Part-time PhD programme

Sometimes, PhD candidates are not employed at the University of Groningen and they don’t have their own scholarship, but they are employed elsewhere and receive time and/or money from their employer to work on a PhD project. These so-called external PhD candidates don’t have a formal employee or student relationship with the university. An external PhD student is typically paid by a third party (e.g., independent research institute (e.g., TNO, Nivel), university of applied sciences (HBO), mental health organisation (GZ)).

The PhD programme for an external PhD student has a duration of 6 years. As a PhD project typically takes 3 years full-time work at minimum, this implies that the programme requires minimally .5 fte investment of the PhD students during the 6 years. The programme consists of the following four phases.

Phase 0: Exploratory meetings with potential supervisors

The candidate discusses research interests and plans with prospective (co-)promotors, to see whether a fruitful PhD project can be set up. If the supervisory team and the prospective PhD student agree, the prospective PhD student applies to the Graduate School BSS, as aspirant PhD student by sending an e-mail to gradschool.bss rug.nl. Please include the names of the promotor and (co-)promotor, the tentative title of the project, and your CV.

Phase 1: Preparation of PhD project proposal, preliminary course work (1 year)

The aspirant PhD student prepares in collaboration with the (co-)promotors a PhD project proposal. The proposal includes a description of the proposed research (including the research topic and approach, time plan, motivation of feasibility, and planned output), outline of the training plan, the PhD candidate’s CV, the supervisory team, research setting, and financial details. There is a format available for the PhD project proposal. If you have good reasons for deviating from this format, please ask for an exemption and include your motivation.

The proposal needs to include a budget indicating possible research costs, conference visits, training etc. It is highly preferred that the budget is covered by external sources. If no financial support is possible at all from external sources, the department may offer reimbursement of research and education costs for the PhD project, of maximally 8kE for the full PhD project. Please submit an overview of the estimated costs per year. The requirements for receiving this reimbursement are:

1. Approval of the PhD project by the research director of the department involved.

2. Approval of the PhD proposal.

3. Approval of the PhD budget.

4. It must be convincingly motivated that no external sources are available.

5. A proper and underpinned budget request is made in the PhD project proposal.

Reimbursement is only provided for costs actually made (i.e., no lump sum).
Further, spending the budget is bound to department regulations, in line with those for other PhD students.

The PhD project proposal, including budget can be submitted to gradschool.bss rug.nl.

The PhD proposal will be assessed on behalf of the Graduate School Admissions Committee. The proposal will be judged on scientific quality, research approach, and project feasibility in approach and time schedule. If the proposal is not approved, the aspirant PhD student receives one opportunity to revise and resubmit the proposal.

During the first year, the aspirant PhD student takes preliminary course work, with a load of 10 ECTS (or equivalent, i.e. 280 hours of coursework). The courses are selected such that they comply with the background of the candidate, are at the PhD student level and of relevance for the PhD project planned. Costs for the course work are covered by the research group of the promoter involved and/or the aspirant PhD student.

After the approval of the PhD proposal and successful completion of the preliminary course work, the PhD student is admitted to the GS BSS as a full member.

Phase 2: Start of the PhD project (1 year)

The PhD student starts with the PhD project, as formulated in the PhD proposal. The project is evaluated after 12 months in a formal go/no-go evaluation by the (co-)promotor(s), similarly to internal PhD students. In the evaluation the process and realised output play a role, with as planned output typically a first paper (almost) in submission. (Note that the go/no-go evaluation is at a later moment than internal PhD students to accommodate part-time research work).

Phase 3: Continuing and finalizing the PhD project (4 years)

The PhD project will be continued resulting in the PhD thesis, similarly to the projects of internal PhD students. Each year, an evaluation (R&D) meeting takes place, to discuss the progress and mutual collaboration in the PhD team.