IMPRS Graduate School

IMPRS for Language Sciences

The International Max Planck Research School (IMPRS) for Language Sciences brings together outstanding doctoral researchers from diverse disciplines on the Nijmegen campus and offers them high-quality training in an environment that broadens their interdisciplinary experience while supporting timely completion.

Vision

Language plays too central a role in human affairs to be the prerogative of any single discipline. The School constitutes an interdisciplinary framework integrating knowledge, methods, and techniques from linguistics, psychology, neuroscience, genetics, physics, mathematics, computer science, and artificial intelligence — disciplines embedded in four faculties of Radboud University (Arts, Science, Social Sciences, and Medical Sciences) and the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics.

The School brings together excellent doctoral researchers from different backgrounds to:
•    build and sustain strong links between language science researchers across the leading institutions on the Nijmegen campus;
•    train excellent young scientists in an interdisciplinary environment where ideas, expertise, and methods are freely exchanged;
•    recruit at the widest possible international level; and
•    foster an international network of researchers who support each other throughout their doctoral studies and into their careers.

Partner Institutes

The School is a joint initiative of three core partners on the Nijmegen campus: the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics (MPI-PL), the Centre for Language Studies (CLS) at Radboud University, and the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, also at Radboud University. The School is jointly governed by the three partners, with elected doctoral researcher representation in programme decisions. Together, they have been running the School since 2009. For the School's management, support staff, and current cohorts, see the People page.

The Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics has been furthering interdisciplinary research into the psychological, social, and biological foundations of language since 1980. Its research combines linguistics, psychology, the brain sciences, genetics, and related disciplines. The Institute currently houses four research departments — in language development, language and genetics, psychology of language, and multimodal language — alongside a growing number of independent research groups.

The Centre for Language Studies is a research institute of the Faculty of Arts at Radboud University. It brings together researchers working on the cognitive and social foundations of language systems, language processing, language use, and language acquisition.

The Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour is one of Europe’s leading centres for research on the brain and mind. In 2024 it became a formally constituted network organisation — the Donders Institute Network — bringing CLS and MPI-PL together as full partners alongside its four Donders Centres: the Donders Centre for Cognition, the Donders Centre for Neuroscience, the Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, and the Donders Community for Medical Neuroscience. The network unites researchers from neuroscience, medicine, linguistics, biology, physics, psychology, artificial intelligence, and mathematics.

Admission & Recruitment

The School recruits doctoral researchers globally throughout the year. Positions are advertised openly via the MPI-PL and Radboud University vacancy pages, disciplinary mailing lists, and partner networks across Europe and beyond. For guidance on finding vacancies and approaching researchers, see the tips on this page.

Doctoral researchers may be employed by MPI-PL or by one of the Radboud University partner institutes; in either case, they are full members of the School and have equal access to its training, resources, and community. 

Formal activities for each year’s cohort begin with the academic year in September. New cohort members receive full support and are integrated into the community from day one, ahead of the wider cohort induction.