Virtual tour

PhD Association

The PhD Association was born to create the ideal space for PhD students to support each other and to make their journey as smooth as possible. The PhDA aims to foster interaction, collaborations and a sense of community at our center! We also want to provide resources for career and personal development and to represent the PhD students at executive level.

PhD student Dufie smiling and pipetting in the lab
Dufie Strubbe, PhD student in the Ludo Van Den Bosch Lab

What does a good PhD experience look like for you?

“A good PhD experience for me includes being able to passionately work on my research in a stimulating and supportive environment with the help of my colleagues, friends and family." Dufie, PhD student in the Ludo Van Den Bosch Lab shares. "Finding a work-life balance that still allows me to focus on my research as well as my main extracurricular activity - dancing, including being a dance teacher - is really important to me.”

Initiatives

Cover of the Optimist, a magazine by PhD students for PhD students, displaying a computer monitor showing a cat playing the piano. Subtitle reads "A journal to help you survive the valley of shit."

The Optimist

A journal to help you survive the ups and downs of PhD life? That's the Optimist: written by PhD students, for PhD students!

Someone giving a training seminar to a room full of people

Training

There are lots of training opportunities with VIB & KU Leuven. Explore all courses and workshops available!

PhDClass2023

PhD Symposium

Each year, the VIB-KU Leuven Center for Brain & Disease Research and NERF join forces to organize a PhD week and PhD symposium.

Watering can watering plant cartoon

Mentor Sessions

The PhD Association organize mental health sessions, to promote wellbeing and facilitate chats with senior postdocs and other peers!

PhD students posing and smiling on a beach volleyball court

Social Activities

The committee facilities groups to connect PhDs according to shared interests: basketball, hiking, board games, and more.

PhD association welcome kit with branded tote bag, mug, USB stick, and pencil

Welcome Package

A survival kit for every new PhD student which includes an eco-conscious goodie bag with a USB stick, mug, gym bag, and more.

PhD Association Representatives

The go-to people for PhD events and activities.
Name
Lorenzo Ghezzi
Function
PhD in the Verstreken Lab
Name
Natalia Martínez Vizcaíno
Function
PhD in the De Wit Lab
Name
Tom Leroy
Function
PhD in the Annaert Lab
Person laughing at something off-screen

PhD Resources at KU Leuven

A lively community counting over 1200 PhD students, more than 250 supervisors and a dedicated administrative staff, the doctoral school provides an integrated framework for PhD training and offers career perspectives for doctoral graduates in different sectors.

PhD students posing outside by greenery at a football tournament the association organized
PhD students at a football tournament the Association organized.

Want to join us for your PhD?

To find out more about current opportunities to do your PhD within our Center, check out our current vacancies.

It’s a hell of a journey, brace yourself! It might seem unbearable at times, but it’s also exciting and full of amazing people and experiences. If the science is not working, if you feel overwhelmed or uncomfortable at any point: reach out. To your colleagues, to the lab neighbours, to the PhDA community! Be a team player, share your views, ask for feedback, don’t be afraid to speak up, to ask questions at seminars, to try a risky experiment and especially to meet new people: they are just wanna-be scientists like you who might enjoy a coffee-break.
Nicola Fattorelli, PhD Association representative, smiling into the camera
Nicola Fattorelli
PhDA Representative Alumnus