PhD in Systems Science

Deadline for applications:



May 30, 2025 at 1 pm (CEST time)

The IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca is now recruiting 12 fully funded doctoral candidates for its Systems Science (SyS) Ph.D. Program.

Students enrolled in the Ph.D. program will learn the necessary methodologies to analyze technological, natural, economic, and social systems using descriptive and predictive mathematical models. The acquired skills can be spent in academia and research centers and can be applied in many industrial sectors, such as the automotive, aerospace, chemical, infrastructure, energy, biomedicine, financial, and manufacturing industries.

The SyS Program includes four specialization tracks:

• Computational Mechanics (CM) offers interdisciplinary doctoral training for graduates wishing to specialize in the research of innovative numerical simulation methods, developing digital twins to predict the behavior of materials, components, or processes throughout their operational life.
• Complex Systems and Networks (CN) offers an interdisciplinary program embracing the theoretical and computational tools of complexity science (physics of complex systems, graph theory, statistical mechanics, information theory, inference, data science) as well as their application to real-world biological, social, economic and technological systems.
• Learning and Control (LC) offers interdisciplinary doctoral training focused on becoming an expert in developing new machine learning and numerical optimization algorithms for modeling dynamical systems from data and designing model-based predictive control systems.
• Software Quality (SQ) provides doctoral candidates interested in formal methods, machine learning, modeling and simulation, program verification, cybersecurity, and software engineering with methods for the design, analysis, and validation of software quality and security.

Sys in a nutshell

• Contract Type: 36-month scholarship
• Commitment: Full-time
• Location: Lucca (Tuscany, Italy)
• Official language: English
• Ph.D. Program start date: November 1, 2025

What We Offer

• An exciting multidisciplinary and international research environment with wide opportunities to interact with scholars from related disciplines in several other international institutions
• Work under the supervision of at least one Advisor from the Faculty
• Interact with several other doctoral candidates, postdoc researchers, and Faculty members;
• A tailor-made scientific training program composed of a wide range of courses and seminars by leading researchers
• Mentoring, training, and career development support
• A highly competitive full-time Ph.D. Position with:
• a scholarship for a period of 3 consecutive years
• social security coverage
• free accommodation on campus
• free meals on campus (lunch and dinner)
• additional research funds
• additional international mobility funds
• insurance coverages (liability, accident)
• no tuition fees
  • a scholarship for a period of 3 consecutive years
  • social security coverage
  • free accommodation on campus
  • free meals on campus (lunch and dinner)
  • additional research funds
  • additional international mobility funds
  • insurance coverages (liability, accident)
  • no tuition fees