RIBES Graduate School

The RIBES Graduate School offers the following training programme, which includes a minimum of 420 hours spent on your personal and professional development. This programme is also listed in the TSP format of RIBES. 

Courses and training (224 hours)

• Introduction for employees of the Faculty of Science (required activity) (4 hours - Sign up here)
• Scientific ethics course (required course) (12 hours - More info and registration)
• Practical Didactic Skills (required course) (12 hours - More info and registration)
• Other courses and training* (196 hours), recommended are: 
  • Find, Manage and Publish Academic Literature (More info and registration)
  • Scientific writing course
  • Presenting course
  • Project management course
  • Career orientation

View a full list of available Radboud courses here and sign up via the gROW platform.

Total minimum hours: 224 hours (8 ECTS)

Elective activities (196 hours)

RIBES activities, for example:

• Attending the annual RIBES day
• Lab / department meetings
• RIBES research theme meetings

Networking activities, for example:

• Attending conferences
• Radboud/Faculty research events
• Being a board or committee member (RIBES PhD council, PON, etc)

Other, for example:*

• Science communication and outreach activities
• Organising research events
• Additional didactic training
• Other courses/ trainings/ workshops that are relevant to your development as a PhD candidate

 Total minimum hours: 196 hours (7 ECTS)

* PhD candidates from RIBES can also join a national research or graduate school, besides being enrolled in the RIBES Graduate School. Examples are:

• Graduate School Experimental Plant Sciences (EPS)
• Research School for Socio-Economic and Natural Sciences of the Environment (SENSE)
• Graduate School for Production Ecology & Resource Conservation (PE&RC)
• Netherlands Ecological Research Network (NERN) (not a research school but a network) 

Certificate

PhD candidates can use the portfolio in Hora Finita to keep track of their training and elective activities. When PhD candidates complete and submit the RIBES Graduate School programme (420 hours / 15 ECTS minimum total) via the portfolio in Hora Finita, they receive a Graduate School certificate.

All PhD candidates of Radboud University are registered in Hora Finita. Hora Finita is used to track progress, to remind PhD candidates and supervisors of deadlines, and to fill the portfolio. Hora Finita is also used to submit the manuscript at the end of the PhD trajectory. 

PhD candidates at RIBES can sign up to be assigned a mentor. A mentor can offer guidance with regard to personal and professional development. A mentor is a scientific staff member of RIBES who is not in the same department as the PhD candidate, nor involved in the research project. For more guidelines on mentoring, the RIBES graduate school refers to the role of the mentor and mentee as described in the ‘Mentoring for scientific staff’ programme of Radboud University.

Sign up

Please note:  during the temporary absence of Lara de Die (until November 2024), no new matches between mentors and mentees will be made via the form mentioned below. If you are a PhD candidate and want to be assigned a mentor before November, please send an email to ribes [at] ru.nl (ribes[at]ru[dot]nl) to discuss the possibilities. 

Having a mentor is voluntary. PhD candidates will be assigned a mentor after filling out this form. The answers will be visible to the graduate school coordinator, Lara de Die. She will match mentors and mentees within the institute. After making the match, the PhD candidate will be notified so they can make a first appointment. The suggested meeting frequency is one or two times a year.

Other support services

For specific questions or confidential matters, PhD candidates can always consult one of the supporting services at Radboud University. If you are unsure of where to go with your question, you can contact Graduate School coordinator Lara de Die for advice.