PhD information Faculty of Science

PROBE

PROBE represents the PhD candidates of the Faculty of Science. It acts as a bridge between PhD candidates and faculty-level organisations to ensure that their concerns are heard and addressed.

PROBE serves as a gateway between PhD candidates, the Faculty of Science Board, the graduate schools, and PON (the Radboud PhD Organisation). We are committed to improving the PhD experience at the Faculty of Science by identifying and raising issues relating to the PhD trajectory (including PhD courses, teaching obligations, supervision, and the defence), and placing them on the agendas of the Faculty Board and the graduate schools. We meet with members of the Faculty Board four times a year, hold discussions with the graduate schools, and attend PON meetings.

PROBE does not have a formal voice in the policy structure of the Faculty of Science. However, we believe that by sharing information between Faculty of Science institutes at the PhD level and addressing PhD-related issues, we can have a meaningful impact on the quality of the PhD trajectory.

Members

• Yasmin Barenco Abbas (Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Sciences)
• José Gomes Teixeira and Veronique Stokkers (Donders Centre for Neuroscience)
• Mignon Hagemeijer and Maaike Pierik (Institute for Science in Society)
• Gijs Burghoorn (Institute for Computing and Information Sciences)
• Diana Hofman (Radboud Institute for Biological and Environmental Sciences)
• Bente van Son (Institute for Molecules and Materials)
• Renze Oosterhuis (Institute for Mathematics, Astrophysics and Particle Physics)

We are always looking for enthusiastic new members to represent their institutes. If you are interested, please send us an informal message at phdnetwork [at] science.ru.nl (phdnetwork[at]science[dot]ru[dot]nl).

Graduate schools

All PhD candidates at the Faculty of Science are members of a graduate school, which in most cases is institute-specific. Please visit the website of the relevant graduate school to read more about its procedures and requirements.

Overview of the graduate schools

• DCN: Donders Graduate school
• ICIS: ICIS Graduate school
• IMAPP: IMAPP Graduate schools
  • Astronomy: NOVA
  • High Energy Physics: DRSTP and OSAF
  • Mathematics: Graduate School Mathematics
• IMM: IMM Graduate school
• ISE: ISE Graduate school
• ISiS: ISiS Graduate school
• RIBES: RIBES Graduate school
• RIMLS: Radboudumc Graduate School

Rules and regulations

The university's Doctorate Regulations apply to all PhD candidates. In addition, the Faculty of Science has specified a number of faculty-specific requirements. The most important ones are outlined below; a more detailed description can be found in the Regels en Richtlijnen (Rules and Guidelines).

Teaching obligations

Regular PhD candidates spend 10% of their time on teaching and 90% on their PhD research and professional development as a researcher. Educational PhD candidates have a teaching load of 20-30%.

Meetings with supervisors

PhD candidates meet regularly with their supervisory team. After the first year, the continuation of the PhD trajectory is evaluated in the go/no-go meeting. Details on the scheduling of regular meetings are provided by the graduate schools.

Mandatory courses for PhD candidates with a regular position

• Introduction meeting FNWI (Introductiebijeenkomst FNWI)
• Essential Skills to Manage Your PhD
• Basic Teaching Skills
• Scientific Ethics and Integrity

Graduate school membership

All FNWI PhD candidates on a regular contract must be a member of an FNWI graduate school.

Duration and timely PhD bonus

PhD candidates are expected to complete their PhD within their contract period (four years for full-time regular positions). As an incentive to submit the thesis before the end of the contract, PhD candidates employed by the faculty who do so are eligible for a timely PhD bonus of €1,000.

Hora Finita

All PhD candidates must be registered in Hora Finita. For questions about Hora Finita, please contact either your graduate school coordinator or the faculty's PhD/Hora Finita coordinator, horafinita [at] science.ru.nl (Rita Benjamins).

Courses and registration

As part of the Graduate school programme, all PhD candidates can participate in the following courses. Some courses are mandatory for completion of the programme; others are optional.

The following section only refers to courses provided by the Faculty of Science. For courses organised by the university, please go to the University's online learning environment gROW.

Courses

Essential Skills to Manage your PhD project (mandatory) – Radboud in'to Languages
This course focuses on personal leadership, self-management, supervisor management, project management and personal communication skills. Combined, these will help you tackle the PhD challenges and take the lead in obtaining your PhD degree with confidence and self-determination.

Basic teaching skills (mandatory) – Lennert van Tilburg 
PhD-candidates in the Faculty of Science are often engaged in teaching activities, like individual supervision and small group teaching (practicals, tutorials, exercise classes etc.). In this course, you will learn about the basics of teaching in a workgroup or practical setting and during internship supervision.

Find, manage and evaluate academic literature (optional) – Library of Science 
This course equips PhD candidates with the essential skills to efficiently find, manage, and critically evaluate academic information throughout their research. You will learn advanced literature search strategies, explore subject-specific databases, and discover how/if AI tools can support the literature research process. The course also introduces reference management tools, responsible use of scholarly information, and emerging challenges such as paper mills and citation contamination. In addition, you will gain a basic understanding of research data management and working with research software. 

Planning on publishing soon? Join our PhD-course "Publishing" for more in-depth information, help and to create your own publishing plan. 

Publishing – open access, copyright & pitfalls (optional) – Library of Science 
This course explores the research publishing landscape, covering journal selection, open access, copyright, questionable publishers, researcher identifiers, and publication metrics. It provides practical guidance to help researchers make informed publishing decisions and enhance the visibility and impact of their work. 

Scientific Ethics and Integrity (mandatory) – Luca Consoli
Scientific integrity is high on the agenda at universities today. There is a perception that the number of scientific scandals is rising, that the image of science is coming under additional pressure as a result, and that stricter measures and procedures are needed. But how do scientists themselves understand and conceptualise notions such as 'integrity', 'misconduct', and 'good science'? This course explores these questions.

Sign up for courses

1. Register your interest
   Indicate which course you would like access to by completing the registration form. 
2. Activate Brightspace
   To follow the courses, you need access to Brightspace. If you do not yet have access, you can activate a Brightspace account.
3. Wait for course access
   Once you have registered and have access to Brightspace, we will give you access to the relevant Brightspace course. This process takes up to five working days.
4. Enrol in a timeslot
   Once you have access to the Brightspace course, you can enrol via the group self-enrolment option and choose the timeslot that suits your schedule.

All further course information will be provided within the Brightspace course by the trainer, including:

• announcements about upcoming meetings;
• updates to course content;
• instructions on how to prepare for each session.

To stay informed, we strongly recommend that you enable notifications in Brightspace so that important announcements and updates reach you by email.

More information

• General information for lecturers
• Training courses for lecturers at Radboud University
• Self-study modules in Brightspace

Social safety

At the Faculty of Science, we attach great importance to maintaining a socially safe working and learning environment for all our PhD candidates. Social safety means being able to work, study, and collaborate in an atmosphere of respect, trust, and openness, free from intimidation, discrimination, inappropriate behaviour, or the misuse of power. Such an environment is essential for your well-being, your professional development, and the quality of our scientific community.

If you ever experience or observe behaviour that affects your sense of safety, we strongly encourage you to speak up. You can always contact the confidential contact person at your institute, your graduate school coordinator, or one of the university's confidential advisers. They are there to listen, to think things through with you, and to help you identify the right next steps and sources of support.

More information and documents

Below are links to further information and documents. The list is not exhaustive; the selection is based on questions we have received.

Faculty regulations

• Timely PhD Completion Bonus (this is a faculty regulation, not a university-wide one)
• Reimbursement printing costs of doctoral thesis
• Travel cost support

Forms and templates

• Training and Supervision Plan (TSP) – Faculty of Science (this is the generic faculty TSP; several graduate schools maintain their own adapted version, so check your graduate school's site for that.)
• Planning and evaluation PhD candidates
• Evaluation first year
• Planning second year, evaluation second year
• Planning third year, evaluation third year
• Planning fourth year

Courses and development

• Courses for PhD candidates
• University Teaching Qualification (BKO/UTQ)
• Training in basic didactic skills
• Mastering your PhD by Patricia Gosling and Bart Noordam

Systems and organisations

• Hora Finita
• PON (Radboud PhD Organisation)
• Webpage for PhD candidates (general Radboud University page)