Public Presentation of the PhD thesis project

The topic of the doctoral thesis and supervisor(s) have to be approved by the study programme leader of the Vienna Doctoral School of Ecology and Evolution within 3-6 months after starting the PhD.

The approval is based on the submitted research proposal (Exposé) and the public presentation (FÖP). The procedure is the following: 

• 6 weeks prior to the FÖP, the registration documents have to be submitted to the Doctoral School
• The exposé is then reviewed by a member of the VDSEE PI-panel
• At the FÖP, the PhD-candidate present their project in front of the Dircetor and Vice-Director of VDSEE, the supervisor(s), and the VDSEE-community.
• Based on the reviews and the public presentation, the PhD-project gets approved by the study programme leader of the VDSEE.
• Should a doctoral topic not be approved by the study programme leader, the doctoral candidate has the option of revoking their application, adapting the research project and reapplying for the approval of their doctoral thesis at the next public presentation.

The public presentation serves the following purposes:

• According to the statutes of the University of Vienna, the public persentation has to be successfully passed for approval of the doctoral thesis project and supervisor(s).
• The new doctoral candidate can present their research to a wider audience.
• The public presentation offers all participants a platform for feedback, exchange and networking.

 Guidelines for Exposé

Please use the template provided in the VDSEE intranet

1) Title Page

• (Working) Title of your Dissertation Project
• Your Name, student number and email address
• Supervisor(s)
• TAC members: two co-mentors beside your supervisor(s)
• Funding

2) Main part: max.10 pages (excl. references)

• Introduction
  Short background, outline of the state of research:What is your specific field of research? Where do you start from?
• Aims/Main questions/Significance of your planned research:
  What do you want to answer with your thesis? Why is this important? Description of the topic of the doctoral thesis project including a clear research questions/aims.
• Research methods:
  Which methods and experimental setups will be used; which infrastructure/collaboration partners do you need/have at hand
• Time and work schedule:
  When do you plan to do what and achieve your goals. Please provide a Gantt chart.
• Contingency Plan/Risk Analysis:
  Where do you see potential problems/risks in your work/research plan? Have you thought of solutions/alternatives?
• Funding/Financial stability to conduct PhD studies:
  E.g. Salary and further description on funding such as coverage of consumables, etc
• TAC Committee:
  Choice of supervisor(s) and co-mentor(s), etc.

3) Cited References

Notes on funding

• Funding of the dissertation project must be secured in order to have it approved at the FÖP
• This is important particularly resp. consumables and lab costs. Therefore, estimation of costs and coverage of those costs have to be described in the exposé. This might also be an issue in (third-party) funded projects in case only salary is covered.
• The coverage of costs for consumables has to be approved by your Department Head/Faculty in advance (for registration to presentation this would include the submission of the additional SL/W4 form)
• Self-funded students are welcome, but the aim should be to work on the dissertation as full-time as possible.

 FORMS