Special arrangements
Information on special arrangements for members of existing programmes for structured postgraduate education (SFB 806, TR32, ITaRS, HITEC) has been sent to the doctoral candidates involved (exception: Graduate School HITEC (FZ Jülich) - here, the final points are being cleared and you will be informed by mid January, 2015).
Please contact the GSGS Manager if you have any questions about these arrangements.
Information for people who will submit their doctoral thesis in 2015
Everyone who was automatically enrolled into the GSGS in 2014 (see next paragraph) and who will submit their doctoral thesis in 2015 does not need to get a doctoral committee, nor does he/she need to sign a supervision agreement to stay a GSGS member and be eligible for grants for which the application deadline is in 2015. For everyone submitting their thesis after 2015, the normal rules will apply.
Note that the transitional rule on needing 5 GSGS points per semester to qualify for grants and a certificate is unaffected (see the Information for people who joined the GSGS in 2014, last paragraph).
Information for people who joined the GSGS in 2014
(Note: this information does not apply to members of existing programmes such as IRTGs, HITEC or ITaRS – see above)
For everyone wanting to join the GSGS from 1 January 2015, the normal rules will apply; they are listed here.
At its start, the GSGS decided to take up everyone enrolled for doctoral studies in one of the Geosciences as the Dean’s Office as a member automatically.
Now the time has come for you as a doctoral candidate member to take action to stay a member:
By Friday, 16 January 2015 you should have
- Formed a doctoral committee and
- Signed a supervision agreement with them.
Supervision agreement
We suggest that you and your day-to-day supervisor prepare a draft of your supervision agreement, which you send to the other doctoral committee member(s) for comments. It can be helpful to discuss certain parts of the agreement face to face with all parties involved. Please arrange a meeting or teleconference accordingly.
Reporting
In your supervision agreement (section 4a) your doctoral committee should record when exactly your first report is due at the GSGS office (on 1 April 2015 at the latest). At the same time they should let you know which form it should take (detailed research plan or progress report). Please consult the reporting guidelines.
If you started your project on or since 1 April 2014, we suggest that you hand in a detailed research plan to your doctoral committee by 1 February, 2015.
If you started your project before 1 April 2014 and have never handed in a progress report before, we suggest that you hand in a progress report to your doctoral committee by 1 February, 2015.
Credits
Collecting GSGS points is important to qualify for certain benefits offered by the GSGS:
- To qualify for a GSGS Travel Grant, you need to have gained at least 5 GSGS points per semester (on average);
- To be eligible for a GSGS Fellowship Grant, you need to have accrued at least 30 GSGS points;
- To receive a GSGS certificate [insert link] listing all relevant activities, as a supplement to your doctoral degree certificate, you need to have a minimum of 30 GSGS points.
For (2.) and (3.) a transitional rule applies for doctoral researchers who joined the GSGS in 2014: To be eligible, they need to accrue 5 GSGS points per semester (on average) from the start of Winter Semester 2014/15 (1 October 2014). For them, the Steering Committee will consider any reported activity that could count toward GSGS points and which took place on or since 1 January 2014 (e.g. attendance of GSGS Research Conference (Kick-off meeting) on 4 July). Any awarded points will be added to their record for Winter Semester 2014/15.