From the autumn of 2018, 16 fully-financed PhD fellowships and scholarships at Health will be sent in open international calls with given project titles. This will ensure greater diversity among the field of applicants, increased competition and improved quality, while creating more transparency and giving the departments a new strategic tool.

2017.09.21 | Nanna Jespersgård

The new procedures increase transparency in relation to who gets what and the basis for this, which can only be beneficial," says Lise Wogensen Bach.

With effect from autumn 2018, Health is introducing an annual 'recruitment day' to recruit candidates to 16 PhD projects after an international call with project titles and associated funding. The remaining full fellowships will be distributed according to the previously applicable principles. Both methods will initially run for a two-year trial period.

This is the result of the faculty management team’s recent discussion of the pros and cons of a new model for the allocation of full PhD fellowships. The faculty management team originally proposed offering all full PhD fellowships in open, international project calls, but after a consultation period the management team has decided on a more cautious model.

"We have listened to the academic environments, who have among other things proposed that we begin by only sending the 15-16 full fellowships that are already allocated to given themes in international calls. At the same time, we have decided on a two-year trial period which will be evaluated before we possibly take the next step," says Vice-dean for Talent Development at Health, Lise Wogensen Bach.

Principal supervisors offer research themes

In relation to the 16 full fellowships, the principle with open calls for projects entails that the departments are the ones who identify particular strategically important academic areas. Following this, a principal supervisor can submit a project title and a brief abstract covering the theme to the overall call. 

Interested candidates can then utilise the open call to apply for consideration for one or more relevant projects, naturally with the applicant's own proposal for how the project can be addressed attached. Subsequently, the applicant must prepare a project description and a PhD plan in dialogue with the principal supervisor and apply for enrolment as usual. The PhD fellowship will first be payable once an offer of enrolment in the graduate school is made. 

"In addition to giving the departments a new strategic tool, the goal is naturally to raise quality via free competition. At the same time, the new procedures increase transparency in relation to who gets what and the basis for this, which can only be beneficial," says Lise Wogensen Bach.

She is pleased that the consultation period has confirmed the level of general support among the consultation parties including the PhD committee and the academic council. The PhD Association and the recruitment committee have also commented on the proposal.

"The consultation period has also turned up a number of relevant objections to the process for selecting both projects and candidates. The next step is therefore for the PhD programme to continue working on a description of the procedure that takes this criticism into account. For this reason, we have decided to postpone the first recruitment day until September 2018," says Lise Wogensen Bach. She adds that the proposed model has been inspired by past allocations of mobility scholarships at Health and overseas institutions.

The distribution formula is set

It has been determined that the 16 full PhD fellowships which will be in play at the recruitment day will be distributed so that the Department of Public Health is already guaranteed four full fellowships, while the Department of Forensic Medicine will get one, the Department of Dentistry and Oral Health will also get one, the Department of Biomedicine will get four and the Department of Clinical Medicine will get six full fellowships.

The remaining fifteen full fellowships will be distributed with effect from February’s round of applications in accordance with the current principles.

At the same time, the faculty management team decided that the pool of 130 grants for PhD students should be reduced, and that the money saved should be used for new initiatives to ensure student-run research activities including integrated PhDs. Work will also continue on this during the coming months.

Contact

Vice-dean Lise Wogensen Bach
The Dean’s Office, Health
Email: lwb@au.dk
Telephone: (+45) 8715 2012
Mobile: (+45) 2548 8522