PhD candidates work under the supervision of a daily supervisor and a promotor on a research project that culminates in a doctoral thesis. A Training and Supervision Agreement (TSA) is jointly prepared by the supervisors and the PhD-student. This plan contains the number and content of courses that the student will follow, a complete description of the research program, and his/her participation in the teaching program of the University.
Training and education is organized through PhD educational programmes offered by e.g. the graduate schools, the research institute and the Buys Ballot Research School. Depending on the faculty where you are employed, this can be either the Graduate School of Natural Science (GSNS) or the Graduate school of Geosciences (GSG), as the IMAU is an interfaculty research institute that includes the section Coastal Research of the Physical Geography Departement of the faculty of Geosciences of Utrecht University.
Additionally, the Buys Ballot Research School (BBOS) provides a research network for PhD candidates that study fundamental processes in the Climate System. Apart from IMAU, PhD candidates from other universities (Wageningen University & Research, Delft University of Technology) and knowledge institutes (The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI), SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research) join the BBOS research community. BBOS organizes an autumn symposium, in which PhD candidates present their results. In addition, regular spring symposia are organized around a scientific theme related to climate.
PhD students, while performing research activities within IMAU, are involved in internal scientific meetings, master classes and external meetings such as symposia, to broaden their research scope and learn how to present and discuss their own scientific progress in a multi-disciplinary setting.
PhD candidates undertake teaching activities for about 10% of their time. Teaching experience is very useful to further develop and improve didactic skills.
The PhD Council, formed by PhD candidates of the Graduate School of the Natural Sciences, aims to represent all PhD candidates in the natural sciences. The primary goal of the council is to represent the interests of the PhD candidates. The PhD’s also have a representative in the Board of Studies of the GSNS and a PhD representative attends the plenary meetings of the IMAU.
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