Q-MAT - Call for applications - PhD 2026

Thesis funding 

The Q-MAT programme is launching its call for applications for thesis funding. This call aims to fund three theses starting in the 2026 academic year, on topics and within teams at Q-MAT.

Pillars and challenges

As a reminder, the major Q-MAT programme is structured around three pillars:
- Solid state quantum materials: structures and functions
- Effective theories and models
- Synthetic quantum matter and precision quantum many-body physics

 and seven challenges:
 - Strongly correlated quantum matter
 - Quantum matter in exotic dimensions
 - Topological properties of interacting systems
 - Machine learning and many-body physics
 - Emergent out of equilibrium phenomena
 - Ultra-strong coupling in the ground state
 - Quantum emitters coupled to optical resonators

These theses must be jointly supervised by two teams from two separate PSL entities. Q-MAT proposals will be evaluated by the EDPIF competition jury.

Application procedure

1) If one of the partners is affiliated with EDPIF, simply submit your topic on ADUM and send an email to admission@edpif.org
indicating the topic you wish to submit to the QMAT competition. If you have already submitted your proposal to the ED competition, it
will be evaluated once for both calls.

2) If none of the partners are affiliated with EDPIF, apply by sending an email to Q-MAT coordinator:
sarah.reemers@psl.eu
with the following documents:
- thesis project
- candidate's CV
- M1 and M2 grades
- a letter of recommendation from the thesis supervisor and two other referees can be sent directly to both coordinator and EDPIF
sarah.reemers@psl.eu
admission@edpif.org
 

Timeline

Deadline for submitting a thesis topic: 8 April 2026
Deadline for submitting applications: 15 April 2026