The PhD programme in Cognitive Sciences is constantly interested in promoting the participation of its students in international mobility projects, in agreement with important foreign academic institutions. The period of study and research abroad not only broadens the horizons of PhD students' knowledge and professional experience, but also gives them access to laboratory facilities and bibliographic resources that are not always easily available in the UK.
Since the 2016-17 academic year, this practice has intensified, and many of the students have gone to universities in the United States (Columbia University, New York; The University of Tennessee - Health Science Centre, Memphis) and Europe (University of Cambridge; University of León; Rijksuniversiteit Groningen; Universiteit Utrecht; Katholieke Universiteit Leuven; University of Malta; Lincoln University, UK; Leibniz Universität, Hannover; Leibniz Research Centre For Working Environment and Human Factors, Dortmund). The period of training abroad is generally set at between 1 and 6 months, with a 50% increase in the doctoral scholarship. The activities carried out abroad are essentially experimental in nature, with access to laboratories equipped with high-tech equipment. The fields of study generally attended concern the sciences of the mind; the sciences of language (also from a psychopathological perspective); the measurement of physical parameters and physiological reactions to particular sensory and emotional stimuli; the recognition of images and perceptual configurations; the recognition of cognitive and psychological biases, etc.
Equal importance is given to incoming foreign students, who have access to the experimental psychology and computer science laboratories of the Cospecs Department (in Messina and Noto), as well as the libraries and tools for accessing the University's bibliographic and scientific resources.