PhD Courses in Denmark

The objective of this course is to introduce and build experience with conference participation to optimize the scientific output for the conference participant.

A student who has met the objectives of the course will be able to:

• Find and select the most relevant conferences for a given research topic
• Write an abstract for participation in a scientific conference
• Select the most relevant presentations in the scientific programme
• Describe the presentation forms (e.g. plenary, oral, poster, digital poster, pitch, etc.) at the attended conference and discuss advantages and disadvantages for each
• Use the informal part of the conference programme to establish contact to other research groups
• Identify the parts of the scientific content presented at the conference that are of most relevance for the PhD project
• Present recent scientific progress presented at the conference in a clear and concise format
• Individually plan the next conference

A part of a PhD education is to learn to participate in scientific conferences with maximum gain both regarding being updated on the latest scientific progress and regarding expansion of professional networks. In this course, the PhD student will be introduced to and will develop experience with conference participation. The PhD student must participate in one conference with a length of at least three days. The conference must be relevant to the work in the PhD project. The PhD supervisor (main or co-) will be responsible for supervising the PhD student on finding relevant conferences, on writing an abstract for the conference and on selecting the most relevant presentations in the scientific programme of the conference. A timeframe will be agreed on between the PhD supervisor and the PhD student when signing up for the course; this is to make sure that the PhD supervisor allocates sufficient time for the course. After participation in the conference, the PhD student and the PhD supervisor will agree on the time for the exam, for example as part of a supervisor meeting. The main PhD supervisor and at least one co-supervisor must participate in the exam. The student must present (a) what kind of conference he/she attended (organizers, scientific topic, description of participants, presentation forms), (b) a summary of the most important scientific insights achieved from the conference, and (c) how the professional network was expanded. The course is passed if both PhD supervisors agree that the learning objectives have been met. When the exam has been passed, the supervisor must inform the course responsible by email so that the course completion can be registered. The e-mail should include course number, name of student and the student’s study number.