PhD timeline

PhD project plan (0 - 2 months)

Focus solely on your PhD project plan for the first two months of your PhD, which has to be submitted to PhDigital at the end of the second month. The main part of the project plan is the project description and project overview as a Gantt chart (template), which can be added as a PDF attachment to the PhDigital project plan. The project description should contain working title, background based on literature research, hypothesis, objectives and deliverables, means and references. The project overview should be a Gantt chart containing all planned activities during the PhD project.

Courses

For the project plan, 25.0 ECTS have to be planned of the total 30.0 ECTS required to finish the PhD program. For the final submission at the end of the PhD program, the ECTS total has to be between 27.5 and 32.5 ECTS, otherwise the submission will be rejected. Keep this in mind when planning the courses for the project plan.

There are three mandatory courses and one mandatory workshop which every PhD student at DTU has to follow:

  • Sustainability Assessment and Communication for 2.5 ECTS points (register through the DTU course base using course number 12950, 12951 or 12952).
  • Supervision and facilitation of learning for 1.0 ECTS point (register through the DTU Learning Lab).
  • PhD Seminars in Bioengineering and Synthetic Biology for 3.0 ECTS (29903 You should attend at least 2/3 of the Friday seminar sessions and present yourself 3 times: one per year where the half-way presentation counts as one when done during the Friday seminar).
  • Introduction to responsible conduct of research and research data management for new employees workshop (register through DTU Inside).

There are many options for allocating the remaining required ECTS:

  • Other courses at DTU which can be found and registered for through the DTU course base. Both MSc and PhD level courses are allowed, however MSc courses added to the project plan require a short written motivation.
  • Multiple PhD courses available from other Danish universities which can be found through the Danish PhD courses database.
  • Courses at international universities or research centers. Visit the Courses page for a full overview.
  • Courses from Coursera are also allowed.

When you want to add a non-DTU course to your project plan, a separate form with a detailed description of the ECTS activity needs to be filled out. The completed form and the course description need to be combined in one PDF file and attached to the project plan.

You can always add courses for approval after the submission of the project plan by adding them to your half-year reports. The registration of completed courses is done through PhDigital as well by attaching the course certification to the next half-year report and writing a note with the course name and number of ECTS that need to be registered.

External research stay

The main goal of the external research stay is to experience a different research environment, so it is encouraged to go abroad. The duration of the external research stay will depend on the individual PhD project, however the average duration is three months. From three months or longer you can apply for travel grants to aid in funding the external research stay and this is also encouraged. For the project plan, you need to plan where, with whom and roughly when the external research stay will happen. Previous students have visisted different universities and companies for their external research stays, so there are many options and some examples are provided here.

  • Systems & Synthetic Biology group of professor Lars Nielsen at the University of Queensland (UQ) in Brisbane, Australia.
  • The Systems Biology Research Group of professor Bernhard Palsson at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) in San Diego, USA.
  • Biosys team at the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE) in Toulouse, France (contact through Anne Goelzer).

Department work

For the department work you have to plan up to 420 hours including a mandatory 100 hours for teaching. Both the teaching and other department work are allowed to be executed through all of DTU, not just the department as the name suggests. There is no dedicated way to find a teaching assistant position, so you have to ask around for it. Ask your supervisor, the PhD administration, other PhD students, etc. A 100 teaching hours corresponds with one 5.0 ECTS course at DTU. For the project plan specifically, you can write teaching assistant for 100 hours in the department work table. Additionally, there is a requirement to include a 100 hours of department work specifically for the DTU Biosustain PhD school. There are multiple options for filling up the rest of the department work hours, amongst others:

  • Co-supervision of a student for their master thesis project, which can be allocated 200 hours for department work.
  • Student member of the PhD school committee, which can be allocated 140 hours for department work. Elections every year around the start of the year and you can contact the head of the PhD school if you are interested.
  • Participation in the Early Career Researcher Association activities, which can be allocated 20 - 200 hours for department work depending on your involvement.

Dissemination of your research

Dissemination is anything related to broadcasting your research, ranging from conference posters and presentations to writing scientific publications. Up to 420 hours has to be planned for dissemination if your research. As an average, you can allocated 50 hours for conference participation and a poster or presentation, and 100 hours for writing and publishing a scientific article. Visit the Conferences page for a full overview of conferences.

Supervision

It is mandatory to meet at least every two weeks with your main supervisor and on average every month with your co-supervisor(s).

Half year reports (5 - 35 months)

The half-year reports have to be submitted every six months in PhDigital and are a measure to track your progress through the PhD. Select that the progress is satisfactory. For the “past six months” and “next six months” summaries, you can simple write a paragraph with an update or plan of your PhD activities, respectively. It is important to stay up-to-date with your half-year reports, since they have to be all submitted and approved before you can submit your PhD thesis in the end. Any changes in courses, external research stay, etc compared to the original PhD project plan, should be written in the half-year reports and will be approved accordingly.

First-year interview (11 - 12 months)

The aim of the first-year interview is to improve both the PhD student and the PhD school. The interview is conducted by a scientific staff member serving on the PhD school committee. If this is not possible, another scientific staff member will be appointed to conduct the interview by agreement with the head of the PhD school. This interview is also your chance to talk through your PhD journey with a scientific staff member who is not your supervisor and this can provide you with very useful feedback. There is a guide available to help you conduct the interview.

Half-way presentation (17 - 19 months)

The half-way presentation is due by 16.5 months of the PhD project. Two examiners should be selected to attend the half-way presentation and the (private) discussion afterwards. One examiner should be internal from the DTU Biosustain department and one examiner should be external, preferably from outside Denmark. The discussion is attended by the main supervisor, the co-supervisor(s) and the two examiners. After the discussion, the examiners will provide feedback on the progress of the PhD project to help you prepare for the second half of the PhD. The presentation is around 20 minutes and is usually done during the PhD Friday seminars, but could be done on any day and time, depending on the availability of the examiners. It can be helpful to write a short report on your progress to send out to the supervisor team and the examiners beforehand to ensure sufficient feedback during the half-way session. Such a report can focus on background, objectives, progress and publication goals of the PhD project.

External research stay (12 - 30 months)

It is advisable to plan the external research stay between the 12 and 30 months mark, but it can be planned whenever it makes the most sense within the PhD project. To make the most out of the external research stay, within the first year is usually a bit too early. To avoid stress towards the end of the PhD project, the external research stay is usually planned to end before the last 6 months of the PhD project. There is no minimum requirement for the duration of the external research stay, but 3 month is the optimal for most. If you are planning to work in the laboratory at the host university or company, a duration of 6 months is more appropriate. With a duration of 3 months or longer, you can apply for travel grants to cover some of the costs of the external research stay. No need to worry, the costs of flights and the accomodation abroad is always covered by the main supervisor and the PhD school. How to book flights and process the expenses upon return can be found of the Expenses and travel page. It is recommended to start the preparations for the external research stay at least 6 months prior to leave enough time to apply for travel grants, visa, etc. For accomodation, it is possible to book an apartment through Airbnb to expand your options.

Travel grants

A nice overview of travel grants can be found on the travel and research stays abroad page. An overview of all travel grants that were awarded to other PhD students in the QMCM group is provided here.

  • Otto Mønsteds Fond applied for in October 2022 and 15,000 DKK received. The deadline is 2 months prior to the start of your external research stay and the requirements for the application are: signed support letter from institution confirming their support (in addition to salary) and the extent of it, recommendation letter from the institution or supervisor, invitation from the host institution.
  • Christian og Ottilia Brorsons Rejselegater applied for in September 2022 and 5,000 DKK received. The deadline is 1st of September and the requirements for the application are: application form, master’s degree, list of other grants for which you applied to, CV, recommendation letter, project description. This application has to be send by post to an office in Copenhagen.
  • Niels Bohr Fondet applied for in September 2022 and 15.000 DKK received. The deadline is 1st of October and the requirements for the application are (6 pages maximum): project description including well-founded description of the object of the researcher’s stay as well as a justification for choosing this specific place to do your research (2 pages maximum), documentary proof of research location including invitation from host university (if possible), budget including information about the financing of the stay, and CV.
  • Otto Mønsteds Fond applied for in March 2022 and 15,000 DKK received. The deadline is 2 months prior to the start of your external research stay and the requirements for the application are: signed support letter from institution confirming their support (in addition to salary) and the extent of it, recommendation letter from the institution or supervisor, invitation from the host institution.

PhD thesis submission and defense (33 - 36 months)

The preparations for the PhD thesis submission should start around 3 months before the hand-in date, which is exactly 3 years after you started. The PhD defence should take place no longer than 3 months after the PhD submission date. All information on this topic can be found on the PhD submission and defence page.

Extension of the PhD (33 months)

The PhD project can be extended with 3 months and the application for the extension can be submitted to the PhD school 3 months before the original hand-in date. More information can be found on the PhD administration page and the form for the application can be found here.