OBJECTIVES OF THE SESS.EUROPHD PROGRAMME In 2001, the Faculties of Economics, Sociology and Statistics at Sapienza University of Rome launched the European Ph.D. in Socio-Economic and Statistical Studies (SESS.EuroPhD), in collaboration with a consortium of universities in other European countries. Currently, SESS.EuroPhD consists of 7 partner universities, of which 4 belong to EU countries (Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin, Eötvös Lorand University of Budapest, Sapienza Università di Roma and University of Tampere), and 3 belong to non-EU countries (University of Southampton, the High School of Economics of Moscow and University of Haifa). Background and motivation of the doctorate are: 1) the wish to promote the Bologna Process and to contribute to the construction of the European Higher Education and Research Areas (EHEA and ERA); 2) the awareness that today complex social problems, at the international, national and local level, require interdisciplinary research approaches as well as international strategies of scientific collaboration. Until 2008, SESS.EuroPhD has been co-ordinated by Sapienza Università di Roma. However, in line with the International Partener Agreements of the PhD programme establishing a time rotation of the co-ordination functions among partner universities, SESS.EuroPhD is currently coordinated by Eötvös Lorand University of Budapest, which at the beginning of 2017 took over Humboldt's Institut fuer Sozialwissenschaften in the responsibility for the doctoral programme. The SESS programme follows the rules established by two Partnership Agreements. One institutes the research doctorate while the other institutes the delivery of the "joint degree". The objective of the European PhD in Socio-Economic and Statistical Studies is to provide the students with the economic, sociological and statistical bases to successfully undertake an academic or research career in national or international organizations. The SESS.EuroPhD strives to attain the following objectives: 1. contribute to the European and international research through transnational promotion of young researchers; 2. develop interdisciplinary research through a common educational strategy; 3. stimulate intercultural and comparative research along the lines indicated above; 4. promote a specific doctoral culture similar to that of the Anglo-Saxon, but maintaining the specific features of the typical cultural traditions of the member countries. The SESS.EuroPhD finalizes in three years, and each year is marked by clear objectives and expected results, some of which may vary depending on: a) the type of students’ research project; b) the background knowledge of candidate on statistical issues and socio- economics. Below is a few description of all annual objectives of SESS.EuroPhD. First year objectives During the first year - undoubtedly the most delicate because the boot to the study and refinement of the research project that the student chooses to carry on -, the primary educational objectives of the student are: 1. Provide for doctoral students, by attending courses of lectures and seminars given by faculty members of the program and national and international researchers, a common preparation regarding the three main subjects of interest of the PhD: Economics, Economic Sociology and Applied Statistics; 2. equip him / her student / it of analytical autonomy and critical spirit in the literature search, and along the reconstruction phase of the state related to the subject in the research project. Second year objectives The second year aims to consolidate and strengthen the knowledge of the candidates and to accompany them towards the achievement of a sufficient level of autonomy of research. Also during the second year, the student is encouraged to expand their scientific collaborations within the relevant scientific community, and to refine its ability to communicate its research motivations and eventually to disseminate the results of their theoretical analyzes and empirical. The primary objective of the second year is therefore to develop the ability to confront directly and unmediated with its own line of research and those related, in order to encourage / the PhD student / to adopt a multidisciplinary approach to research that processing privileges theoretical propositions only if supported by an adequate basis of empirical data. In this perspective, the SESS Annual Seminar, inaugurated in 2004, attended by all students and teachers of the network, are one of the SESS.EuroPhD strengths as they offer the / a student / it an unmissable opportunity to explain to 'entire research consortium - specially assembled in one of the offices of the Network - the progress of their studies and their own research. Third year objectives The third year is mainly dedicated to the development of critical thinking and synthesis, with the conclusion of the experimental activities, the overall processing of the results obtained and the compilation of the thesis. Important objectives will be: 1. the achievement of a good degree of autonomy in the conduct of research activities; 2. obtaining a proper understanding of the main funding mechanisms of the Italian and European scientific research; 3. the development of comparison and communication skills through the intensification of participation in workshops and conferences, and the preparation of articles and essays to be published. ORGANIZATION OF THE SESS NETWORK The organization of the doctorate is on two floors: the international and local. 1) At international level, the Art. 3 of the "Partnership Agreement" establishes the appointment of the following organs: - A President, who is a PhD and is elected by the Scientific Board (members of the Board subsequently listed); - A Scientific Board, composed of representatives of the institution subsidiaries, approving admissions, defines the core-curricula, establishing common standards for the inspection procedures and currency, based on shared methodological criteria, the high quality of the program; - A Scientific Co-ordinator, who manages the SESS.EuroPhD program and is responsible for addressing fund raising and cost covering issues related to the activities of the SESS Network. 2) At the local level, in the specific case of Wisdom, the SESS.EuroPhD is made up of an Internal Committee of CID teachers) currently chaired and coordinated by Prof. Carmelo Pierpaolo Parello (Department of Economics and Law) and two standing committees, composed members chosen by the CID, called to handle specific problems concerning the teaching of the first year - teaching Commission - and the visibility of the doctorate - Commission Website and Communication. The CID meets regularly on a monthly basis to manage the organizational internal and external, and to conduct relations between teachers and students. The commission, however, meet on a bimonthly basis or in a manner not foreseen in case of need. Currently, the teaching Commission consists of three members of the CID - Profs. De Nardis, Palestini and Parello - while the Commission Website and Communication relies on the participation of one member of the CID, prof. Fabio Sabatini, flanked by a student representative and a member technician of the Department of Economics and Law (Dr. Enrico Mastrostefano). From 2001 to 2007, Chairman of the SESS.EuroPhD was Prof. Jean-Jacques Droesbeke (Université Libre de Bruxelles),From 2007 to2015, Prof. Elke Koch-Weser (Wisdom) took over, while the current chair of the Programm is Prof. Andrew Hinde (University of Southampton). At the moment, the Scientific Co-ordinator and Programme Director is Prof. Bernhard Wessels (Dean Faculty of Arts and Humanities III - Institute of Social Sciences of the Humboldt University). STRUCTURES AND RESOURCES SESS.EUROPHD In order to achieve all of its objectives, the SESS.EuroPhD relies on the following operational and scientific structures and resources. 1. Equipment and/or laboratories The Rome headquarters of the SESS.EuroPhD rotates around 4 departments: The Department of Economics and Law (DipEcoDir), Department of methods and models for the economics territory and finance (MEMOTEF), the Department of Communication and Social Research (CeRiS) and the Department of Statistical Science (DSS). There are several classrooms and laboratories available to SESS Students, mainly located in the Faculty of Economics and the Department of Economics and Law. Specifically, the total amounts of classrooms adds to 2 small rooms pf 25 places for lessons; 1 classroom with about 75 seats for seminars; 1 computer lab with 25 internet terminals, 1 Experimental room (under construction) for Experimental Economics with about 80 seats; 1 language laboratory. 2. Books consistency and libraries - Consistency and coverage of the themes of the course. Overall, SESS students can rely on 4 departmental libraries (DipEcoDir, MEMOTEF, CiReS, DSS), 1 European Documentation Centre ( "Altiero Spinelli") and 1 faculty library ("Barone", Fac. of Economics). Updated to the 22th Nov.'17, the overall stock of books available for consultations can be quantified in more than 147,000 volumes in Economics, Economic Policy, Econometrics, Sociology and Applied Statistics. - Subscriptions to magazines relating the topics covered by the course SESS Candidates can access to all the paper material of 4 newspaper libraries of the Department (DipEcoDir, MEMOTEF, CiReS, DSS). With reference to the economic, sociological and statistical, the time of the most important Journals in the matter is almost complete, and in many cases, it dates back to the earliest publications, especially for prestigious journals such as, for example, the Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Econometrica and the Journal of Sociology. 3. E-resources - Databases Being part of the scientific community of Sapienza University, the SESS.EuroPhD has got access to all the main dataset of the university, and in particular to those collecting: a) multidisciplinary data (EBSCOHost, JSTOR, Scopus, Ulrichsweb, Web of Science; b) economic and social data (EconLit, ESSPER, PAO & PIO - Periodicals Archive & Index Online, RePEc). As for economics, the Department of Economics and Law offers access to various online providers of scientific & technical information, including Elsevier, Springer, Wiley and DirectScience. - Software specifically related to the scope of SESS.EuroPhD Software facility available to SESS.EuroPhD students comprise: a) licenses for the econometric softwares: SAS, SPSS and STATA 10.0; b) free access and free use of the math packages scientific Matlab and Mathematica through service the “Software Distribution Office” of the University. - Spaces and resources for graduate students and for the electronic computing The SESS graduate students have access to up to 4 rooms reserved to post-graduate students located in DipEcoDit (floor 5th and -2nd of the Faculty of Economics). For computational analysis, the same Department offers the following facilities: a) 3 computer lab with 46 computer workstations overall; 1 computer lab equipped to manage Experimental Economics sessions. FINAL DEGREE The SESS.EuroPhD ends with the completion of a doctoral thesis capturing the interdisciplinary and European character of the PhD, and with the completion of a scientific paper, written in English, already suitable for submission to a scientificc journal (hereafter " Job Market Paper "). Along with the standard degree "Doctor of Philosophy", SESS.EuroPhD also delivers the "Doctor Europaeus" as an additional degree.