Main supervisor

Forskere Foto: Paul-Erik Lillholm

You can expect your main supervisor to:

1. Participate actively in discussing and designing your research project and in selecting relevant courses and activities for your training component.
2. Be responsible for your budget for project expenses.
   
3. Provide quality advice/supervision of your research work, consider which hypotheses and methods may be suitable, and provide you with feedback on written texts as they develop (outline, contents, writing style, documentation etc.).
   
4. Ensure that it is possible to complete the thesis work within the normal timeframe of three years for doctoral training.
5. Provide you, within a reasonable timeframe, with constructive criticism and reactions to submitted draft work in order to facilitate timely completion of your thesis. Such follow-up should take place at least three times per semester.
   
6. Introduce you to specialist literature and basic data sources (libraries, archives etc).
   
7. Introduce you to the department, its facilities and procedures, and to other PhD candidates and relevant staff, and encourage attendance at events and seminars related to doctoral training in general and to your research field in particular. To allow for the planning of relevant study-abroad periods, the supervisor shall at an early stage of your studies introduce you to other relevant academic environments outside the department, also internationally.
8. Advise you on the name of the person in charge of doctoral training (PhD-coordinator) in the department/faculty and ensure that you can contact him/her to discuss relevant matters, including difficulties that may arise in your relationship with your supervisors and your study progress.
9. Decide, in consultation with the Head of Department, at the start of your PhD project, whether assignment of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) is necessary and, if so, ensure that an agreement on IPR is established at the outset of the project.
   
10. Ensure that a risk assessment of any laboratory and/or field-based activities has been carried out in accordance with departmental procedures and that you receive the necessary safety training.
11. Ensure that ethics approval has been obtained in accordance with the regulations, and provide guidance on questions of research ethics related to the thesis work. Arrange for you so you to familiarise yourself with your responsibility to avoid any form of misconduct.
12. Ensure that you maintain records of your research data in a systematic manner so that they can be consulted and understood by anyone with a legitimate right to enquire, such as the evaluation committee.
13. Discuss incidents with you that may seem to be related to research misconduct or plagiarism and report to the department on any suspected instance of research misconduct, including plagiarism.
14. Organise and take part in your midway evaluation.
15. Agree with you after your midway evaluation on a realistic timetable for completion of the research and writing up of your thesis.
    
16. Submit annually by 1 December to the department/faculty, as appropriate, a standard report about the progress of your doctoral training.
17. In consultation with co-supervisors and the department/faculty, make satisfactory arrangements for supervision if the main supervisor is absent for a period of more than four weeks. Keep you informed about all matters that could have significant bearing on the supervision.
18. Encourage you to present your work in progress from time to time and attend relevant conferences, meetings and workshops, and to consult relevant sources of information and advice inside and outside your department.
19. Encourage you to develop and improve your general and transferable skills.
20. Help you to ensure that duty work does not exceed 25% of your total workload.