Press coverage of doctoral defense
Doctoral defences are often covered by press interested in academic research. Science Communication - part of the Communication Department - mediates between the university and the media, giving publicity to the PhD project through various channels. Below you will find information on the ways the media is informed of PhD projects and what you can expect of the Media Relations Office.
Information for the Media Relations Office
Given the academic agenda and possible press coverage we ask you to submit the following information as soon as the date for your doctoral defence has been set:
- the doctoral defence form
- a brief summary of your research and a brief CV
Please submit the information on time, preferably eight weeks before your doctoral defence. To submit the information, please complete this form, and send it together with the appendices to us.
NB Is your PhD research project supervised from the Radboudumc? Then you need NOT to fill in the form. The science information officers in the Radboud university medical center will approach you in time. If you have any questions before, please contact Radboudumc.
Science communication
(024) 361 6000
media@ru.nl
Academic agenda
All doctoral defences are announced on this website and sent to a large group of journalists. This is what the short summary on the publicity form is meant for.
Press release or personal approach
Some topics receive media coverage through the academic agenda. Many PhD research projects do not receive coverage, as these are too specialist or fundamental. A small number of topics are published in the media after receiving some extra attention from the Media Relations Office.
This extra attention consists of a press release, personally approaching a specialised journalist, or a file in which we link the thesis to the work of others. In the latter case we use the current doctoral defence to bring an entire area of research in the limelight. Naturally we will let you know if we want to garner media attention for your PhD project. If you're interested in exploring the possibilities yourself, please read more about that here (only in Dutch).
Media training
If the media are interested in your PhD research, you may need some advice on dealing with them. In this case, too, the Media Relations Office is the place to go.