Following the successful scientific space missions by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile, as well as the highenergy particle activities at CERN in Genève, we have created a Ph.D. program dedicated to the formation of scientists in the field of relativistic astrophysics. The students of such a program will lead the theoretical developments of one of the most active fields of research, based on the above observational and experimental facilities.

This program needs expertise in the most advanced topics of mathematical and theoretical physics, and in relativistic field theories. It requires the ability to model the observational data received from the above facilities, as well as all the basic knowledge in astronomy, astrophysics and cosmology. This activity is necessarily international, no single university can cover the broad expertises.

The proposed program of the IRAP Ph.D. enjoys the collaboration of some of the most famous European Universities with one of the youngest and most dynamical French universities, pole of research and teaching in the Euro-Mediterranean region (PRES): the University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis. It benefits from the presence of the Observatoire de la Côi;te d'Azur, involved in relativistic and non-photonic astrophysics, and the presence of the ICRANet Center at Villa Ratti in Nice. The coordination of the IRAP Ph.D. will take place at ICRANet in Villa Ratti. The astronomical aspects of the large scale of the Universe will be illustrated by the teaching by the Tartu Observatory. The activities at ICRANet Centers, at the ETH of Zurich, at the University of Rome, at Stockholm University offer teaching programs in all the fields of relativistic astrophysics, including cosmology, the physics of gravitational collapse, gamma-ray bursts, and black hole physics. The participation of the Freie Universitaet Berlin and of the Einstein Institute in Potsdam offers the possibility of teaching in relativistic field theories at the highest level. The University of Savoie offers the link to the particle physics at CERN. The University of Ferrara will be present with lectures and researches in the topics they have pioneered such as instrumentations developments and data analysis for X and Gamma ray astrophysics and observational cosmology.

Through ICRANet the extra-European connections with Brazil, China and India will be guaranteed: in China, with the Shanghai Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Science, studying the formation and evolution of large-scale structure and galaxies; in India, with the Indian Centre for Space Physics (ICSP), renowned for its research on compact objects as well as on solar physics and astrochemistry; in Brazil, with ICRABR at CBPF, where a successful program of research and teaching in relativistic astrophysics has been established in recent years.