The Carnegie Mellon Portugal Program and Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) have an open Call for applications for up to 10 (ten) Dual Degree Ph.D. scholarships to start in the 2026/2027 academic year in ICT-related areas.
The Dual Degree Ph.D. scholarships allow students to spend three years in Portugal and two years in Pittsburgh, integrated as regular students at Carnegie Mellon University. Upon completion of the Ph.D., the student is awarded two diplomas: one from their selected Portuguese university and one from CMU.
Applications must be submitted online directly to CMU.
Specific application deadlines for each one of the eleven available Ph.D. programs are the following:
- Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences – December 1st (11:59 p.m. EST)
- Cognitive Neuroscience (PCN) – new
- Neural Computation (PNC) – new
- School of Computer Science – December 10th ( 03:00 p.m. EST):
- Computer Science (CS)
- Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
- Language Technologies (LTI)
- Machine Learning (ML)
- Robotics
- Societal Computing (SC)
- Software Engineering (SE).
- College of Engineering – December 15th (11:59 p.m. EST):
- Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE)
- Engineering and Public Policy (EPP) – opens on October 15th.
On October 14th (4 p.m. Portugal / 11 a.m. Pittsburgh) the CMU Portugal Coordination Office will hold an Info Session to clarify all doubts about this call for applications.
Since the start of the CMU Portugal Program in 2006, 174 Scholarships have been awarded under the Dual Degree Ph.D. Program initiative and 99 have already completed their Ph.D.
The two years at CMU are one of the distinctive features of these Programs, giving students the opportunity to be integrated in the CMU scientific community and becoming part of the ecosystem of one of the most prestigious Universities in ICT.
“Joining CMU Portugal offered me a unique PhD experience: world-class mentors, cutting-edge facilities, friendships for life, and the chance to learn and grow across cultures.”
Maria Casimiro, Dual Ph.D. in Software Engineering, 2024 graduate.
“The dual degree Ph.D. program pushed me to learn more than I could have imagined. CMU offered countless opportunities for growth and daily engagement with some of the best in their fields.”
Pedro Valdeira, Dual Ph.D. in ECE, 2025 graduate.
Our alumni network is also a proof of the Program’s success. Many alumni are working in renowned companies in the US within their respective fields, such as IBM, Apple, Google, Meta, Amazon, as well as top-tier universities such as Carnegie Mellon University, University of California, Berkeley or John Hopkins University. In Portugal many are working in leading Portuguese ICT-related companies such as Feedzai, Unbabel, and Cloudflare. In other European countries, some hold positions in institutions such as Utrecht University, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and Eindhoven University, as well as in companies like Google, Huawei, Amazon, and the European Commission.
For additional information about our Ph.D. programs and application process please visit our Admissions and Scholarships page.
