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I would like to share with you an example of the motivation letter for PhD jobs I have used in the past. I have sent plenty of motivation statements like this one when I was searching for a PhD project in Europe.

It pays off to start from a good cover letter, like this one, and spend time fine tuning it for each solicitation.

You can download for free a sample Motivation Letter for PhD Jobs (.doc) or check it in out in Google Docs (you can download in different formats). You can also find other free templates in the Free Stuff section.

If you find it useful, you are welcome to purchase the Motivation Letter for PhD Jobs for $2. It is the same letter that you get for free, I just give the option of a small gratitude payment if you think it is deserved.

Tips For Writing Your PhD Motivation Letter

When you write a motivation statement for a PhD position or for graduate school, remember the following tips:

• Make it personal. Don’t just copy paste the motivation letter and change the names. It has to sound like you wrote it only for this application.
• Start with a short elevator pitch, so the reader wants to know more about you and keeps reading.
• Describe both your education and experience, and how they are relevant for the PhD job you are applying for.
• Mention the benefits for you and for the group if you get the job.
• End with positivity and energy.

Leiden, September 12, 2011

Dear Prof. Johnson,

[Elevator Pitch]

Considering my education and skills in Bioinformatics obtained during my two years MSc in Bioinformatics, my Chemoinformatics research experience thanks to a nine months master thesis and my Computer Science studies and professional experience, I would like to do a PhD in your group.

[Longer description of your achievements, education, and experience]

Currently, I am working on the thesis for my Bioinformatics master, under the supervision of [Your previous supervisor’s name] at the the chemoinformatics group of the Leiden-Amsterdam Center for Drug Research. The main topic of my project is to analyse the similarity of receptors by finding similarities among their ligands. Firstly, we identify common substructures in the ligands and, subsequently, which of these structures best define the ligands of each receptor. By knowing this, we can construct phylogenetic trees to relate targets according to sequence and ligand similarity and compare them. We expect to see, for instance, that certain differences between both trees could be due to some side effects of the compounds. We have obtained exciting initial results, which I will present as a poster at the 2008 ICCS conference at Noordwijkerhout, The Netherlands.

[Description continued]

After completing Computer Science studies in Spain, my home country, I moved to the Netherlands in order to specialize in Bioinformatics. During the course of the Bioinformatics master I combined theoretical education with hands-on research projects. Apart from my thesis, I have also worked for five months on a project implementing statistical analysis of different microarray experiments.

[Why you would suit his group and why you want to work there]

What attracts me to your group is the groundbreaking application of computational methods to receptor and ligand interactions. I have been working with ligand-based techniques for virtual screening during my master thesis and I would like to gain expertise with other methodologies during my PhD. I am, also, interested in using receptor based methodologies and I feel curious about integrating bioinformatics and chemoinformatics to improve the drug discovery process.

[Friendly and energetic ending]

My experience in the field so far has not only made me keen to learn more, but I feel, makes me a suitable candidate for a PhD position. I am excited by the possibility of working with you in the future and I look forward to your reply.

All the best,

[Your name and surname]