Science for Management of Rivers and Their Tidal Systems – SMART – (Ph.D.)

Contents

Education and Training Programme

The SMART education and training programme is carefully designed to reflect three principles:

1. To equip doctoral candidates (DC/s) with the generic and transversal skills required to undertake a successful research project and to deliver / apply its results.
2. To provide the specialist training necessary to support each individual DC in pursuing their particular research programme in river science.
3. To provide experience of work in a variety of environments (field research sites, associate partner organisations) to enhance the career prospects of each DC.

A. Generic and some specialist skills are acquired during an induction week (week 1 of the 3-year programme) and during annual workshops held in week 2 of each of the three years.

The induction week will include training in fundamental generic topics such as intellectual property rights, project and time management, data archiving and management, and health and safety in the field and laboratory. The induction week will also allow DCs time to meet one another, their research supervisors and also familiarise themselves with specialist training opportunities available at the partner institutions. During the induction week, DCs will start to assemble their individual Career Development Plan. This will provide a record of their research and training progress and experience, which will prepare them for entering employment at the end of their training. At this early stage, each will work with their supervisor(s) to identify their training requirements, particularly in relation to taught courses. The set of proposed training courses will be evaluated by the Supervisory Board to identify appropriate ones and also to identify any training gaps in the plan.

The annual workshop will also include generic training in topics such as communicating science (scientific writing, oral presentations, poster design), research ethics, further consideration of intellectual property rights (both in general and specifically related to the DC’s IPR in their research project). Some of the generic training will be delivered by associate partner practitioners. The workshop will include presentations of research proposals by second year DCs and research findings by third year DCs. A written version of these will be placed in the Career Development Plan. These workshops will also facilitate networking with established scientists from full and associate partner organizations and with other DCs, and visits to nearby field sites (Adige / Tagliamento, Frome / Thames, Spree) where discussions of research methods and particular management issues can take place.

B. Specialist Training.DC specialist training needs will be identified during their induction week and scheduled in their first two training years. Training modules will be provided by the three partner organisations, and where appropriate will involve associate partners. The specialist modules that are available are listed in Table 2.

Modules

A) Specialist training modules

University of Trento (IT)

• Fluid mechanics; Experimental techniques; Geostatistics
• Numerical methods for free-surface hydrodynamics
• Advanced numerical methods for hyperbolic equations and applications
• Environmental data management and analysis with GIS
• Spatial decision support systems and applications in environmental planning and assessment
• Numerical methods for environmental engineering
• Free surface hydraulics*; River engineering
• Water resources protection*; River Morphology and Ecology

Queen Mary, University of London (UK)

• Field and Laboratory Methods for Freshwater Environmental Science
• Data Analysis
• Introduction to Aquatic Systems: Structure and Function
• Introduction to Aquatic Systems: Hydrological, Hydrochemical and Geomorphological
• Processes
• Biogeochemistry: Carbon, Nutrients and Pollutants in Aquatic Systems
• Catchment Hydrology: Managing Water Resources and Hydrological Extremes
• Hydrogeomorphology: River and Floodplain Appraisal and Management

Freie Universität Berlin (DE)

• Fundamentals in freshwater ecology
• Freshwater biodiversity and evolution
• Urban ecology and ecosystem services
• Restoration ecology
• Global change biology
• Soil ecology

B) Generic training module

University of Trento (IT)

• Participatory planning and management of environmental conflicts
• Crash course on Intellectual Property rights and Research funding
• PhD courses on scientific writing and presentation skills

Queen Mary, University of London (UK)

Professional Development Short Courses (typically 1 day in length) are available in
(amongst others): Commercialisation of Research; Critical Reading; Effective
Networking; Entrepreneurial Leadership; Intellectual Property; Making Posters;
Managing Multiple Priorities; Presentation Skills; Project Planning; The Innovation
Process

Freie Universität Berlin (DE)

The Dahlem Research School offers a broad program in Transferable Skills, which
covers the four major areas Academic Performance, Managerial Skills, IT &
Languages and Career Development. Special foci lie on Skills for Teaching in Higher
Education and Languages.

Research programme

The Research programme is both innovative and unique because it is founded on long-term, multi-disciplinary research collaboration between the three proposing institutions, providing:

1. A culture of extensive publications in refereed scientific journals that underpins the partners’ international research profiles and reputations.
2. A legacy of well-instrumented, contrasting field research sites (Figure 1) that provide excellent ‘reference’ (low energy – Frome; high energy - Tagliamento) and ‘impacted’ (hydropower – Adige; agriculture – Spree; urban, estuarine – Thames) field observatories across humid temperate (Frome, Spree, Thames) and alpine-mediterranean (Adige, Tagliamento) environments, (plus other environments offered by associates partners) within which DCs can develop their research.
3. Contacts with practitioners amongst associate partners, who can provide, work experience / placement opportunities, practical inputs to training, and a springboard for testing the application of research findings.

Assessment and monitoring

The SMART Programme Academic Board maintains oversight of the joint common standards for supervision through the annual review of DC progress. This is supplemented by feedback and insight into the SMART EMJD by the SMART Doctoral Candidate - Staff Liaison Committee (DC - SLC). A combination of these committees provides a robust monitoring structure that is responsive to candidate feedback and provides the SMART Programme Supervisory Board (PSB) with an appropriate oversight of the quality of the joint supervision arrangements.

Each DC will be guided in the development of a Personal Career Development Plan (CDP), during their induction. This requirement will be set out in the Doctoral Candidate Agreement, and will include details of training to be undertaken, progression milestones and key outputs, all relating to the candidate’s individual research project, particular skills and knowledge and career aspirations. The CDP will be reflective of modules or training to be undertaken along the specified mobility path, and will incorporate any additional desirable activities that may be beneficial to a particular DC but would normally not be incorporated into their training and mobility plan. The SMART PAB will review the components of CDPs each year, to ensure equitable supervision and training of DCs across the consortium.

Each DC will have at least two supervisors, a main supervisor at their ‘home’ institution and a second supervisor at a second partner organisation. These supervisors will have jointly proposed the research that the DC will have applied for or they will have jointly agreed to develop a proposal that has been partly proposed by the DC. They will also have established methods of communication to commit appropriate supervision and support to the DC to enhance scientific knowledge and professional development across each stage of the DC’s programme.

The SMART Academic Board PABl be responsible for overseeing quality of supervision and monitoring DC progress. This will be achieved through:

Six monthly progress reportsgenerated by each DC in collaboration with their supervisors. These reports will record (i) progress in the previous six months, (ii) problems arising and appropriate actions to be taken, including additional training, (iii) aims and objectives for the next six months including a Gantt chart that describes the timing of tasks in detail for six months and more generally to the end of the three research years, and (iv) an evaluation of the quality of the DC’s performance. The reports will be scrutinised by two non-candidate members of the academic board to ensure that significant problems are identified, investigated and dealt with.

An Annual Progress Review of each candidate will be undertaken by the PAB at the time of the annual workshop, and will be based on an appraisal of the six monthly review reports and the DC’s inputs to the annual workshop (second year: research proposal; third year: presentation of completed research element). These items will also be included in the candidate’s CDP.

Joint assessment and external visibility: The SMART PAB monitors the portfolio of assessment that each DC undertakes during their SMART programme. In addition, Assessment Boards at each institution separately monitor and approve assessment marks for modules undertaken by SMART candidates, and through inputs by External Examiners related to member state’s HE quality assurance procedures, the assessment portfolio of each candidate will be scrutinised in this manner. Furthermore, the SMART thesis defence will expose the DC and the quality of the SMART programme to a number of external experts (national and international). The nature of the thesis defence will be detailed in the Consortium Agreement. It will vary bilaterally, depending on the regulatory requirements at the awarding institutions. If possible, a single defence of the thesis may be held, although if regulatory requirements require markedly different styles of defence or composition of the external assessors, the defence may be held in two parts. In the spirit of transparency, each candidate will be notified of the requirements of their personal thesis defence before the start of the SMART programme, with the details set out in the Doctoral Candidate Agreement.

Requirements for publication: Although there are no formal requirements for publication across the partner institutions involved in SMART, DCs will be expected to publish their research, with a minimum of one published / publishable manuscript associated with their year three workshop presentation and one presentation at an international conference. If there will be costs associated with publication, these will be borne by the SMART programme.

Mobility scheme

Doctoral candidates must perform their training/research period in at least two different European countries represented in the consortium (Italy – Unitn, United Kingdom – QMUL, Germany – FUB); each of this mobility periods must be instrumental to the fulfilment of the programme and last for at least six months (not necessarily consecutive). For EM category B fellowship holder two of the countries visited during the EMJD activities must be different from the country in which the doctoral candidate has obtained his/her last degree (doctoral candidates with a joint, multiple, double degree can select the award country of their choice).

Doctoral candidates must spend at least two thirds of their doctoral programme in Europe. However, if the EMJD consortium includes third-countries partners and/or associated members,

• EM Category A fellowship holders can spend a training/research/fieldwork period of a maximum duration of one semester (or 6 months, consecutive or cumulative) in these countries, periods in excess of this duration may not be covered by the EMJD fellowship;
• EM Category B fellowship holders can spend up to one year (cumulative or consecutive) of their doctorate activities in these countries, periods in excess of this duration may not be covered by the EMJD fellowship.

Funding details

Erasmus Mundus fellowships

Two different Erasmus Mundus Doctorate fellowships can be awarded to doctoral candidates:

Category A fellowships: can be awarded to third-country doctoral candidates who come from a country other than a European Country (note 1) and who are not residents nor have carried out their main activity (studies, work, etc.) for more than a total of 12 months over the last five years in one of these countries (note 2). The only exception to this rule applies to third-country doctoral candidates who have previously received an Erasmus Mundus masters scholarship in order to follow an Erasmus Mundus Masters Course.

Category B fellowships: can be awarded to any doctoral candidate who does not fulfill the Category A criteria as defined above

The Erasmus Mundus Doctoral Fellowships cover the students' tuition fees, travel costs and monthly salary; they will be assigned for a duration of 36 months and exclusively for full-time enrolment.

Please, note that

• individuals who have already benefited from an EMJD fellowship are not eligible for a second grant;
• doctoral candidates benefiting from and EMJD fellowship cannot benefit from other Community grants while carrying out their Erasmus Mundus doctoral activities;
• doctoral candidates can apply for an Erasmus Mundus fellowship to the Erasmus Mundus Action 1 joint programme (EMMC or EMJD) of their choice but the number of applications must be limited to maximum three different joint programmes;
• no more than two doctoral candidates with the same nationality can be awarded an EMJD fellowship in the same Doctoral cohort within the same category;
• for category B fellowship holders, two of the Consortium countries visited during the EMJD activities must be different from the country in which the doctoral candidate has obtained his/her last university degree.

Erasmus Mundus Doctoral fellowships are subject to the continuation of programme funding and conditional to the satisfactory progress of the doctoral candidate. Doctoral candidates enrolled in the SMART EMJD who have been assigned the EACEA fellowhsip will be offered employment contracts.

Call 2012: the number of EM fellowships available will be known in October 2011

Call 2011: 9 EM fellowships assigned by the Agency: 5 for Category A candidates, 1 for Category A candidates originating from Turkey or Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia), 3 for Category B candidates.

UniTN and FUB fellowships

University of Trento fellowship

This fellowship will be governed by the Italian D.M. 224 (April 30, 1999) and the Regulations of the University of Trento (note 1). It will be given to a candidate who will be enrolled at the University of Trento as the main institution. This fellowship is assigned for 36 months and exclusively for full-time enrolment.

The annual gross amount is € 13.638,47 (year 2011; it may undergone changes due to new national provisions), for a net amount of € 12.423,28 (after the deduction of the 8.91% for the National Insurance Contributions – INPS). During the authorized and certified periods spent abroad, an increase of 50% is foreseen for a maximum of 18 months. A further annual amount of € 1.000 will be assigned to the doctoral candidate to be used for mobility to attend conferences, seminars, workshops etc.

No contribution to travel, installation and any other types of costs is foreseen.

Candidates with the Unitn scholarship/s are exempt from the payment of the fees and participations costs (except for the local regional fees, amounting to € 140/year).

Freie Universität Berlin fellowship

This fellowship will be governed by the Regulations of the Freie Universität Berlin and to the candidate who will be assigned FUB as the main institution.