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PhD candidates

Career development for PhD candidates

As a PhD candidate, it is important to be aware of your career development and build a plan for what comes after your PhD. This page provides information on the tools, resources and training available at UiB to help you plan your next step.

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As a PhD candidate on a fixed term employment contract, it’s important to focus on developing skills and harnessing opportunities that will help you to move on to a permanent position. This page offers tools and resources to help you develop a successful career beyond your PhD.


For upcoming events and courses, please refer to our calendar.
 

Courses and presentation 

The University of Bergen offers a wide range of relevant courses for PhD candidates.

Our research schools also offer a variety of bespoke for their candidates, and often allow others to attend. Please contact the relevant Research School directly if you are interested in attending one of their courses.

In addition to courses offered at UiB, our researchers often have the possibility to attend courses offered by other universitites or external actors.

Researchers’ Grand Prix

Would you like to become a better presenter? The Researchers’ Grand Prix provides tips and advice on good communication. The event is held every autumn as part of the Norwegian National Science Days. The regional final between the top ten candidates is held in Bergen. The competition is open to PhD candidates from all disciplines and presentations can be made in either Norwegian or English.

Research schools and development programmes for early stage researchers

Research schools

Many academic groups at UiB have established research schools - a framework for academic activities held for researchers during their training. Some research schools are thematic, and can be interdisciplinary. Others are situated in a specific field of study.  UiBs research schools are a great place to exchanging ideas and  academic follow-up.
Being affiliated with a research school can also help you to develop your national and international network by introducing you to other PhD candidates and their supervisors.
Research schools arrange a wide variety of useful events, including training courses, seminars, lectures and academic days. 

List of research schools at UiB.

Development programmes for early stage researchers

The Faculty of Social Sciences invites doctoral candidates and postdocs at the faculty to participate in their career development programme for early stage researchers.   

Publishing and academic writing 

The offer outlined below is included in the services available at the University Library.

    Develop your publication strategy. 

    A publication strategy is about making smart choices during the publishing process. Even if your research is of high quality, it will often remain unread if readers are unable to find it or obtain access to it. That’s why it is useful to develop a well thought through personal publication strategy. It will increase your impact and visibility and, in turn, advance your career. The University Library offers training in developinga publication strategy.

    Shut up and write!

    Do you have trouble finding time to write? The University Library for the humanities invites candidates at the Faculty of Humanities to attend weekly writing workshops. As the name implies, you need to be quiet and write! You’ll spend 50 minutes writing and 10 minutes taking a break and chatting. By structuring your time in this way you will achieve (at least) two things: the inspiration to work together and the feeling of a well deserved break. Shut up and write is not a course —  it is time dedicated to writing. Everyone is welcome – no commitment necessary.

    PhD on Track

    PhD on Track is an online resource for PhD candidates at the start of their research careers. It provides training in core research skills including: conducting effective literature searches, engaging in critical reading, academic writing, and sharing and publishing research results. The website also provides many useful tips on writing theses.
    The website is divided into three modules:

    • Review and write
    • Share and publish
    • Open Science

    PhD on Track has been developed in collaboration with six Norwegian higher education institutions; HVL, NHH, NTNU, UIB, UiO and UiT The Arctic University of Norway.

    The Thesis Portal 

    When you are ready to submit your thesis you should do so on UiBs Thesis Portal. The Thesis Portal provides a variety of PhD thesis services and contains information that might also be useful when you write your thesis. This website provides information about printing approved theses, submitting press releases, thesis templates, image quality, graphics, figures, copyright and publication.

    Open Science, research ethics and GDPR

    The offer outlined below is provided by the University Library in collaboration with other bodies at UiB.

    Open Science is important for knowledge development, for ensuring the integrity of research and for increasing the availability of research. The research process can become more efficient by increasing collaboration on - and the reuse of - data, methods and processes. At the same time, access to underlying data and methods will make it easier to test and reproduce research results and thus boost confidence in the research. Researchers, institutions,authorities, funders, businesses and the general public are all stakeholders in Open Science. Please contact the University Library in order to find out what this means for you and your project. You will find more information at the Library on research data and publishing as well as up to date details of current courses. 


    Once your thesis has been submitted, you can choose to make it available in a digital format. This is done in BORA - UiB's open research archive. The advantage of making your theses available in BORA is that many more people will have the opportunity to read and use the digital version.


    If your research project contains personal data, you must familiarise yourself with relevant ethical requirements. UiB's Privacy Portal contains useful information about this. It also provides information about RETTE, UiB's system for providing details about processing and controlling personal data in respect of research and student projects. RETTE also contains details on, and controls assignments and projects relating to, the quality assurance of patient treatment and tuition, as well as projects relating to learning analysis. 
    Mitt UiB has an electronic course on the processing of personal data in medical and health research.

    Networking and internationalisation 

    As a PhD candidate, you are likely to become involved in existing academic networks through your supervisor, research group and project partners. But it is important that you establish your own professional network, an experience that can encourage both your academic and personal development. Your networks can be local, national and international, and they can be funded or set up without any additional costs. One excellent way to extend your academic network is to undertake a period of international research mobility by planning a research visit to another university. 


    Travelling to spend time at a research institution overseas can help you to gain international experience, meet new people and develop your professional network, be invited to join new projects and collaborations, and open doors to research data and infrastructure not available at home. 


    UiBs International Centre website contains useful information for students and employees who are planning a research trip abroad

    Research visits

    For more information about funding opportunities for international research visits, please contact your supervisor, your local PhD coordinator or your local research advisor. 
    Relevant opportunities could include:

    International networks

    You can also develop your professional network using internal channels including the organisation which represents the interests of PhD candidates, postdoctoral fellows and temporary employees at the UiB, UiB Doc, or through academic groups and initiatives. Some faculties also have their own PhD candidate committees:

    It is also possible to become involved in networks through the ARQUS alliance and UiB's other international collaborative ventures.

    Local networks

    There are also many thematic networks at UiB if you wish to become better acquainted with colleagues at other faculties and institutes with similar academic interests:  

    Travel grants and external funding for research and innovation 

    As a PhD candidate, there are many sources of funding available to you. If you choose to apply for external funding for a research and innovation project, you should contact the research advisor at your faculty/institute/centre for support well before the application deadline. 


    Please contact UiB's Brussels office or UiB's Local Contact Point  for more information about opportunities available via the Marie Skłodowska Curie Programme.

    The Meltzer Research Fund

    Students and research fellows can apply for project grants from the Meltzer Research Fund.

    Travel support for foreign visits

    The Faculty of Social Sciences: support for foreign visits at research institutions.

    Funds and endowments

    There are a number of funds, endowments and grants which PhD candidates a UiB can apply for. The usual application deadline for funds and endowments is 1 December. Further information about this is available here.

    Guidelines for PhD candidates 

    PhD education framework at UiB

    The University of Bergen’s PhD education has seven PhD programmes, one at each of our seven faculties. These include six scientific PhD programmes and one PhD programme in artistic development work. To qualify for admission to a PhD programme you would normally need to have completed a five-year Master's programme. Funding is also required for PhD programmes. Other qualification requirement vary between faculties, academic fields and PhD positions that are to be filled. You can find more information about UiB’s PhD programmes on its Welcome to PhD Education at the UiB website, along with links to the faculties’ PhD programme pages.


    The framework for UiB’s PhD education is outlined in the Regulations relating to Philosophiae Doctor (PhD) at the University of Bergen and the Regulations relating to Philosophiae Doctor (PhD) in respect of Artistic Development Work at the University of Bergen. These regulations apply to all education that results in a PhD and in a PhD in artistic development work. All stages of UiB’s PhD education are covered by these regulations, ranging from admissions to undertaking and completing your PhD education. The regulations also contain references to national documents which govern all matters relating to PhDs.


    In addition, each PhD programme at UiB has its own programme description. This outlines the programme objectives, scope, terms of admission, structure and contents, completion and quality assurance. The programme descriptions can be found on faculties’ PhD programme pages and links to these can be found on the UIB's PhD Education website.