B9 - Enhancing Doctoral Supervision

Workshop overview: 

This workshop on doctoral supervision aims at creating a mixed space of discussion and innovation by getting stakeholders related to doctoral training together to discuss challenges and suggest concrete proposals of actions and practices. 

Quality of doctoral training is a very important issue for all research institutions. Whereas an increasing number of events on the skills of early career researchers were held recently, only a few addressed the tools and ideas that can be provided to supervisors for them to be supported in their supervision activities. However, the need for working groups or meeting groups trying to define best practices together has been often expressed by supervisors themselves, during trainings.

Expected participants of the workshop are supervisors who wish to share and benefit from an outside point of view on their practices, directors of doctoral schools who wish to implement measures of support for good practices in supervision; doctoral candidates and PhDs willing to present their experience and vision. to compare points of views. 

Workshop topics covered: 

Participants will be invited to choose 2 topics among 5 (which will be shortly presented at the beginning of the workshop) : 

• Role of supervisors in doctoral researchers’ career development
• Role of supervisors in transmitting principles of scientific integrity. 
• Tools for supervisors for the quality of doctoral training
• Tools for supervisors in industrial doctorates. 
• Tools for supervisors for doctoral researchers’ skills development

Themes covered: 

Engaging research leaders, principal investigators and supervisors in professional development

Researcher development within doctoral programmes, including doctoral training centres/ partnerships, Innovative Training Networks (ITNs) and other cohort based models

Policy and practice in building capacity in research informed teaching

Enabling career transitions between academia to industry

Workshop outcomes: 

By the end of the workshop, participants should: 

• have shared and discussed their point of view on doctoral supervision and needed skills of doctoral supervisors
• have explored considerations on what could be implemented or improved in their institutions based on best practice from EU and globally
• have established a precise analysis of one aspect 
• have suggested concrete solutions such as tools or methods for supervisors, realistic recommendations for structures in charge of the organization or evaluation of doctoral training 

Format: 

Talks and discussions: topics will be briefly introduced (5’), then 2 subgroups will work on the 2 chosen topics (20’) with the help of a tool and a coordinator to lead the discussion and help defining concrete recommendations. The two groups will merge to present their outcomes and allow a general discussion (20’) from which the set of recommendations of the workshop will be agreed and written (10’).