The University of Trento welcomes applications for admission to the 42nd cycle of the PhD in Physics, for positions starting on November 1, 2026 (see here for Italian link, here for English link, scroll to “Bando di ammissione” and “Admission call” respectively, and here for much more detailed information): this year we have a total of 19 positions, 15 of which with scholarship, and 4 of which are “open positions”, i.e. not tied to any specific topic. Applicants interested in working within the Theoretical Gravitation and Cosmology group should note that I do not plan on taking PhD students this year, so there is little point applying and expressing interest in working with me. On the other hand, Prof. Rinaldi would be interested in taking a PhD student to work on cosmologically coupled black holes, see here for more information. Applicants interested in working with Prof. Rinaldi would be competing for these 4 “open positions” (those referred to as “University of Trento” in the Table on Page 2 of the admission call) - however, another possible channel in this direction is to apply for one of the 2 INFN funded-positions (Section “F, G - Particle, astroparticle, nuclear, theoretical physics, related technologies and applications, including medical Physics”), which are de facto “open positions” and in the past have funded PhD students in our group. Competition for these open positions is extremely strong, with an oversubscription ratio much higher than for the other (reserved) positions: therefore, if you are interested in working with Prof. Rinaldi, please make this very clear in your “lettera motivazionale” (“statement of purpose”), which plays an extremely important role in the evaluation of candidates, so please take it very seriously. The application deadline is May 19, 2026 at 16:00 Italy time, but interested applicants are strongly encouraged to apply well in advance of the deadline.