Within six to twelve months of passing the qualifying examinations at the PhD level, students must submit a written thesis proposal to their PhD Committee which must include a summary of preliminary results available. The student’s PhD Committee is appointed jointly by the student’s mentors and the Scientific Committee of the EPP PhD, with the advice and consent of the student. The PhD committee will support the student and evaluate progress. The committee must have at least three members, one of them must be an EPP faculty member and one of them must be an IST faculty member. The committee members are responsible for certifying that the course requirements of the EPP PhD have been met. The EPP PhD qualifying process is completed when the student has passed the qualifying examinations at the PhD level and has successfully defended the thesis proposal.

The EPP PhD program requires residence either at CMU or at IST. Students can become registered as being “All But Dissertation” (ABD) once they have completed all requirements except the dissertation defense. ABD status will maintain the student as fully-enrolled in the PhD program, yet it is likely to reduce tuition fees. Still, students must spend at least half of the time to complete their PhD in Portugal and it is expected that they work as research or teaching assistants prior to graduating in order to obtain teaching experience as course instructors.

Upon completion of all the requirements to graduate with the EPP PhD students will obtain a PhD diploma from EPP-CMU and from the Department at IST in which they have enrolled. Students must agree to abide by the conditions stipulated in the current Intellectual Property Policies agreed as part of the Carnegie Mellon – Portugal agreement.

Students are encouraged to discuss and identify their research and career objectives early in the program and together with their mentors map out a course of study to meet such objectives. The EPP curriculum allows for great flexibility in the definition of coursework sequences that meet the requirements of the PhD degree as a way to accommodate sound and coherent proposals from students and their advisors. Specializations in ICTs policy and energy policy are readily available. Others can also be pursued as long as there is full support from faculty members and consent from the EPP PhD Scientific Committee. If for some research areas, available course are not adequate to meet the students’ needs, the student may arrange special studies or independent, directed reading courses with faculty supervision.