EPFL EDIC PhD 2027 — Fully Funded Computer Science Doctorate
Fully funded PhD scholarship in Switzerland for International students 2026
A fully funded computer science PhD at EPFL in Switzerland, with 55 fellowships for 2027 and no supervisor needed first. Apply by 1 December 2026.
Eligibility
- Four- or five-year bachelor's degree, or a master's, in computer science, communication systems, electrical engineering, mathematics, physics or a related field
- TOEFL iBT 100 or IELTS 7.0, unless your degree was taught in English
- GRE optional and not harmful if missing
- Three reference letters submitted electronically
- No need to contact faculty before applying, because admission is centralised
- Second round closes on 15 April 2027
EDIC is the doctoral programme of EPFL's School of Computer and Communication Sciences, and it works differently from most European PhD admissions. There is no supervisor to secure in advance, no funding to find after admission, and no departmental structure to negotiate. A central committee reads every application, and the strongest candidates receive a one-year IC School fellowship that pays them while they rotate through laboratories before choosing a thesis group. The round for September 2027 entry closes on 1 December 2026 at 23:59 CET.
What it covers
The programme supports all admitted students financially at competitive salaries, and admission requires two things: acceptance by the EDIC committee, and either an IC School fellowship or a declaration of eligibility for direct hiring by a laboratory. In 2027 there are 55 fellowships available. Fellowship holders are unaffiliated during their first year, which is deliberate — it gives them a year of courses and laboratory exposure before committing to a group, with hiring into a laboratory happening at the end of the first semester or later in the year.
Applicants not awarded a fellowship are not discarded. Their files are passed to the affiliated laboratories for direct hiring, and a professor who is interested will make contact and may interview. Including fellowships and direct hires, around 50 doctoral students start in EDIC each year. That two-track structure is the reason a rejection from the fellowship pool is not the same as a rejection from the programme.
The programme is entirely in English and runs four to six years. Doctoral students also teach as assistants, which is part of the training rather than an obligation bolted on afterwards.
Who can apply
At enrolment you must hold a four- or five-year bachelor's degree or a master's degree, with a rigorous background in computer science, communication systems, electrical engineering, mathematics, physics or a related field. That wording accommodates both the European master's route and the longer undergraduate degrees common in South Asia and the Middle East, which is useful if your degree is a four-year BTech or a five-year integrated master's.
English evidence is required unless you are a native speaker or your degree was taught mainly in English. The published minimums are TOEFL iBT 100, IELTS Academic 7.0, Cambridge C1 Advanced at grade B, Cambridge C2 Proficiency at grade C, TOEIC listening and reading 850, or Michigan ECPE 840. Self-reported scores go on the form and a scanned PDF is uploaded with the application. GRE is optional, and the programme states that not having a GRE score will not harm your application.
Run this self-check. Is my degree four or five years, or a master's, in a field the committee will read as computing or a related quantitative discipline? Can I name three or four EDIC laboratories whose recent papers connect to work I have actually done? Do I have English evidence at the published threshold? Can I write a one- to two-page statement that names specific faculty and explains why those research areas matter? Do I have three referees who will submit online promptly, from institutional email addresses? And do I understand that the first year is unaffiliated, so I am choosing a school rather than a supervisor? A no on the last question is the most common reason a strong applicant is unhappy after admission.
The deadline
Applications must be submitted before 1 December at 23:59 CET to enrol the following September. A second round closes on 15 April, and the programme describes it as considering a relatively much smaller number of candidates who did not apply in the first round. The 55 fellowships and the Open House invitation are tied to the December round, so the April date is a fallback rather than an equivalent option.
How to apply
Everything is electronic, including references, through the EPFL application portal, and there is no application fee. The required documents are grade records from every university attended at undergraduate and graduate level with the grading scale, diplomas or a registrar's attestation of expected completion, a CV, a statement of purpose of one or two pages, three reference letters, and a passport or identity document. Everything must be in unprotected PDF at no more than 2MB per file, with certified translations for documents not in English, French, German or Italian.
Two mechanics are worth planning around. Reference requests are sent when you submit, not before, so an early submission gives your referees time and a late one does not — and the review process starts immediately after the deadline, so a letter that arrives after your file is read will not trigger a second reading. And you cannot update the application after submission, so submit once it is right rather than early and incomplete.
Tips to win
Name faculty and papers, not research areas in the abstract. The form asks which laboratories interest you, and the statement is where you show you have read something specific. A candidate who writes about a particular paper's limitation and sketches an experiment that would test it is doing exactly what the fellowship year is designed to support.
Report your GPA exactly as your institution states it, without rescaling to a 4.0 or a percentage. The instructions are explicit about this, and an invented conversion reads as either carelessness or manipulation. If your school computes no GPA, average all your grades, weighted by credits, and say so.
Use the teaching component honestly. EDIC students teach, and a statement that treats teaching as an inconvenience signals a mismatch. If you have taught, tutored or run a study group, that belongs in the CV.
Common mistakes
Emailing professors to ask for a supervisor before applying, when admission is centralised and the answer will be that you should apply. Submitting in the final hours and losing referees to slow email. Uploading a merged PDF over 2MB. Assuming the April round carries the same fellowship pool. And submitting a statement written for a US graduate school, where the funding model and the first-year structure are different.
An OEAC advisor can review the statement of purpose and check that your degree reads as a four- or five-year qualification to a Swiss admissions committee. Ask the advisory team for a review before 1 December.
Other scholarships worth comparing on OEAC Network:
https://www.oeacnetwork.com/index.php?page=post&id=27 https://www.oeacnetwork.com/index.php?page=post&id=14 https://www.oeacnetwork.com/index.php?page=post&id=45
An OEAC advisor can read your statement of purpose and check that your degree reads as a four- or five-year qualification to a Swiss admissions committee. Ask for a review.
Last updated: 26 October 2026. Source: https://www.epfl.ch/education/phd/edic-computer-and-communication-sciences/edic-computer-and-communication-sciences/edic-how-to-apply/
Photo: Rama — CC BY-SA 3.0 fr, via Wikimedia Commons.
Always confirm the deadline and eligibility on the official page before you apply. Scholarship dates change between rounds, and this listing is a summary — the provider's own page is the authoritative source. OEAC Network lists scholarships for free and is not an agent for any university or funding body.
