Training Activities Programme
Training Plan
Activities of the Doctoral School
Character
Optional
Hours
12
Description
It is planned as a course with compulsory attendance, with a theoretical explanation of each of the modules, which will be accompanied by a series of practical exercises which the participants must perform throughout the sessions.
Results
The doctoral student will acquire the necessary tools to access, evaluate, use and disseminate information in an ethical manner.
Assessment systems
It is an on-site seminar, and therefore attendance is compulsory and will be monitored by means of signatures for each of the modules. At the end of the activity the tutor will be given a report allowing an assessment of the acquisition of the skills associated with this activity.
Character
Optional
Hours
40
Description
These are intensive residential seminars lasting a week. They are conducted in English in an inter-disciplinary and multicultural environment. Forty researchers from each university, in their second year of doctoral training, receive extensive training designed for their future vocational integration in a socio-labour environment not exclusively linked to research at universities and/or public and semi-public centres. All the activities are dynamised by personnel specializing in the organization of doctorials and the facilitation of teamwork. The scheduled activities include visits to companies, research centres and cultural entities selected from both sides of the border, the testimonies of executive doctors and entrepreneurs and teamwork for the joint preparation of an innovative project which will be submitted at the end of the encounter. Participation in the doctorials is optional and does not entail any enrolment fee. All the maintenance, accommodation and transport costs will be financed by the organizing universities, with the help of the funding obtained from the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Aquitaine-Euskadi cooperation fund of the Basque government.
Results
The doctoral students acquire practical training in communication, innovation, teamwork, leadership and entrepreneurship. Based on the testimonies and experiences of different professionals working in companies and associations in the field of culture and language, as well as visits to companies and associations, the students come into direct contact with professional experience. These seminars have an inter-disciplinary approach, grouping the students together in units which combine different universities of origin and areas of knowledge. The experience should provide a wealth of knowledge about how to articulate a future professional project both in and outside the University.
Assessment systems
The whole procedure for the doctorials is overseen by a pedagogical cabinet, with professional advisers who will provide continuous feedback on the group activity and monitor the work done every day by the doctoral students. Once the latter have enrolled for the doctorials, attendance and active participation in the sessions is compulsory.
Program activities
Character
Compulsory
Hours
8
Description
Each year an open workshop will be held at the international conference chosen for that purpose (e.g. PRIMO, SETAC, SICTA, or INCYTA workshops). Doctoral candidates must take part in at least two sessions of CTA open workshops over the course of the programme. The workshops will provide a setting for doctoral candidates to present developments, perspectives, and issues relating to their specific lines of research. Professors from the CTA doctoral programme, other researchers, and industry representatives will be invited to contribute, acting as moderators and guiding the discussion, and presenting the most recent relevant developments and key issues in the field of CTA. To increase the visibility of the CTA postgraduate diploma, doctoral candidates, and their lines of research, the workshops will also be open to other attendees of the chosen conference, including researchers active in the field as well as potential employers.
Results
This will give doctoral candidates an opportunity to present their work before the wider scientific community for the first time. They will gain experience in communicating and discussing their results, and will have the opportunity to make contact with those who could be relevant to the completion of their doctoral theses and/or future research careers.
Assessment systems
The CTA workshops will be assessed by the committee organising the workshop, who will forward assessment forms to the CTA doctoral programme¿s Academic Committee for approval.
Character
Optional
Hours
500
Description
A stay of at least three months at a research centre or foreign university to conduct part of the research work for the doctoral thesis.
Results
Given their optional nature, the learning results depend on each case with regard to the acquisition of specific skills (e.g. acquisition of new technologies, data processing, etc.) but transversal skills are reinforced in all of them (interculturalism, use of foreign languages, teamwork, research background, etc.).
Assessment systems
The mobility will be conducted with the prior agreement and approval of the director, and its realization will be accredited by means of a letter from the person responsible for the training program at the host institution.
Character
Compulsory
Hours
20
Description
They are offered within an individually tailored training program conducted in parallel with the research activities, individually selected for each doctoral student and approved by the academic committee of the ECT doctoral program. The intensive courses (thematic, general) are offered by different research groups of the UPV/EHU and associated bodies as specialization or summer courses, outside the ECT doctoral program but recognized as part of it. Other courses taken in other institutions and countries may also be recognized. In any case, the selection of courses must be agreed on by the doctoral student and his or her director and must be approved for such as purpose by the Academic Committee of the ECT doctoral program and listed in the doctoral activity document. The students must attend at least 3 courses (3-5 days each) throughout their three-year period of training.
Results
The doctoral students will acquire specific knowledge and technical skills for their research work or others of a generic nature to help them to interpret and discuss other aspects of the field of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology which are not specific to their work but contribute to their comprehensive training as a researcher and provide the transversal training perspective which characterizes the ECT doctoral program. Moreover, as much as possible, mobility for the realization of courses will be encouraged and courses are offered to attract students from other universities and programs, thereby stimulating values such as interaction, integration and interculturalism, which form an important part of the objectives of the ECT doctoral program.
Assessment systems
The level of benefit derived from the intensive courses is evaluated by the director according to the summary report which should be submitted by the student as part of the annual progress report or as a result of a departmental or group seminar to be taught by the student in which he or she summarizes his or her opinion and assessment of the course and the achievements of interest for the training program. If the student submits a certificate of achievement instead of an attendance certificate the director's report is not necessary and a copy of the certificate will be attached in the annual report.
Character
Optional
Hours
250
Description
6-8 weeks of learning in companies and collaborating research institutions. During them the students do not necessarily have to work on their specific research project or in a related research area. They will join the daily activities of the host institution and improve and put into practice (training) the transversal skills and aptitudes acquired during the realization of the ECT doctoral program. For this reason, it is recommended that they are conducted from the second year onwards, once the research has moved forward and the moment to look for work approaches. They are not compulsory and will be performed instead of or in addition to the intensive courses, provided that the activity of the courses + placement work (training) totals at least 8-10 weeks.
Results
Transversal training not directly related to the scientific objective of the research but with the acquisition of transversal skills which facilitate the future professional integration of the student.
Assessment systems
The level of benefit derived is evaluated by the director according to the summary report which should be submitted by the student as part of the annual progress report or as a result of a departmental or group seminar to be taught by the student in which he or she summarizes his or her opinion and assessment of the course and the achievements of interest for the training program.