of the Session which will include the provisional scores obtained by the applicants, broken down according to the different sections of the call, as well as a provisional proposal for the award, which will be decided by majority. The proposal shall comply with the maximum number established by area. The tribunal may propose that the award mentions be left void, in whole or in part.

The provisional scores obtained by the applicants and the provisional award proposal will be published on the USC Electronic Notice Board, and the link to the notice will be available on the EDIUS website. The interested parties will have a period of 10 calendar days to submit their arguments regarding the provisional scores before the tribunals. These arguments will be presented in the same way as established in point 3 of this call.

The tribunals will meet within 20 calendar days from the date of the end of the period for submission of the arguments to evaluate the arguments received, if any, and to make a final proposal to bestow the extraordinary awards. The tribunal will issue the Minutes of the Session, which will, among other things, give an account of the arguments received and the responses given to them.

The agreements of the tribunals with the final awarding proposal will be published on the Electronic Notice Board of the USC, and the link to the announcement will be available on the EDIUS website. The interested parties will understand that their arguments will be answered with this publication and the relevant communication will be made.

The International School for PhD Studies of the University of Santiago (EDIUS), through the Executive Committee, once all the documentation has been reviewed, will submit the final proposal to the Governing Council which will decide on the call.

The resolution of the Governing Council granting these awards will be published on the USC Electronic Notice Board and also on the EDIUS website.

Interested parties may lodge an optional appeal for reconsideration against this resolution agreement of the Governing Council, before the same body, within one month of its publication.

The Academic Management Department, once notified of the resolution agreement by the General Secretariat of the USC, will be responsible for notifying the interested party of the final award and incorporating it into their file, as well as processing the return of the public prices paid for the issue of the PhD degree.

An appeal may be lodged against the call with the Rector of the USC within one month from the day following its publication on the USC website.