European Doctoral Programmes on Metamaterials
   
The "European Doctoral Programmes on Metamaterials" offers courses within the geographically "Distributed European School on Metamaterials". A Consortium initiated by the members of the European Network of Excellence (NoE) METAMORPHOSE (and open to any European academic institution) has been established to operate and support the "European Doctoral Programmes on Metamaterials". The Consortium also regulates the rules of student exchange, joint research, credit transfers, etc. between participating universities.

Research in metamaterials involves a wide spectrum of disciplines ranging from Applied Mathematics and Physics to Electrical and Electronic Engineering, from Chemistry to Materials Science, and even Biophysics. Thus, the metamaterials research is indeed a truly multidisciplinary field spanning the area from basic theoretical and experimental research at universities to industrial production of a diverse array of electrical, microwave, infrared and optical materials and devices.

A comprehensive interdisciplinary research training program in this rapidly advancing field requires the co-operation of the leading European experts, and this was the driving idea underpinning the formation of this EU Consortium, which now operates under the auspices of the METAMORPHOSE Virtual Institute AISBL.

Academic institutions that are willing to be part of the Consortium should contact the Programmes Coordinator (see below), and the President of the METAMORPHOSE Virtual Institute AISBL (S. Tretyakov). 

• Memorandum of understanding (pdf - 57 Kb)
• Amendment NO.1 to Memorandum of understanding (pdf - 83 Kb)

Members of the Consortium 

1. Aalto University, Espoo, Finland
2. CNRS (Universitè de Lille), Lille, France
3. Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain La Neuve, Belgium
4. Universidad del País Vasco, San Sebastian, Spain
5. Swiss Federal Institute of Tecnology, Lausanne, Switzerland
6. University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
7. Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
8. Universidad Publica de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain
9. University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
10. Siegen University, Siegen, Germany
11. St. Petersburg Electrotechnical University, St. Petersburg, Russia
12. FORTH, Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser, Heraklion, Greece
13. St. Petersburg Electrotechnical University, St. Petersburg, Russia
14. University of Roma Tre, Rome, Italy
15. Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK
16. University of Siena, Siena, Italy
17. Université Paris-Sud, Orsay, France
18. Universitat Politechnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
19. The Queen’s University of Belfast, Belfast, UK
20. Thales Research ^ Technology, Paris, France
21. Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
22. Institute of Electronic Materials Technology, Warsaw, Poland

Our Dec. 2006 article:

"METAMORPHOSE European Doctoral Programs on Metamaterials state-of-the-art,"  F. Capolino, S. Tretyakov, F. Bilotti, A. Schuchinsky, F.  Martin, V. Podlozny, A. Sihvola, D.A. Pawlak, I. Vendik, S. Zouhdi, C. Craeye, N. Johnson, J. M. Arnold, T. Szoplik, R. Gonzalo, IEEE AP Magazine, vol. 48, no. 6, pp. 219-223, Dec. 2006. 

DOWLOAD capolino_et_al-metamorphose_eu_doctoral_programs_on_metamaterials-_ieee_magazineap2006

EU Doctoral Programmes Coordinator
Filippo Capolino - University of Siena, Italy

The EU Ph.D. Consortium on Metamaterials will harmonise and operate the European Doctoral Degree Programmes on Metamaterials. The Consortium members, representing 19 European universities and institutes, have approved the Memorandum of Understanding which establishes the principles of interdisciplinary PhD training leading to a certificate of "Mention of Excellence in Metamaterials", and the mutual acceptance of credits earned at partner universities and at the Distributed European Doctoral school on Metamaterials.

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The proposed EU Ph.D Programmes on Metamaterials is a well structured high-level training core for young researchers. Its main mission is to promote the strong cohesion among the European High Schools and Universities and maintain the high standard of the research in metamaterials. The formal recognition of the certificate of "Mention of Excellence in Metamaterials" by the participating universities and wider professional community represents a further guarantee that such specialised training programmes maximize added value of the European educational initiatives. 

The Memorandum of Understanding provides a framework for the EU Ph.D. Programme on Metamaterials and regulates the formal procedures. The major requirements for the candidates to be qualified to the "Mention of Excellence in Metamaterials" include

• initial enrolment in any University belonging to the Consortium (the "Home" University) which is the degree awarding institution for the Ph.D candidates;
• a period of not less than 3 months in total spent on conducting research in Metamaterials in at least one partner University other than the Home University;
• a certain number of credit units gained from the EU PhD School on Metamaterials organized by the Consortium itself at various locations;
• several journal and conference publications jointly authored with the partners affiliated with the Consortium in the field of Metamaterials;
  the thesis to be in the field of Metamaterials.

Finally, the certificate of "Mention of Excellence in Metamaterials" is awarded by the Consortium Committee after evaluating the application from candidates who successfully fulfilled all the prerequisites. 

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The Distributed European Doctoral School on Metamaterials is part of the European Doctoral Programmes on Metamaterials, and consists of three-five week-long events organized annually at selected locations where the focused and interdisciplinary courses are given to students trained in the field of metamaterials. Aspects like material fabrication, nanotechnology, electromagnetic/photonic phenomenology and modelling, industrial applications and designs, etc. are addressed in the courses.