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Mission Statement
The aim of the PhD program in Microbiology and Immunology (MIM) is to recruit and train
future leaders in different fields of Microbiology and Immunology. This PhD program offers a
unique and integrative environment for internationally competitive research. It aims to attract
the most motivated students from any field of the natural sciences. Projects will cover basic,
environmental and medical microbiology, molecular microbiology, biochemistry, bacterial and
viral pathogenesis, infection biology, experimental and clinical immunology, experimental
mycology, evolution, parasitology, virology and veterinary bacteriology.

Program Overview
The Microbiology and Immunology PhD program leads from a MSc to a PhD degree within
three to four years. An admission committee selects students according to their abilities and
knowledge in state of the art natural sciences. The successful applicant can join the research
group of a principal investigator who is a member of the MIM program. To graduate, students
will have to fulfill the following requirements:
 Acquisition of 12 credit points
 Deposition and defense of a PhD thesis describing an original piece of experimental or
theoretical research
 Any other requirements imposed by the host institution (UZH or ETHZ).
The final degree is conferred by either UZH or ETHZ, depending on the academic affiliation of
the responsible faculty member (see specific regulations as are detailed below).

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REGULATIONS FOR THE MIM PHD PROGRAM

1. ADMISSION TO THE MIM PHD PROGRAM
1.1 ADMISSION PROCEDURE

The applicants must have a Master's degree or an equivalent degree at the start of the PhD
program.

Track I: Application to the Program

 The deadlines for the applications are July 1st and December 1st.
 The admission committee decides on the list of applicants to be invited for the
interviews.
 Three-day interviews will be held in September and February, respectively.
 The applicants should choose up to eight research groups they are interested in and
would like to visit during the interview round.
 During the three day visit of the students, applicants will discuss with group leaders
who have advertised a PhD position.
 After the interview, applicants will list up to six names of group leaders in the order
of their preference.
 By the end of the interviews, the admission committee will communicate a list of
candidates admitted and a list of candidates not permitted into the program. This
will be the basis for the matching process. The matching process will take into
account the candidate's and the PI's preferences and should be completed within
two weeks after the end of the interviews.

Track II: Application to a Principal Investigator (PI)

 An applicant has the possibility to directly apply to a research group and can be
accepted by the PI.
 Track II students should submit their application via the online application system
of the Graduate School, including two recommendation letters if possible from two
independent reviewers. The application has to contain a recommendation letter of
the PI explaining why the student qualifies for the Program. In case the PI does not
have the right to promote at the Faculty of Science (UZH) or at ETH, a confirmation
letter of the official supervisor has to be submitted additionally.
 Applications can be submitted at any time. The Steering Committee will decide on
the acceptance of the student or on a further examination by the Admission
Committee.
 Applications from Track II students are accepted no later than 6 months after
starting the PhD (start of work in the lab).
 Applicants who did not pass a Track I interview (of any Zurich graduate Program)
are excluded to enter the MIM program through Track II.
 Application as Track II is possible for candidates which had applied by Track I
but were not invited for an interview.

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 Exceptionally, a Track II admission interview can be repeated once during the

following 6 months.
 Should a PhD student fail to comply the requirements of the MIM PhD Program,
this may result in exclusion from the Program.

Recruitment Costs

In order to cover the recruitment costs the following fees have to be born by the PI:
 Track I : 1000.- CHF
 Track II: 1000.- CHF.

1.2 ADMISSION COMMITTEE

The admission committee consists of up to 10 members of MIM. Not more than two members
of the program steering committee should be in the admission committee.
The admission committee members are proposed and appointed by the steering committee.
The members of the admission committee should carry out their task for at least three to four
years.
Three members of the admission committee can be exchanged every year.
In addition ad hoc members will support the appointed admission committee members. Ad
hoc members are all MIM PI’s with open positions in the respective recruitment round. Ad hoc
members have the same rights and duties as appointed members for one recruitment round.
The duties of the admission committee members are:
 to evaluate the applications
 to be present at the interviews
 to decide on the admission to the MIM program.

2. THESIS COMMITTEE
The thesis committee consists of three to four persons and its composition is in agreement
with the doctoral regulations of UZH or ETHZ:

- The responsible faculty member of UZH or ETHZ

- The thesis supervisor (if not identical with the responsible faculty member)
- A second faculty member (according to the ETH und UZH regulations)
- 1-2 additional advisors from a related research area, one of which ideally is a
member of the MIM PhD program
At least one member of the PhD committee is an independent person (not belonging to the
same group or being a close collaborator of the official supervisor).
At least one member should be a basic researcher.

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The responsible faculty member, thesis supervisor and the student have to select the thesis
committee. The responsible faculty member or the thesis supervisor has to be member of
MIM. The composition of the committee has to comply with the respective regulations at UZH
or ETHZ.

3. THESIS COMMITTEE MEETINGS

 The student is responsible to organize the meetings. At least two members (including
the thesis supervisor) have to be present.
 The chair of the committee meeting has to be defined at the beginning of the meeting;
usually this is not the student’s supervisor.
 Every meeting from which the public is excluded consists of a project presentation by
the student, followed by a discussion with the committee members.

 At the end of every meeting, a protocol (committee meeting report), signed by the
attended thesis committee members, must be compiled and uploaded onto DissGo.

 The first Committee meeting is held after 6 months (for UZH), respectively 12 months
(for ETHZ), followed by annually occurring meetings. The progress of the experimental
or theoretical work will be judged based upon an oral presentation of the PhD
candidate.
 The thesis defense does not take place later than 18 months after the last thesis
committee meeting.
 For the first meeting the student will write a project proposal (approximately 2000
words, excluding references) describing the PhD project. For this purpose, the proposal
that is required for the ETHZ admission can be used.
The proposal has to be submitted to the thesis committee members and uploaded onto
DissGo at least one week before the committee meeting and has to be written in the
format of a grant application, including a background section, the aims of the project,
planned experiments and a short compilation of the envisaged methods, including a
section of preliminary results. The proposal is presented and defended by the students
during the first meeting.

 In case of an unsatisfactory performance, the student can repeat the proposal defense
after three months. If the student fails a second time, he/she will be expelled from the
program.
 For the subsequent meetings the students will submit a progress report (up to 1000
words) one week before the meeting to the committee members and add it to their
DissGo profile.
 The chair gives the student the opportunity to speak to the committee members
without his or her supervisor and closely related PIs being present.

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4. CONFIDENTIALITY
It is an important goal that the participants of the PhD program exchange their scientific
results between different institutes and the host institutions. Any such results shall be kept
strictly confidential by all participants of the program and shall not be disclosed to persons
outside of the program as long as the results are not published by the author/originator of
the results.

No participant of the PhD program shall use any scientific result to the detriment of one of
the institution; in particular, no participant shall impair a host institution’s right to seek
protection for intellectual property contained in such results by way of a premature publication
or other premature disclosure of results.

5. COURSE WORK DURING PHD PROGRAM

To complete the PhD program a student must acquire 12 credit points in total. The awarding
of credit points complies with UZH/ETHZ regulations. A maximum of 4 credit points can be
awarded from outside the direct research field, as for example by participation at transferable
skill courses. A minimum of 8 credits should be obtained from courses and conferences related
to the research area including the MIM Introductory Course, active participation at one
national conference and at one MIM Retreat (these three events are compulsory and the
student will acquire one credit point each).
Graduate and other courses should be approved by the PhD Committee and a regular
documentation of the completed course work should be included in the PhD committee
meeting reports.
In summary, the 12 requested credit points should be acquired according to the following
scheme:

MIM Introductory Course 1 CP

MIM Retreat 1 CP These 3 events are compulsory.

Active participation at national conference 1 CP

Research related courses ≥5 CPs

Transferable skill courses ≤4 CPs

Introductory block course

An introductory block course of three days will be held once a year. The goal is to introduce
the students to the various model organisms, methods, and fields of expertise of the research
groups of the program, and to foster contacts between the peers. For this compulsory task
the student will acquire one credit point.

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Retreat
The attendance of at least one students’ retreat is mandatory and credited with one credit
point.

National meeting
Every student visits once a national meeting relevant to his/her field. Submission of an
abstract is compulsory and leads to an acquisition of one credit point.

Research related courses

Courses offered at ETH or UZH or equivalent are in principle eligible for the acquisition of
credit units. Highly recommended are the graduate courses taught by the members of the
MIM program (a list of those courses is available at the home page of the MIM program; the
MIM members decide at the annual meeting about its content). Credit points can also be
awarded by actively participating at symposia (presenting a poster or oral presentation),
workshops or summer schools.

Transferable skill courses

Both universities are offering graduate courses in transferable skills.

Details for the acquisition of credit points

 Not more than 3 credit points can be acquired by attending undergraduate courses (1st
or 2nd year of the BSc curriculum). A maximum of 3 credits can be obtained by
participating at symposia, workshops, summer schools and by serving as a member of an
ETHZ / UZH commission or committee or as representative of the doctoral students.
 An active participation in an external workshop / summer school is worth 1 credit for 2
days (2 credits for a one-week education), in case the organizers do not award official
credits.
 A maximum of 2 credits can be awarded by participating actively (poster and/or oral
presentation) at maximally 2 external conferences. Participation at seminars organized by
the host institute (journal club, colloquium, etc.) does in general not give credit points
unless they are listed as course with credit points as defined in the course catalogue of
UZH or ETHZ.

A two hour introductory course on Scientific Integrity (organized by the LSZ GS) is compulsory
for all students (including signing a “Declaration of Good Scientific Practice” at the end of the
course).

6. THESIS DEFENSE
The PhD defense will follow the respective regulations of the MNF or ETHZ and will consist of
two parts: A public presentation of the thesis work and an oral examination.

 The public presentation of 45 minutes can be embedded in a seminar series of the host
institution.
 The oral examination is not public. It can immediately follow the public presentation, or
has to take place within six months after the public presentation.

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The Thesis Committee decides on passed or not passed. For ETHZ students the Committee
makes a suggestion to the ETHZ if the student should be awarded a medal. For University
students, the Committee can make a suggestion for a distinction of the thesis.
A successful participation in the MIM program will be confirmed with a certificate.

7. ORGANIZATION OF THE PROGRAM

The MIM program is headed by two directors, one from ETHZ and one from UZH, who co-
chair the program.
The steering committee consists of the two directors and two members of the MIM program.
It leads the daily business of the program. Term of office for members of the steering
committee is four years (renewable once).
UZH and ETHZ faculty members and principal investigators with own research grants can
apply to become a member of the MIM program. The steering committee will evaluate the
requests to join the program. It reports the results of the evaluation to the General
Assembly of the MIM program members. The General Assembly will decide about the
acceptance of the new member. A simple majority suffices for the acceptance of the new
member.
The program members meet at least once a year. This General Assembly elects new members
of the program, elects the steering committee of the program and decides about changes in
the regulations of the program.
MIM members are obliged to contribute to the MIM teaching program. These activities
should complement the PhD education in a meaningful way (see annex 1). MIM members
bear responsibility for fulfillment of the program requirements of their PhD students (regular
meetings with the PhD committee, course work, teaching) and to provide high quality
supervision and fair payment. Failure to meet these requirements may result in exclusion
from the program (see annex 2).

Two MIM PhD students (one of each university) represent the students’ interest towards the
MIM PhD Program by participating in the Steering Committee and the General Assembly.

January 22, 2018

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Annex 1

class requirement affiliation

full professor at least one course as chief organizer on master full & associate professor
level or equivalent

assistant professor representative contribution in a course on master SNSF professor

level or equivalent
assistant professor ETH / UZH

adjunct professor

professor ad personam

clinicians representative contribution in a course on master

level or equivalent in sciences at ETH or UZH

senior scientist teaching contribution on master / PhD level Ambizione Fellows

research associate

PIs, not from Zurich locally held training modules for PhD students
should be part of the course catalogue (ETH or
UZH)

Time limit

MIM members: half a year time for implementation, newly elected MIM members: 1 ½ years

The Steering Committee reserves the right to disqualify MIM members who do not confirm to these requirements.

Annex 2
In case of recurrent severe problematic situations arising in the laboratory of a MIM PI, the
SC will get into contact with the specific PI either via the MIM Ombudsperson or via a
member of the SC and discuss the situations and the reasons for the recurrent problems
with the PI. In case no improvement is resulting from this discussion, the SC has the right
to exclude the respective PI from the MIM PhD program. This immediately restricts the
ability of the PI to recruit new students via the MIM PhD program. Effectively, the respective
PI will remain member of the MIM PhD program until completion of the last thesis of the
current MIM PhD students.

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