Call for application

Doctoral Programme in Industrial Innovation 42th cycle
 Call CLOSED

The official page is available on https://www.unitn.it/en/phd/industrial-innovation

Admission requirements and topics

The requirements and application procedure are detailed in the PhD Call (see the "Downloads" area on the right). Only the Italian version of the PhD Call is legally binding.
To participate in the PhD Call, applicants must have an academic degree which grants access to a third level education programme (PhD) in the country it was issued. In particular, applications are accepted from applicants who hold:

♦  an Italian “Laurea magistrale” instituted in conformity with Italian Ministerial Decree 270/2004, or
♦  a university degree of the previous regulations (Italian "Laurea specialistica " or "Diploma di Laurea"), or
♦  an equivalent degree obtained abroad (Master's degree) and recognized as equivalent to the Italian "Laurea magistrale" by the Admissions Committee for the sole purposes of admission to the Doctoral programme, also within the framework of mobility and cooperation inter-university agreements.

Applications are also accepted from students who expect to complete their degree by 31 October 2026.
The selection is based on the evaluation of the applicant’s titles and qualifications.

Deadline: August 28th, 2026 | 16:00 (CEST)

The application must be sent exclusively via the online system: Doctoral Programme Applications . Applications sent by other means are not accepted.

To obtain an account at the University of Trento, register at  https://webapps.unitn.it/Registration/en/Home. It is strongly recommended not to wait until the last few days prior to the deadline to submit your application.
After completing and sending the application, please make sure to receive an email notification confirming the definitive completion of the application procedure.

Applicants may also opt for additional scholarships and positions reserved to employees of partner companies, which will be available AFTER the publication of this call and published on the selection website.

PLEASE NOTE:

• Applicants who will have the application open after the publication of additional scholarships or positions reserved to employees of partner companies can apply for those scholarships by using the entry “Other” in the proper section of the application online.
• Applicants who will have already closed and sent the application before the publication of additional scholarships or positions reserved to employees of partner companies can apply for those scholarships/positions by an additional online application that will be made available.
• The selected applicants, during the enrolment procedure, might be required to sign a specific declaration of commitment to confidentiality and transfer of intellectual property rights, to allow the University to comply with the obligations regarding intellectual property towards the funding body. 

The list below provides a short non-exhaustive summary of what to upload on the application:

♦  scanned copy of the applicant's ID or passport
♦  M.A. degree transcript of records and diploma
♦  Curriculum Vitae
♦  Master's thesis abstract
♦  Motivation letter
♦  Research Proposal 
♦  Certificate attesting the knowledge of English language at B1 level

The application is subject to € 30 non-refundable fee.

Scholarships

A - Programmable Cyber Deception for Cloud-Native Network Resilience
Funded by Agenzia Nazionale per la Cybersicurezza (ACN) - CUP E66E26000050001 » details

B - AI-Driven contextual and conversational assistants for smart industrial machinery: from reactive support to proactive optimization
University of Trento in collaboration with BLM Group Adige » details

C - Audit-Ready Explanations and Runtime Monitoring for Black-Box AI Systems
University of Trento in collaboration with DEDA Group » details

D - Provenance-Aware Agentic AI for Auditability in Data Center-Based AI Services
University of Trento in collaboration with DEDA Group » details

E - Self-aware Industrial Machines Autonomous Supervision and Self-Healing via Large Language Models, Ontological Reasoning and Knowledge Representation
University of Trento in collaboration with NTE - mechatronics » details

F - Towards the Universal Mill - Real-Time Inline Granulometry via Instrumented Centrifugal Classification and Adaptive Speed Control for Multi-Material Grinding
University of Trento in collaboration with NTE - mechatronics » details

G - Intelligent Fault Diagnosis and Root Cause Analysis in Industrial Machinery
University of Trento in collaboration with PAMA » details

H - Development of Advanced High-Performance Polymer Compounds and Process Optimization for Additive Manufacturing Using Roboze Technologies
University of Trento in collaboration with Roboze » details

I - Advanced Materials and Architectures for Solid-State and High-Temperature Electrochemical Cells
Foundend by Provincia Autonoma di Trento within the project "Trentino Energy Hub: materiali per batterie e idrogeno” in collaboration with Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK) » details

J - Advanced materials and catalysts for the production and electrochemical use of low-temperature hydrogen
Foundend by Provincia Autonoma di Trento within the project "Trentino Energy Hub: materiali per batterie e idrogeno” in collaboration with Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK) » details

K - Advanced materials and interfaces for next-generation batteries
Foundend by Provincia Autonoma di Trento within the project "Trentino Energy Hub: materiali per batterie e idrogeno” in collaboration with Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK) » details

L - Plasma-assisted methane cracking and advanced catalysis
Foundend by Provincia Autonoma di Trento within the project "Trentino Energy Hub: materiali per batterie e idrogeno” in collaboration with Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK) » details

M - Innovative Materials and Solutions for Redox Flow Batteries
Foundend by Provincia Autonoma di Trento within the project "Trentino Energy Hub: materiali per batterie e idrogeno” in collaboration with Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK) » details

N - Mixed analog/digital CMOS architectures for AI vision at the edge
Fondazione Bruno Kessler in collaboration with AI4IV SRL » details

O - Robot learning for vision-based quality control
Fondazione Bruno Kessler in collaboration with Alsco Italia srl » details

P - Trustworthy 3D Reconstruction and Surface Modelling for Digital Twins and World Models
Fondazione Bruno Kessler in collaboration with Baker Hughes - Nuovo Pignone srl » details

Q - Disruptive IR imaging with antenna-coupled field-effect transistor detectors
Fondazione Bruno Kessler in collaboration with Sony EUTDC » details

R - Self-Mixing-Interferometry integrated sensor and system for depth sensing
Fondazione Bruno Kessler in collaboration with Sony EUTDC » details

S - Development and Characterization of Single Electron Bipolar Avalanche Transistors, built in custom microfabrication technology, optimized for high-sensitivity current mode photodetectors
Fondazione Bruno Kessler in collaboration with Sony EUTDC » details

T - Energy-Efficient Inference Techniques for Reliable AI Systems - Additional (published on 24/08/2026) 
University of Trento in collaboration with Covision Lab SCARL » details

U - Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence in Aviation - Additional (published on 24/08/2026)
University of Trento in collaboration with Advanced Laboratory on Embedded Systems SRL » details

All above scholarships are subject to acceptance of the full transfer of the ownership of the intellectual property of the research results.

Positions without scholarships, reserved to employees of partner companies (PhD Executive)

AE - Modelling, Design and Experimental Validation of Electroactive Smart Transducers for Sensing Soft Robotic Systems
Adaptronics » details

BE - DevSecAIOps - Trustworthy and Secure AI-Enabled Software Systems
DEDA » details

CE - Digital Twin Model Development for Manufacturing Process Modeling and Optimization
Dessaults Systemes » details

DE - Autonomous Benchmarking and Energy-Aware Orchestration for Elastic HPC/AI Systems
E4 Computer Engineering » details

EE - Research on a new generation of green and intelligent refuse collection vehicles
Ladurner Ambiente Spa » details

FE - From dysbiosis to eubiosis: microbiome-based solutions for personalized periodontal care
Prebiomics » details

GE - Next-Generation technologies for concrete repair and restoration
Tassullo - MINIERA SAN ROMEDIO S.R.L. » details

HE - Multi-Modal Modeling and Reasoning in Real-world Settings
Fondazione Bruno Kessler » details

IE - CMOS-SPAD based sensors for quantum sensing
Fondazione Bruno Kessler » details

JE - Multiscale Design of Green Nanostructured Membranes for Selective Separation and Water Reuse
Fondazione Bruno Kessler » details

KE - Supporting Regulatory Compliance via Automatic and Semi-Automatic Approaches
Fondazione Bruno Kessler » details

LE - Designing for Urgency: Interaction Design Frameworks to Support Clinical Decision-Making in Emergency Departments
Fondazione Bruno Kessler » details

ME - Photonic integrated circuits for navigation systems
Fondazione Bruno Kessler » details

NE - Energy-Efficient Hardware-Software Co-Design for Real-Time Edge Vision based on the AI4IV Tensputer computing technology, a high-performance, energy- efficient accelerator architecture optimized for AI and the direct integration into on-edge CMOS chips.
AI4IV srl » details

 

 

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