Doctorate Studies

Welcome to the Faculty of Environmental Sciences

We are delighted that you would like to do a doctorate at the Faculty of Environmental Sciences and wish you every success with your doctoral project!

On this website you will find all the important information about this project.
If you have any questions, please get in touch with your supervising university lecturer or the contact persons listed above.

The new doctoral regulations dated February 2, 2026, took effect on March 25, 2026, and is available in the Downloads section. The website will be updated as soon as possible. We ask for your patience.
Pursuant to Section 22 of the transitional provisions of the new doctoral regulations, the old doctoral regulations will remain in effect for one year. For up to twelve months after the new regulations take effect, the Doctoral Board may, upon written request by the candidate and only for a doctoral project that has already been initiated or in connection with a request to initiate an already approved doctoral project, decide to allow the project to be completed in accordance with the provisions of the Doctoral Regulations of the Faculty of Environmental Sciences dated August 22, 2014 (Amtliche Bekanntmachungen der TU Dresden Nummer 5/2014 vom 11. September 2014, S. 63). 
IMPORTANT: Applications for a degree under the old doctoral regulations from 2014 will only be accepted by the Doctoral Office until December 21, 2026 (the date of receipt by the department coordinators is what counts)!
All other ongoing procedures will then automatically transition to the new doctoral regulations.
All doctoral projects commencing after these regulations take effect must be conducted in accordance with these new regulations. Decisions regarding admission as a doctoral candidate that were made prior to the new regulations taking effect remain valid; otherwise, the new regulations apply. Unfortunately, a translation of the new doctoral regulations is not yet available. It will be provided as soon as possible. 
On June 29, 2026, the Doctoral Board adopted the following policy regarding requests for extensions of the processing time for procedures that will be transferred to the new regulations: If applications for an extension of the completion period have already been approved under the old doctoral regulations of 2014, no more than one additional application for an extension may be submitted after the transition to the new doctoral regulations of 2026.

1. requirements (doctoral and study regulations)

The requirements of the Faculty of Environmental Sciences for applicants for a doctorate are formulated in § 6 of the doctoral degree regulations of the Faculty of Environmental Sciences dated 22.08.2014. Admission to a doctorate generally requires a completed university degree in a university degree program with a standard period of study of at least eight semesters (usually a diploma or master's degree with a scientific thesis). You also need a university lecturer or a TU Young Investigator from the Faculty of Environmental Sciences who agrees to take on the academic supervision of your doctorate. With the new doctoral regulations, which are expected to come into force  in December 2025, an additional supervisor is usually required from TU Dresden (with habilitation-appropriate achievements).

2. application for acceptance as a doctoral student (admission)

Admission to the doctorate is granted upon application to the Doctoral Committee of the Faculty of Environmental Sciences in accordance with § 6, 7 and 8 of the Doctoral Regulations of the Faculty of Environmental Sciences dated 22.08.2014. The Doctoral Committee will check whether the admission requirements are met.

Please note that you can currently only obtain the academic title Ph.D. at our faculty if you are admitted to the doctoral program "PhD Program in Integrated Management of Water, Soil and Waste".

Admission to the doctoral program is linked to the applicant's obligation to complete a doctorate at the Faculty of Environmental Sciences within the next six years.

The application for acceptance as a doctoral student is submitted via the
online system Promovendus.

3 Promovendus

Promovendus can be accessed at any time within the TU Dresden network. To log in to Promovendus, you need a valid ZIH user account.

Employees or enrolled students automatically receive a ZIH user login. If you do not yet have a ZIH user login at TU Dresden, you can apply for a ZIH guest login via your supervising university professor who will supervise your doctoral or research project.
You can find the application form on the website of the Center for Information Services and High Performance Computing (ZIH) at TU Dresden.
Your central contact for all questions and problems with your ZIH user account is the TU Dresden Service Desk.

An application document for acceptance as a doctoral student is generated via Promovendus, which you must print out and submit to the Faculty of Environmental Sciences:

Please send this, your paper application, in full*) to the Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Environmental Sciences at the following address:

TU Dresden
Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Environmental Sciences
Dean's Office/Doctorate Office (Tillich-Bau, Groundfloor)
Helmholtzstr. 6/8
01062 Dresden

*) Please note that you must also submit the following documents together with the application for acceptance as a doctoral student:

• Officially certified copy and, if applicable, translations in German or English of the university degree relevant for admission
• Officially certified copy and, if applicable, translation into German or English of subject overviews with grades of the university degree relevant for admission
• Officially certified copy and, if applicable, translations into German or English of all other university degree certificates
• Simple copy of the certificate of general higher education entrance qualification (usually Abitur)
• Supervision agreement (incl. work plan) with the responsible university lecturer of the faculty in the original including the signature of the supervising university lecturer(s) or university of applied sciences lecturer in the case of cooperative procedures
• Current curriculum vitae (CV) with academic career, list of publications and signature as well as a contact address
• Documentary evidence of additional studies or examinations already completed in officially certified form
• Written proof (receipt) that a certificate of good conduct to be sent to the faculty has been requested from the responsible registration office in accordance with Section 30 (5) of the Federal Central Criminal Register Act (BZRG)

4. official certifications and equivalence check of foreign university degrees

For acceptance as a doctoral student, you will need certified copies and, if necessary, certified translations of your university certificates as well as certified subject overviews with grades.

Information on the certification of certificates not issued by TU Dresden can be found on the website of the TU Dresden Certification Office.

If you have obtained a degree abroad or have foreign citizenship, your documents will be sent by the Faculty of Environmental Sciences to the International Office (formerly: International Office) of TU Dresden for an equivalence check before you are accepted as a doctoral student. The online database www.anabin.de allows you to find out in advance about the equivalence of your degree.

5. enrolment in the doctoral program

We strongly recommend that doctoral students enrol at TU Dresden. You can find out about the many benefits of enrolment (e.g. discounts on the Deutschlandticket, MOBIbike and student services) on the website of the Admissions Office. You will also find the application for enrollment there. Or have a look at matriculation regulations Matriculation regulations of TU Dresden.

Applicants from abroad should also consult the website of the International Office of TU Dresden.

Applicants can only be enrolled as doctoral students at the Faculty of Environmental Sciences if they have been included in the faculty's list of doctoral students by the doctoral committee. Further information can be found on the website of the Admissions Office.

The acquisition of the academic degree "PhD" is exclusively possible for structured doctoral programs (see above under point 2.) whose study regulations have been approved by the faculty. For all doctoral projects, it is possible to adjust the desired doctoral degree until the opening (when the completed dissertation is submitted). The prerequisite is always that the subject-related and formal conditions are fulfilled. The faculty's doctoral committee will decide on this upon application.

For an extension of the doctoral program, an application must be submitted, which must be signed by the supervising university lecturer and the chairperson of the doctoral committee: to the application form.

6. additional services & aptitude assessment

Inclusion in the list of doctoral candidates can be combined with additional achievements (e.g. additional modules) or with the completion of an aptitude test in accordance with § 7 of the doctoral regulations of the Faculty of Environmental Sciences for degrees from other disciplines. These are determined in the supervision agreement with the supervising university lecturer or by the doctoral committee and communicated to the prospective student with the letter of admission for acceptance or after consultation for acceptance as a doctoral student.
Depending on the type of additional work, proof of successful completion must be provided either by the time the procedure is opened (e.g. additional modules) or before the application for acceptance (e.g. aptitude test).

7 Opening of the doctoral procedure

The application for the opening of the doctoral procedure is submitted via the
online system Promovendus.

Please note that you must also submit the following documents together with the application for the opening of doctoral proceedings:

• 5 bound copies of the dissertation in German or English
• 1 electronic version of the dissertation (as a PDF file on CD)
• Current curriculum vitae (CV) with academic career and signature
• List of publications
• Proof of completion of additional or supplementary studies
• Written proof (receipt) that a certificate of good conduct to be sent to the faculty in accordance with § 30 para. 5 of the Federal Central Criminal Register Act (BZRG), which is not older than 3 months, has been applied for at the responsible registration office
  (see point 8 below)
• the doctoral student's written declaration on the opening of the doctoral procedure, including the current date and signature
  (see Annex 1 and 2 of the Doctoral Degree Regulations of the Faculty of Environmental Sciences dated 22.08.2014).

• for cumulative dissertations: written confirmation and explanation from the supervising university teacher in accordance with § 10 (2) of the doctoral degree regulations

Both the dissertation and the defense of the dissertation can be written or conducted in German or English. For further information, please refer to the Doctoral Degree Regulations of the Faculty of Environmental Sciences dated 22.08.2014.

Note on a blocking notice

The granting of a blocking period, until the expiry of which publication of the dissertation may not take place due to agreements between the doctoral student and third parties, is possible and must be applied for in writing to the doctoral committee at the latest with the application to open the doctoral procedure. The application must contain a justification for the requested suspension and must be signed by the doctoral candidate and the supervising professor. A suspension period of up to one year can be applied for. Before the expiry of the suspension period, an extension of the suspension period by a maximum of one further year may be applied for in justified exceptional cases. The application must be submitted to the doctoral committee no later than 4 weeks before the expiry of the first granted suspension period.

Notes on the formal design of the dissertation

The title page of your dissertation is printed in the language used in the dissertation.
Sample cover page

It should contain the following information:

• Name of the faculty (TUD Dresden University of Technology, Faculty of Environmental Sciences)
• Topic of the dissertation
• Your full name and title
• Your date and place of birth
• Date of the defense
• the names of your reviewers, university/institution, country, if abroad

Further information on the formal structure of your dissertation can be found on the SLUB Dresden website.

Options for publishing your dissertation

... can also be found on the information pages of the SLUB Dresden: Link to the overview.

8. certificate of good conduct

To apply for acceptance as a doctoral student and for the opening of the doctoral procedure, you will need written proof (receipt) that a certificate of good conduct has been requested from the responsible registration authority in accordance with § 30 para. 5 of the Federal Central Criminal Register Act (BZRG). The simple certificate of good conduct is valid for approx. 3 months and can be applied for on the day of submission of the documents for admission as a doctoral student or for the opening of the doctoral procedure. When applying for the simple certificate of good conduct (e.g. at the registration office /Bürgeramt Dresden Plauen, Nöthnitzer Str. 2, 1187 Dresden), the following address must be given:

TUD Dresden University of Technology
Faculty of Environmental Sciences
Dean's Office/Doctoral Affairs
01062 Dresden

9. completed doctorates and ALUMNI network

Completed doctorates can be viewed in Qucosa.

You can register for the alumni network specifically for early-career researchers at any time in the online system Promovendus . If you no longer have a valid ZIH user account, please use the alumni form. Registration is of course voluntary.

Furthermore, we would like to draw your attention to the general alumni network of TU Dresden.

Please always inform the Doctoral Examinations Office/Dean's Office of any changes to your contact address to ensure seamless communication!