Qualification concept
WWU, UNL and UJI will jointly award the doctorate degree, providing a joint diploma and diploma supplement. The joint degree is recognized at the three sites. The three-year education and training programme is structured into six phases, each containing specific milestones, and a 30 credit point (CP) course programme.
Is an intentionally short preparation phase. It begins with the orientation camp and the interdisciplinary block course. Its purpose is to familiarize ESR with the research environment and to refine the dissertation topic. Milestones: preliminary course program (M1), quarterly progress reports (M3, M6), dissertation proposal, including an assessment of the state-of-the-art and publication plan (M5), plan for exchange period (M6).
Produces the first scientific results of the dissertation. Major steps during this phase are to defend an updated dissertation proposal and to submit a publication to an international conference. Milestones: quarterly progress reports (M9, M12, M15, M18), defense of revised dissertation proposal (M12), publication submitted to international conference (M18), optional: additional publications.
Is the main production phase in terms of final scientific results. The key result is the submission of a journal paper. Milestones: quarterly progress reports (M21, M24, M27, M30), publication submitted to international journal (M30), optional: additional publications.
Focuses on the doctoral researchers finishing the writing of their theses. Milestones: quarterly progress report (M33), thesis synopsis (M33), thesis (M36).
Contains a 6-months mobility measure to one of the other partners, supervised by the thesis co-supervisor at that university. One aspect is to attend the course program at the partner university, experiencing different teachers and learning styles. Even more significant is the work in a different research group, at the same time linking the research tracks and serving the coherence of the entire research programme. Milestones: quarterly progress report, exchange report.
In order to prepare for professional live, phase 6 is a mandatory one-month internship with different tracks at the associated partners from Industry and Government. Since these partners are potential users of the open cities toolset, the doctoral researchers will further use the internship to receive input for their research. Milestone: training report.
The courses offered at the three sites are complementary. Firstly, the partners agreed on a set of integrated programme modules common to all sites (30 ECTS credit points). To address different students’ backgrounds, they are free to choose specific courses addressing their requirements. In combination with an EJD-specific virtual research seminar jointly conducted by all sites, the research colloquia at each site satisfy the need for regularly scheduled advanced research discussions. Another joint module is participation in the three international scientific events organized by the ESRs, including a career development sessions by the associated partners as a side events. Complementarity is achieved through advanced GI courses in different disciplines at the three sites. Doctoral candidates can take courses during the mobility measure, thus having access to an additional range of topics. Further diversity will be achieved by the module “summer school”, in which doctoral researchers can choose between internal and external offers. At the end of the doctoral programme, the consortium will organize a joint catalyst event for career development
| 1 | Orientation camp - Introductory event at UJI. | 1 |
| 2 | Interdisciplinary course - This course offer will ensure common background knowledge of the doctoral researchers and will provide insights into complementary disciplines in the context of “Geoinformatics – enabling open cities”. The course will be conducted as a joint two-week block course at UJI. | 4 |
| 3 | Research colloquia at each site. Research colloquia are the essential tools for learning about innovative research topics and discussing progress with colleagues and invited researchers. | 6 (1 per semester) |
| 4 | Joint virtual research seminar - a key tool for constant communication between all sites, students presenting and discussing their research results. | 3 (0,5 per semester) |
| 5 | Advanced GI topics - All partners provide a set of specialized courses, from which students can choose. | 9 |
| 6 | General studies - Additional key competencies are crucial for professional careers. Offers include research methods, ethics, and organizational skills. | 3 |
| 7 | Summer School – Candidates choose between various summer school offers. Alternative: other options outside the consortium (credits at other universities) | 2 |
| 8 | Symposium - A special feature of our education and training and research program will be three international scientific events (one per site) organized by the doctoral candidates. It provides a regular platform for interaction across all participants and introduces to running peer review processes as well as organizing and carrying out scientific meetings. | 1 |
| 9 | Career development – Apart from the associated partners providing career development sessions as side-events of the international scientific events, the Consortium will organize a joint catalyst event for career development at the end of the PhD program. | 1 |
| Total credit points | 30 |
Acknowledgement
GEO-C is funded by the European Commission within the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, International Training Networks (ITN), European Joint Doctorates (EJD). The funding period is January 1, 2015 - December 31, 2018, Grant Agreement number 642332 — GEO-C — H2020-MSCA-ITN-2014.
GEO-C aims to contribute methods and tools to realise smart and open cities, in which all groups of society can participate on all levels and benefit in many ways. The strands of research in GEO-C will lead to an improved understanding of how to build open cities and will produce a prototypical open city toolkit.
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