Courses

Doctoral Program in Agrarian Sciences

Course/CS accredited by the Agency for Assessment and Accreditation of Higher Education (A3ES).

Agrarian Sciences doctoral programme in its name in portuguese "Programa Doutoral em Ciências Agrárias (PDCA)” aims to promote excellence in advanced studies in Agrarian Sciences.

Agrarian sciences are interdisciplinary by definition, covering various scientific branches of agronomy, animal production, forestry, food science and technology, and biotechnology. Within this overarching branches, PDCA students will conduct focused research. The FCUP will provide an easy connection among these branches, giving extraordinary possibilities of broad interdisciplinary approaches from cells and microorganisms to agroecosystem design, by using a balanced combination of research on basic disciplines with applied sciences and engineering to develop knowledge and promote effective solutions to meet conservation of resources and the need to increase food production and quality as well the farm’ competiveness.

The PDCA has an open approach by design. It nurtures other areas in interface and in collaboration with existing doctoral programmes at FCUP, Porto University or abroad, for efficient cooperation in student supervision, lectures, tutorials, seminars and methods courses.

The PDCA is based on an original thesis, corresponding to 180 European Credit Transfer System (ECTS), with the normal duration of three years of full time or equivalent supervised research training. During the first year of PDCA studies, student must require an evaluation examination in order to obtain the definitive enrollment in the doctoral program. At the end of the Doctor's degree programme, the student submits a scientific thesis, original, specially made for this purpose and based on research work and whose approval in a public examination will award the degree of Doctor in Agrarian Sciences. The doctoral thesis can be submitted either in a traditional format or as a collection of scientific publications that have been published in internationally recognised journals. This last option must be supplemented with a general introduction and a general discussion of the results.

Objectives

The main objective of this doctoral program is to provide advanced oriented research in Agrarian Sciences. The participants will acquire the knowledge as well as the intellectual and technical skills necessary for tackling different professional settings, in academia or industry, where advanced Agrarian Sciences plays a role.

Professional Abilities

Being Agrarian sciences an increasing inter-disciplinary field, students can develop their oriented research to prepare the Thesis in different domains of Agrarian Sciences, such as: plant and crop sciences; crop physiology and breeding; crop production; crop protection; production of functional and nutraceutical compounds; post-harvest physiology and technology; modelling of genetic, environmental and agronomic factors; crop hydric requirements, design and management of irrigation and drainage systems; soil fertility and plant nutrition; agricultural machinery and digital agriculture; environmental impact of agricultural activities; bio-remediation and mitigation; biodiversity of agro-environmental systems; management of conventional and alternative farming systems to targeted food and industrial product quality according to the intended use; sensory analysis and valorisation of agrarian products; regional, national and international policies with impact on rural people and territories.

During the PDCA the student should acquire:

a solid and advanced knowledge, and required skills to perform autonomous research on a topic of scientific and technological relevance in different branches of Agrarian Sciences,
skills and research methods, being able to critically analyse, showing systematic understanding, evaluate and synthesize new and complex ideas, create and manage solutions and how communicate them in (non)academic communities in order to promote technological, social and cultural process and taking responsibility for their actions, in particular the consequences of ethical issues that they will bring.

The work developed during the PDCA shall allow the publication of scientific papers in international journals listed in scientific and technological databases, the development of new applications and new systems that contribute to the improvement of the scientific and technological development in agrarian sciences. Therefore, these students will also be target of knowledge transfer, and important actors in the dissemination and amplification of knowledge and main products generated during the PDCA.

Throughout the PDCA attention is given to attitudes and transferable skills as well as students’ employability. Former students that graduated from this Doctoral programme have making their careers in National or International academia and public or private research institutions or companies in areas related with agrarian sciences.

Admission requirements

In order to enrol in the Doctoral Programme, the candidate must satisfy the conditions set out in the national legislation, in the specific applicable regulations and, in particular, have at least one of the following requisites:

To have a Master’ degree or the legal equivalent in agrarian sciences or related fields;
To have a first degree and a relevant academic and scientific curriculum, recognized by the Scientific Board as attesting the capacity to successfully complete the course. This recognition is only valid for access to the cycle of studies and does not confer to the holder the equivalence to a master degree or the recognition of that degree.
To have a relevant academic career or personal curriculum recognized by the Scientific Board as sufficient guarantee of ability to successfully complete the course. This recognition is only valid for access to the cycle of studies and does not confer to the holder the equivalence to a master degree or the recognition of that degree.

Due to the increasingly technological and scientific component of the recent agrarian projects, we also aim at attracting students with a diversified background namely in engineering, biology or chemistry, amongst other areas.

In order to enrol the PDAC, candidates should have a Doctoral proposal and a supervisor.

Selection and ranking criteria

Academic Career (AC), weighting 60%.

- Arithmetic mean of qualifications required in the call for applicants (first degree or master degree) on a scale of 0 to 20 values.
- If more than one certificate is submitted (first degree or master degree), it should be considered the most appropriate to the work plan.

Personal Curriculum (PC - 25%), weighting 40%.

The following criteria will be considered on a scale of 0 to 20 values:

Letter of motivation;
Number and quality of publications and scientific communications;
Awards and distinctions in the scientific area of the study cycle;
Participation in the scientific team of projects;
Professional experience relevant to the development of the work program;
Complementary training;

Tiebreak:

the applicant with the best score in the academic career;
the applicant with the with lesser seniority in the degree of master;

An individual interview may also be required whenever the curricular evaluation (academic career, and personal curricula) is not sufficiently distinctive of the position of the different applicants, in order to recognize the following skills: