Training activities: Doctorate in Nanoscience and Materials Technologies (8209)
- General planning of the development of training activities
Royal Decree 99/2011 of 28 January, which regulates official doctoral education, provides for so-called “doctoral program training activities” as a training period for doctoral students who must make a decisive contribution to their research training. In this sense, its article 2 states that the doctoral program “will aim to develop the various training aspects of the doctoral student,” an activity clearly linked to the research process, which is linked to the lines of action set out in the program. In more detail, article 4 of the same Royal Decree requires in its number 2 that the report expresses the organization of the training proposed by the doctoral program, also giving an account of the procedures for its control; this should be expressed in the report for the purposes of verification of doctoral programs and, subsequently, for the renewal and accreditation of such programs.
For the purposes of determining training activities, article four. º.1 of Royal Decree 99/2011, of 28 January, specifies that the reports on the programs must include “organized aspects of research training that will not require structuring in ECTS credits and will include both transversal and specific training in the area of each program”; finally, it insists that “in any case, the essential activity of the doctoral student will be research.” The legal mandate gives great flexibility to the possibility of designing the training activities of each program, allowing the offer to specialize in each one of them in attention to the qualified training required by doctoral students. To the extent that differentiated training can be designed, at least ideally, for each student in a doctoral program, selected and ‘attending’ the activities that are most profitable, appropriate and timely for each researcher; an opportunity that will be assessed with the assistance of the doctoral student’s tutor and ratified by the program’s Academic Committee on a regular basis.
This arrangement of training activities also allows doctoral schools to optimize the resources they allocate to the design of training activities in their doctoral programs. This allows for transversality in multiple activities and, with it, the optimization of the resources of these special centers. All of this should result in the best possible training of the researchers who study the programs.
On this basis, and assuming the principles expressed above, the training offered under this program includes basic, transversal, optional and compulsory activities, which, depending on the opportunity and preferences, should be sufficient for doctoral students to achieve the desired objectives. The training period, which “takes place” in an orderly fashion over three years, offers a variety of transversal training and a sufficient specialized offer, which has been deemed appropriate to value in at least six hundred hours of training. The offer, which is varied in the nature of the activities, allows the doctoral student who wishes to do so to increase, with a certain amount of flexibility, the set of activities he or she wishes to study and, therefore, the number of hours of the activities he or she carries out. The training achieved will be reflected in the activity document that reflects the progress and achievements of the doctoral students; it is also the result of the strength of the doctoral program.
Some of the training activities will be offered in more than one period with the objective that each student, by indication of their tutor, chooses the most convenient for their training process.
The doctoral student must carry out a set of training activities for a total of 600 hours, distributed over three years (full-time doctoral students) or five years (part-time doctoral students).
- Training activities (8209)
| Consolidation of Basic Knowledge and Experimental Skills for the Thesis Work Topic | 8209B01The student will perform the following sub-activities:
1- Reading and analysis of a package of basic bibliographic material (e.g., an initial selection of the most relevant publications on the subject of the work; the most recent publications of the research group in the proposed line of work; the manuals on safety standards and specific work protocols established in the laboratories where the experimental work will be carried out). The aim is for the student to acquire an overall view of the field of study and to reach the knowledge required to tackle the subject of the thesis and work under safe conditions. 2- Training in the experimental techniques that need to be applied to the subject of the work, both in its theoretical (foundations of the technique and procedures of information analysis) and practical aspects. The tutor will be first, and when the director has been appointed, the person responsible for planning this learning, for following it up and for evaluating and certifying the competences acquired by his students. Type of activity: Obligatory Hours: 220 Basic Skills and Abilities: CB1 Control procedure: Report and evaluation of the performance by the Tutor or Director Mobility: Not applicable. It is developed in the specific section of mobility. |
| Courses, Seminars or Conferences of Specialized Training | 8209B02The Academic Committee of the Program, in coordination with the Departments linked to it and with the Institute of Electronic Materials Microscopy, will carry out a program of activities to be developed at the University of Cadiz, in addition to others that are considered of interest, national or international, organized by other institutions. The Academic Committee will determine the activities that, due to their general interest in the field of “Nanoscience and Materials Technologies,” are mandatory, from among those developed at the UCA.
Type of activity: Obligatory Hours: 60 Basic Skills and Abilities: CB1, CB5, CA6, CE1 Control procedure: Attendance and use minutes for UCA activities, and participation certificates for activities carried out in other institutions Mobility: Not applicable. It is developed in the specific section of mobility. |
| Publications | 8209B03
They must produce at least one scientific paper for publication in a Journal Citation Reports referenced journal. It should preferably be done between the second and third years. The journal in which the publication is made will preferably be in the first or second quartile of its category. A greater number of papers and publications will be positively evaluated.
Type of activity: Obligatory Hours: 100 Basic Skills and Abilities: CB3, CB4, CB5, CB6, CA2, CA4, CA5, CA6, CE1 Control procedure: Publication or proof of acceptance. .Mobility: Not applicable. It is developed in the specific section of mobility. |
| Presentation of the Research Plan | 8209B04
Each student, with the guidance and supervision of the Thesis Director, and with the support of the Tutor, must present in a public exhibition in English their “Research Plan,” which will include the background, methodology, objectives, and the available commented bibliography.
Type of activity: Obligatory Hours: 40 Basic Skills and Abilities: CB1, CB2, CA1, CA2, CA3 Control procedure: Actas de la Comisión Académica. .Mobility: Not applicable. It is developed in the specific section of mobility. |
| Progress Reports | 8209B05
They will reflect the results of the Research Plan, showing the main achievements and progress. They will indicate any modifications that are proposed to be introduced.
Type of activity: Obligatory Hours: 80 Basic Skills and Abilities: CB1, CB2, CB4, CA1, CA2, CA3, CA5 Control procedure:Minutes of the Academic Committee. .Mobility: Not applicable. It is developed in the specific section of mobility. |
| Courses, Seminars or Conferences of Transversal Training | 8209T01
This activity has a transversal character. It aims to stimulate learning abilities, adaptability to different situations and contexts, knowledge of the business world, and the acquisition of job-oriented skills. An annual offer of activities will be planned. These will be carried out by the UCA’s Doctorate School, with the participation of companies, including those that collaborate in the program. The student should preferably carry them out in the first two years. Type of activity: Obligatory Hours: 40 Basic Skills and Abilities: CB1, CB2, CB4, CB5, CB6, CA1, CA4 Control procedure: Procedimiento de control. Actas de participación y aprovechamiento. .Mobility: Not applicable. It is developed in the specific section of mobility. |
| Elaboration and Presentation of Papers in Congresses | 8209P01
They will prepare and present a paper to a congress. Type of activity: Methodological Character and duration:Optional It is estimated that each communication will take a minimum of 100 hours. Planning: It will be carried out, preferably between the second and third years. The presentation of a greater number of papers will be positively valued. The congress will preferably be of an international nature.
Type of activity: Optional Hours: 100 Basic Skills and Abilities: CB3, CB4, CB5, CB6, CA2, CA4, CA5, CA6, CE1 Control procedure: Control procedure: Proof of presentation of the communication and minutes of the congress. .Mobility: Not applicable. It is developed in the specific section of mobility. |
| Mobility | 8209P02
All students will be recommended to meet the requirements for the Thesis to be awarded an International Mention, which means a minimum stay of 3 months in a foreign center. Likewise, the Academic Committee will ensure that, within limits imposed by the available resources, all students have the opportunity to participate in mobility actions. This includes: – Visit international and national laboratories. – Attendance to conferences (at least one in the period of the thesis, as detailed in activity E). – Courses and seminars held in institutions other than the UCA. – Occasional visits to companies or other institutions. Funds to cover these activities may come from: – Public calls, which will be attended from the coordination of the Program as long as the requirements of the call allow it. – Funding for mobility associated with Training Grants from public calls. – Funding received by the Doctorate Program of “Nanoscience and Materials Technology” from the budgets of the UCA through the Doctoral School. – The mobility calls of the UCA’s Own Research Plan. – The one that can contribute to the University Institute of Research in Electronic Microscopy and Materials or the Departments in which the activity is developed. – The own financing of the research groups through research projects and transfer contracts. – The one that is contributed by other institutions that can be forming students of a doctorate in the program of “Nanoscience and Technology of Materials” of the UCA, or by means of an agreement or by means of direct aids to the doctorate students.
Type of activity: Optional Hours: 450 Basic Skills and Abilities: CB5, CB6, CA4 Control procedure: Activity report and certification of the stay in another laboratory by its managers. Certificates of attendance at conferences. .Mobility: Not applicable. It is developed in the specific section of mobility. |