For admission to the doctoral education, the applicant must normally hold a five-year master's degree. Additional requirements vary between the faculties' PhD programmes, the academic field and the specific PhD research fellowship in question.

Around 60 % of the candidates obtain their funding through PhD research fellowships that are announced at UiB. The rest of the candidates have their employer outside UiB. This last group of applicants have to apply for admission to the PhD education in a separate process. In conjunction with application for admission, applicants will contact potential supervisors at UiB.

Project proposal

At some faculties, the project proposal is written solely by the applicant without input from any potential future supervisors. At other faculties the supervisors and research group contributes towards developing a project proposal for the doctoral research project. Cases of the latter will most often occur in closely integrated research groups.

Whether you are contributing towards setting up a project proposal, or you are assessing one related to appointment, the following elements are aspects you should highlight:

Documentation of good knowledge of the relevant research area, both nationally and internationally
Project hypotheses or research questions must be clearly presented. The proposal must include an indication of the project's contribution towards expanding current knowledge along with an assurance that the acquired knowledge will provide the foundation for further research in the field
It must be demonstrated that the methods and theories proposed are applicable in relation to answering the research questions or that good opportunities exist to develop suitable methodology and theories in the course of the research. Analytical methods must be described
A presentation must be made of ethical considerations related to the research project
Details of any intellectual property restrictions to protect the rights of others must be submitted
Documentation must be submitted showing any extraordinary requirements regarding academic and material resources
A progress plan for the various parts of the research project must be submitted, including any planned stays abroad
It should be demonstrated that the project can be completed within the nominal time frame. It is not acceptable to set up a time frame for the doctoral education that is longer than six years. The exception is candidates who participate in organised dual competence programmes (dobbeltkompetanseutdanning).
A plan for the completion of the training component must be completed, included training in academic dissemination and transferrable skills
Affiliation with a research environment must be documented

Participation in research environment

All departments must offer the PhD candidate participation in an active research environment, such as a research group, a research school or a project. The supervisor will normally be affiliated with the said research group, research school or project. It is expected that this environment will possess competence in the candidate's chosen research field and that the candidate's research questions will be discussed in this regard.