IAAC is open to excellent students and researchers of any age, nationality, gender and discipline, early in their career.

Applicants must fulfill ALL the following minimum eligibility before submitting an application:

1. Minimum level of studies: A bachelor’s degree that allows the candidate to enroll in a master’s program by October 2024.
2. English proficiency: Applicants do not need to demonstrate an English degree during their application. Their use of the English language will be assessed during the interview. However, since all IAAC activities (with an exception of Maestría Online en Ciudades) are conducted in English, applicants are expected to be proficient in their use of English. Applicants that have proof of English proficiency, can submit it as an optional document.
3. Availability: Applicants must be available to join at the start date indicated by IAAC and for the entire duration of the program they apply for.
4. Financial Readiness: If you register at IAAC, you will be expected to be able to fund your studies fully throughout the length of your program. Under no circumstances can IAAC help in cases where applicants have knowingly applied underfunded.
5. Restrictive measures: Applicants understand and accept that their application may be subject to security checks and procedures.
6. The Applicant has submitted a complete application with all required information and documents attached via the IAAC Application Portal.

We recommend that you follow carefully the below steps during the preparation and submission stage of your application:

The application form is entirely online and needs to be completed in English through the online application portal before the deadlines. The portal is very user-friendly and intuitive. In case of doubts please contact us at [email protected].

Applications received by other means (postal mail, email or similar) will not be accepted.

Consider before applying that:

• An application can not be saved or edited later, so you will need to have all requested documents and information complete before you submit your application.
• You are encouraged to start working on your application well before the deadlines and allow enough time to compile the necessary information and supporting documents (including translation of academic transcripts).
• You are allowed to apply for up to three programs. If you apply for more than 3 programs, only the last three submitted applications will be considered. Similarly, if there are duplicate applications for the same program only the last submission will be considered.
• For each program you wish to apply for, you need to submit one separate application. 
• Each application submitted has a 50€ fee.
• You must submit your application before the deadlines.
• You MUST submit all mandatory documents (see Table 1 below). If you fail to submit one or more mandatory documents, your application will be automatically rejected. Please note that we will not be sending out reminders for any missing documents, once you have submitted your application.
• Before submitting, your application can be saved and edited later if needed. You are encouraged to start working on your application well before the deadlines and allow enough time to compile the necessary information and supporting documents (including translation of academic transcripts).
• IAAC is committed to Open, Transparent and Merit-based Recruitment (OTM-R), therefore positions will be awarded to the most talented students based purely on merit and capacities.

Table 1 – List of mandatory documents/ information that you MUST submit with each application in our application portal:

List of optional additional documents you MAY submit with each application in our application portal:

In addition to the above mandatory documents (Table 1), you may upload one additional document. Submission of these documents is optional at this stage but highly recommended:

• English Proficiency Certificate (C1): You may upload a scanned copy of your English Proficiency Certificate (C1), according to the European Framework of Reference for Languages https://www.coe.int/en/web/common-european-framework-reference-languages.
• IAAC Applicant Financial Support form: You may upload a signed copy of the IAAC Applicant Financial Support form in case you want to be considered for a needs-based scholarship. You can download the form directly from the application portal or find it here.

The IAAC Team provides support through email from Monday to Friday from 09:00 AM CET to 18:00 CET.

IAAC Applications Coordinator

Email: [email protected]

Once an application is received, the Applications Coordinator will start reviewing the submitted applications to check whether they meet all eligibility requirements. Refer to section 3.2 for the Eligibility checklist. Once the eligibility check is completed, Applicants will be informed of the outcome by email with more information on the second step.

Applicants shortlisted for an interview will be notified maximum one week before the interviews to allow them time to prepare. All interviews will be conducted by videoconference.

Interviews will be organized based on a round of questions by the panel members.

Applicants will be meeting with the program’s Director and/or Academic Coordinator through a Video Call Interview.

Applicants and Evaluators will be given the same Interview Guide detailing the process and scoring. The evaluation criteria are described in detail in section 5.3 on Evaluation criteria.

The results and notes of the interview along with all the submitted documents will be shared with the IAAC Academic Committee. 

At this stage, the Academic Committee will be responsible for making the final decision on the acceptance or rejection of an application based on the Evaluation Criteria as described in section 5.3.

If accepted, applicants will receive an email from the Applications Coordinator.

With that email, applicants will also receive:

• A Welcome letter
• An Acceptance letter (in English and Spanish) – This letter, will include the applicant’s name, passport number and program to which he/she has been admitted. In this letter, applicants will also see how the Academic Committee has evaluated their need to take part in the pre-course. Please note that the Spanish copy of the Acceptance Letter will be needed to start the Visa Process (for non-EU citizens).

The Tuition Fee letter – The tuition Fee letter includes all the information on the program payments and how to enroll. It’s important to respect all the deadlines marked for each payment.

If accepted, applicants will have to confirm their enrollment by proceeding with the enrollment fee payment within a maximum of 3 weeks after they receive the acceptance letter. (Note: enrollment fee payments vary depending on the program each applicant is admitted in. Please refer to the tuition fees webpage).

For the MAA, MAEBB, MaCT, MRAC and MDEF programmes:

Depending on the applicant’s profile and technical skills, the Academic Committee has the right to assign up to 3 mandatory modules to an applicant. The selection of these modules depends on the program the applicant has been accepted to and the technical/research skills the applicant is lacking.

In the acceptance letter applicants will receive a list of mandatory modules with the respective fee:

• If the mandatory modules assigned by the Academic Committee are 3, the mandatory fee will be 1200€. The applicant can choose a fourth module at the additional cost of 200€.
• If the mandatory modules assigned by the Academic Committee are 2, then the applicant must select one more module to attend from a list of specific modules, at the additional cost of 400€, making the total cost 1200€. The applicant can choose a fourth module at the additional cost of 200€.
• If the mandatory module assigned by the Academic Committee is 1, then he applicant must select two more modules to attend from a list of specific modules, at the additional cost of 400€ per module, making the total cost 1200€. The applicant can choose a fourth module at the additional cost of 200€.
• If no mandatory modules have been assigned by the Academic Committee then the applicant has the option to select three modules to attend from a list of specific modules, at the cost of 1200€ for three selected modules or 1400€ for 4 selected modules.

For the 3DPA programme:

Depending on the applicant’s profile and technical skills, the Academic Committee has the right to assign 3 mandatory modules to an applicant. Whether the modules are mandatory, highly recommended or optional depends on the technical background of the applicant.

The cost of the 3DPA Pre-course modules is a total of 500€ for all three modules.

You can find more information on the precourse modules by visiting the FAQ.

Once the Enrolment Fee has been paid, IAAC will send applicants a welcome package by post as they will need the physical letters of acceptance for their VISA application (please note that a Student Visa is needed for non-EU students only). Once applicants receive the physical documents, they can start dealing with their visa application by contacting the Spanish embassy in their country of residence (if relevant).

IAAC encourages accepted students to start their student VISA process right away as the process of issuing a VISA may vary from one country to another and it can sometimes take up to 3 months. Accepted students will need to enquire with the Embassy/Consulate of Spain based in their home country to understand which type of documentation they need to prepare and submit. IAAC will provide applicants with any documentation required from our Institute to facilitate this process. For more information on the VISA process contact the Applications Coordinator ([email protected]).

Successful Applicants who paid the enrollment fee and the precourse fee will be invited to start the registration process in person at IAAC or online (depending on the program).

More information on the registration requirements and the list of documents to be submitted to IAAC will be sent to the accepted students via email from their respective program coordinators in September.

Only Applicants meeting ALL eligibility criteria specified in section 3.2 of this guide will be admitted to the next stage of assessment.

Applicants failing to meet one or more of the eligibility criteria will be rejected.

Applications having successfully passed the Eligibility check will be progressed on to the next stage of evaluation. Applications will then be individually assessed by each member of the Interview Panel according to the following assessment criteria:

The criteria are detailed in the following table:

• Allow yourself enough time to prepare your application and collect all supporting documents.
• Read the program description carefully before completing the application form as you will need to demonstrate that you meet all the requirements.
• Read carefully each program’s admissions requirements listed in the program description and on their websites.
• Attend the IAAC Online Open Days to learn more about IAAC and its programs from the directors and coordinators. Program coordinators will contact applicants 
• Assess your own application against the eligibility and evaluation criteria described in sections 3.2 and 5.2.
• Contact the IAAC Applications Coordinator at [email protected] if you have questions when preparing your application.

There are five application deadlines to apply throughout the year:

• 1st Application Period (All programmes): November 1st – January 7th (2 months)
• 2nd Application Period (All programmes): January 8th – February 29th (2 months)
• 3rd Application Period (All programmes): March 1st – April 30th (2 months)
• 4th Application Period (All programmes): May 1st – May 31st (1 month)
• 5th Application Period (Online Programmes Only): June 1st – July 31st (2 months)