Meetings

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Annual General Assemblies | First-year evaluation meetings

First-year evaluation meetings

About one year after the start of their project, all doctoral students in the IRTG are expected to present their work to the wider TR32 community in a 20-25 minute presentation, followed by a 10-15 minute discussion.

Past first-year evaluation meetings

Past meetings are listed here:

Annual General Assemblies

Below are the minutes of all General Assemblies of the IRTG held to date:

• Minutes of the General Assembly on 17 June 2013 (accepted) (login required)
• Minutes of the General Assembly on 29 June 2012 (accepted) (login required)
• Minutes of the General Assembly on12 July 2011 (accepted) (login required)

Direct links to:

Transferable Skills Training | Research Training Days | Lecture Series

Transferable Skills Training

This page lists past courses that counted toward IRTG credits.

Past events

Research Training Days

TR32 Research Training Days are primarily organised for the doctoral students who are members of the TR32 Integrated Research Training Group (IRTG), but they are open to all (subject to available space).

The Research Training Days substitute the compulsory TR32 Lecture Series, which many people thought was too large an investment in terms of traveling time in relation to the amount of information provided.

Also, we wanted to move away from a compulsory lecture series and towards more choice. What remains is the total amount of 3 credits that need to be accrued through Lecture Series and Research Training Days combined.

Per full Research Training Day, 0.5 credits are awarded. It is the students' responsibility to make sure that their attendance at a research training day is recorded.

Past events

Guidance

One of the main aims of the Integrated Research Training Group (IRTG) is to provide structured guidance to its members.

• Within the first 3 months of a student's project, a student's doctoral committee (DC) is formed according to certain guidelines and they jointly sign an Agreement of Supervision.
• A student can also choose a student peer. This is a more senior PhD student who can help the new student during his or her first year in the project.
• Students write a report or paper draft every term (semester) and upload it in the TR32 Database themselves. The exact due dates are laid down in their Agreement of Supervision.
• Students are responsible for arranging a meeting with their DC to discuss their report and their progress each term. They should send their report or paper draft to their DC members at least 14 days before this meeting.
• More information, guidelines and the feedback form for doctoral committee meetings can be found below.

Doctoral Committee (DC) composition

The guidelines for the formation of a Doctoral Committee are as follows:

1. Each student's Doctoral Committee should consist of:
   1. The student's own professor (or "Privatdozent");
   2. a professor (or "Privatdozent") from another cluster or from outside TR32;
   3. a postdoc, preferably from the student's own working group or cluster.
2. The composition of the DC needs to be approved by the TR32 directorate. Therefore, new members should discuss their DC with their advisors within the first few weeks of their project and send the proposed three names to the IRTG coordinator by email.
3. After approval by the TR32 directorate, the student and the DC members will be notified.

Doctoral Committee meetings

This information based on the TR32 IRTG statutes; these items are compulsory for doctoral students and their doctoral committee (DC) members.

General information

Doctoral students and DC members meet once a term (semester).
Other people can be invited by any of the DC members to attend (part of) one or more meetings of student and doctoral committee. Decisions on whom to invite should be taken by mutual consent.

Before the meeting

The meeting is organized by the doctoral student.
The student makes his/her semi-annual report available to the DC members at least 14 days before the meeting.

During the meeting – fill out the feedback form

What is discussed during the meeting is in principle a matter between the student and the DC members. However, the TR32 directorate needs to have a general idea of the students’ progress. Further, to help plan IRTG resources and activities, the IRTG coordinator needs some information. Therefore, jointly fill out the feedback form. It is the advisor’s responsibility to return the feedback form to the IRTG coordinator.

To help structure the meeting, some guidelines are provided here.
The doctoral student should take notes during the meeting …

After the meeting

… and send minutes of the meeting to all committee members within two weeks. The doctoral committee should make clear to the student how detailed they expect these minutes to be and what kind of information should be included.

First-year evaluation

The doctoral committee meeting for a student’s first-year evaluation is a special meeting: the student presents his/her work to the entire TR32 community prior to the meeting.
Apart from that, the evaluation allows estimating the state of comprehension and the mathematical and computational skills of the student in relation to the thesis subject and his/her ability to communicate in writing and orally. The results will be evaluated by the doctoral committee and reported to the IRTG coordinator (through the same feedback form).
The goal of the first-year evaluation is to identify potential weaknesses of the student and to develop mitigation strategies early in the project. The evaluation can serve as a basis to assess if pursuing a PhD degree in the next two years is realistic.

Opportunities

On this page you can find information on the IRTG Grants and further opportunities offered by the IRTG.

Invited Speaker Programme | TR32 Fellowships | International Coop. Grants | Summer School Grants | Proof reading | Linux Clusters | Template for IRTG Grant reports

Invited Speaker Programme

All IRTG members can apply to invite a renowned scholar from outside TR32. The aim of this Invited Speaker Programme is to promote the interaction of TR32 doctoral students with renowned national and international scientists. Students will have the opportunity to meet the speaker in a group or one-to-one, and to take the speaker for lunch. Per application, a maximum of €1250 can be awarded.

The application form can be found here (login required).

Succesful applicants are awarded 2 credits.

These researches have already been invited by the IRTG members:

TR32 Fellowship

PIs (Principle Investigators) in TR32 can apply for a fellowship for a (doctoral) student from outside TR32 for him/her to work within TR32 for up to 6 months. Funding is available for 6 months per TR32 location per year.

The application procedure and form can be found through this link (login required).

Previous fellowships were awarded to:

International Cooperation Grants

Travel grants are available to support research stays of our doctoral students at in international research institution or university. Their aim is to promote international collaboration of TR32 doctoral students. These funds are coordinated by the Integrated Research Training Group coordinator. Here is a link to the application form.

Doctoral students can apply for a maximum of 800€ for travel costs as well as an allowance of 100€ per month. In principle, these grants are for up to 3 months. In special cases, longer stay can be supported.

Successful applicants must submit a short report (including a photo) of their activities for the IRTG website to the IRTG coordinator within two weeks after their return, by e-mail .

Summer School Grants

The TR32 directorate has allocated funds for the participation in Summer schools by IRTG members. They are primarily to pay for summer school fees.

The link to the application form can be downloaded here (login required).

Successful applicants must submit a short report (including a photo) of their activities for the IRTG website to the IRTG coordinator within two weeks after their return, by e-mail.

Proof reading

IRTG offers a proof reading service to its members. There is a set amount of time available per person. The corrections are made by a native speaker with ample experience in correcting academic texts in natural sciences. The service is primarily aimed at an advanced version of manuscripts for journal articles.

Please contact the IRTG coordinator if you are interested and allow at least a month before the submission deadline of your paper.

Linux Clusters

Doctoral students at each TR32 location have access to a Linux Cluster for High-Performance Computing. Arrangements for the use of the cluster need to be made on a personal bases. Please contact the IRTG coordinator if you are interested.

Template for IRTG Grant reports

By accepting an IRTG Grant (Summer School Grant, TR32 Fellowship, International Cooperation Grant) its recipients agree to send a report of their journey within two weeks after their return; these reports are published on the IRTG website. Please use this template for your report.

Rules & Guidelines

Go directly to: Application forms | Travel reimbursement | Official documents | Doctoral Committee

Application forms

Here are links to

• Fellowship applications form (your advisor needs to apply)
  International Co-operation Grant application form
• Application form Invited Speaker Programme

For general TR32 administrative forms, please see under "Menu Intranet>Administration>Application Forms"

Travel reimbursement - IRTG Events

Travel costs incurred by participatin in IRTG events will be reimbursed by the University of Cologne. Please send the completed application for travel reimbursement with all relevant original receipts by post in time (latest 5 months after travel) to the IRTG coordinator.

• Application for travel reimbursement (EN)
• Application for travel reimbursement (DE)

Official documents

Agreement of Supervision ( Word | pdf )

Doctoral student annotated task list ( pdf)
Ordnung der IRTG (Statutes of the IRTG - German only) (pdf)

Doctoral Committee rules and guidelines

Here you can find:

• The rules for the composition of the Doctoral Committee
• Information and Guidelines for doctoral committee meetings (full set pdf); this includes
  
  • Information for DC meetings
  • Guidelines for DC meetings
  • Feedback form for DC meetings