PhD Programs

The PhD Intake committees are dedicated to ensuring a fair and efficient process for all applicants. To maintain this integrity, we do not offer individual feedback or respond to inquiries about application status during the review period or after final decisions are issued.

Step 1: selection
The admission committee evaluates all complete applications. The best applicants may be invited for an interview that can be conducted online or by phone if necessary.

Step 2: admission offer
The admission committee determines a final ranking. The best applicants receive admission offers. Applicants will be notified regarding final decisions by email by the end of April.

Step 3: admission confirmation
When the admission offer is accepted, enrollment procedure starts for the successful candidates.

The Nova SBE's application process is fully electronic, including the submission of supporting documents, and upload of the recommendation letters.

The application form is open only during the application period. All documents must be received by the application deadline using the application forms (including recommendation letters). Incomplete applications will not be considered.

Application’s steps

• 1. Guidelines and agreement to Nova SBE General Data Protection Regulation.
• 2, Your information: undergraduate studies, postgraduate study, personal information (name, nationality, etc.), contact details.
• 3. Selection of track preference.
  • Choice among: Economics, Finance, or Economics or Finance.
  • Choice among: Management and Organization; Marketing; Technology, Operations and Innovation; Strategy and Entrepreneurship; across more areas.
• 4. English skills: information about proof of English (certificate) or English self-assessment information.
• 5. GRE/GMAT results.
• 6. Potential supervisors (optional step). You can indicate up to three faculty members you would like to work with. Note: this is not a commitment to work together from either side.
  • Economics and Finance faculty, see here.
  • Management faculty, see here.
• 7. Two recommendation letter contacts: Full name, Institution, Email.
• 8. Upload of documents.
• 9. Preview of information submitted.
• 10. Application submission.

Updating/completing the application

You can update your application anytime until the deadline. Once the application is submitted (step 10), no further changes can be made.

See the guidelines on the application to set up your account and access the platform (step 1 and step 2).

After the application is submitted

• You will receive a confirmation email. Please check your spam folder.
• All correspondence will be by email, using the email address you specified in the application form (step 2). Our communication is run via the email address phd@novasbe.pt.

All documents submitted should be in English.

Required documents

• Curriculum Vitae
• Transcript of records of undergraduate with the full list of courses and grades (also accepted in Portuguese).
• Transcript of records of graduate degrees with the full list of courses and grades. Candidates who have not yet finished their graduate program should provide a certificate of enrolment with the complete list of grades achieved to date (also accepted in Portuguese).
• Recommendations in the form of two letters of reference, which should be sent directly by referees (as explained in the Online Application Instructions available at the application platform).
• Statement of Purpose. Please include the following topics:
  • why you wish to pursue a PhD at NovaSBE
  • what you would like to study-area(s) of interest
  • who you would like to work with as supervisor(s) and why
  • your career goals after the PhD
• Certificate of results for the GRE (Graduate Records of Examination) or GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test). Results should not be older than three years.

Applicants who hold, or will shortly hold, one of the following Nova SBE Master’s degrees are not required to submit GMAT/ GRE results:

• For PhD in Economics and Finance: Master’s in Economics, Master’s in Finance, International Master’s in Finance.
• For PhD in Management: Master’s in Business Analytics.

• Copy of passport or Identity Card.

Optional documents

• English language certificate. Test results should not be older than three years.
• Recognition of your foreign degrees in Portugal. This document is issued by the DGES, please see the DGES website for more information. The document can be issued only if you complete your graduate studies.
• Other Research Samples.

Notes

• File size: up to 3 MB for each document.
• Do not upload zipped files, the system doesn’t support these files and it will be considered as an incomplete application. If you wish to submit more documents for one upload, please merge them.

When you apply to a PhD program at Nova SBE, you are automatically being considered for Nova SBE Research Fellowships. These are very competitive and offered only to top ranking applicants. There are funding alternatives in case you are admitted without a Nova SBE Research Fellowship.

If you are planning to apply for the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) annual call, please note that we support only the applications of students accepted into our PhD programs. For more details on funding opportunities, please visit our dedicated funding page:

Learn more.