FSE STEM Graduate school
The FSE STEM Graduate school (STEM GS) supports all PhD students of the Faculty of Science and Engineering (FSE) and is rapidly growing. The FSE STEM Graduate school optimises education and training of PhD students and facilitates and monitors the quality and progress of research projects.

Objective of the FSE STEM Graduate school is to broaden the horizon of its PhD students and to offer a vivid community for PhDs to share experiences.
Fast facts
- 100 internally appointed PhD candidates
- 60 other types of PhD candidates
- Aims to broaden the horizon of the PhD candidates to foster employability
- Started in September 2020
Research and education
Whether your research involves training computer models in artificial intelligence, studying the universe with gravitational wave detectors, examining the psychology of food in food science or building multi-scale models of organisms in systems biology, the FSE STEM Graduate school and its research school partners enable you to make the most of your PhD experience. PhD students at the FSE STEM Graduate school have access to all of the Faculty of Science and Engineering’s facilities.
You can:
- Make use of our extensive research laboratories
- Follow a wide variety of courses and skills trainings offered by the FSE STEM Graduate school and also FSE affiliated research schools
- Use our fully supported ICT infrastructures including state-of-the-art computer clusters
- Gain teaching experience in a highly diverse and international environment. FSE is home to three Liberal Arts and Sciences programmes that provide small- scale and personalised bachelor tracks: University College Maastricht, University College Venlo and Maastricht Science Programme.
Enrolling in a PhD programme at the Faculty of Science and Engineering (FSE) is a fantastic opportunity to develop your talent. It is a personal development journey, throughout which you enhance your scientific expertise as well as teaching and management skills.
Download the brochure to read more about:
- The organisation
- Whom to go to
- Your personal development
- Courses
- Your teaching experience
- Your planning
PhD stories


Andrei Utina
"From a physicist perspective, FSE is a dynamical and growing school with a nice mixture of studying and research opportunities in fundamental core topics in natural sciences and modern techniques in data analysis and engineering."
With the newly developed group Gravitational Waves and Fundamental Physics (GWFP) and a member of NIKHEF (The Dutch National Institute for Subatomic Physics), the environment became an important centre of gravitational and particle physics research and as a developer of the ETpathfinder project, a pioneer in the testing and development of the next generation of gravitational waves detectors such as the Einstein Telescope.
Britt van Belkom
In 2019, the Chair Youth, Food and Health was created within the Faculty of Science and Engineering on Brightlands Campus Greenport Venlo.
This chair is the perfect example of integrating behavioural biomedical research financed by 6 entrepreneurs/companies in the Region of Venlo, which stimulate the research always being applicable and practical with regard to the society.
As a PhD student, my first research project is a really tangible project called the Vegetable Box, where we investigate the influence of offering vegetables on a daily basis and a contingency management program (such as stickers) at 26 day-care centers (~700 children).
In a three month period we gain insights on the vegetable consumption and the knowledge and attitude towards vegetables in 1-4-year-olds. If the result shows a positive effect, the Vegetable Box will be offered to more day-care centers around Limburg and even around the rest of the Netherlands.
PhD candidates from all corners of the Faculty of Science and Engineering share their experiences and thoughts.
Staff
PhD student Representation Team
Britt van Belkom (UCV) - Chair
Email: b.vanbelkom@maastrichtuniversity.nl