Supervision within the structured programme
The GEcoGen is under the umbrella programme Graduate School for Biological Sciences (GSfBS) of the University of Cologne. Our structured programme therefore generally follows the guidelines of the GSfBS, which themselves follow the guidelines of the doctoral office of the Univeristy of Cologne. Some central elements of our structured programme (both inherited from the University of Cologne and specific to us) are the following:
- Supervision Agreement: we have an agreement specific for the TRR 341 GEcoGen: please sign and send in this if you are enrolling at the University of Cologne or this if you are enrolled at another institution as a supplement to your local graduate school's
- Regular meetings of the thesis advisory committee (TAC): please see the next section
- Research data management with ARCs: see INF for more details
- Mandatory workshop in “Good scientific practice”
- Attendance of the TRR 341 internal progress colloquia, twice a year
- Attendance of journal clubs
For those of you not enrolled at the University of Cologne, please make sure to follow in parallel the guidelines of your local graduate school.
Thesis Advisory Committee (TAC)
Doctoral candidates assemble a Thesis Advisory Committee (TAC) with at least three members, including: the PL(s), a CRC TRR341 PL from a different project, and a non-PL member.
Regular TAC meetings ensure high quality supervision of the project, good scientific practice and mentoring of the doctoral candidate. Below is the target number and frequency of the TAC meetings:
| TAC meeting | Month | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | 2 | Supervisory agreement |
| 2nd | 6 | First report and project outline |
| 3rd | 12 | Research progress and training requirements |
| 4th | 24 | Research progress and participation at conferences |
| 5th | 36 | Research progress, timeline of the thesis, career advice |
| Last | Before thesis submission | Thesis outline, publication strategy |
For each TAC meeting, the student will provide a written report (ideally two weeks before the meeting) and a summary of the ARC. During the meeting, please complete the meeting report form and have it signed by all participants before sending it to the graduate school coordinator(s).
Additional TAC meetings are recommended and encouraged depending on the progress of the project, but documentation is optional.
Scientific and skills training
The TRR 341 GEcoGen offers the following indepent training opportunities:
- Workshops on research skills: biostatistics and experimental design, ecology, etc.
- Workshops on soft(er) skills: project and time management, data management, etc.
- Training in public outreach and communication through involvement with our Citizen Science Project
- Training in good scientific practice and in equality and diversity awareness
- Independent organization of workshops and symposia e.g. International Symposium in Ecological Genetics
- Collaborative set up and monitoring of common garden experiments within the framework of the project A12 (Hoecker, de Meaux) and B07 (Lampei-Bucharova, von Korff Schmising)
Workshops are often organised during the internal progress colloquia, so your attendance to those are essential for your scientific training. Many of these opportunities are available in hybrid format.