I applied online. The process took 2 months. I interviewed at IMEC (Belgium) in May 2020
Interview
The interview took place over MS teams for about an hour. The interviewers were a group of 5 people comprising potential supervisors from selected PhD topics in the application. They took turns with questions but mainly the question quota was based on how the applicant prioritized the topics in the application. They mentioned a decision would be expected within two weeks; they replied in 3 weeks (No interview feedback was given).
Interview questions [2]
Question 1
They would ask about your academic and professional background and to present thesis work. Despite the website clearly mentions the applicant will be informed of what kind of presentation to prepare for the interview; that was not the case. The interviewers even started asking questions in the middle of the presentation and complained later the presentation was taking too long. Someone was trying to give access for a virtual board tool to ask a question however some technical issue prevented that.
I applied in-person. The process took 2 days. I interviewed at IMEC (Belgium) (Dresden) in May 2021
Interview
it was an interview from representatives of 3 different research groups in imec and KU Leuven. the interview lasted for almost 90 min, it covered different aspects ranging between technical and personal aspects of the profile
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Did you apply in other places like in Germany or somewhere else?