PhD Courses in Denmark

It is the ambition of the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) that research at the university shall support sustainable development and more explicitly the achievement of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). All PhD students at DTU must therefore achieve an understanding of sustainability and sustainable development that enables them to position and develop their research in the context of these goals and contribute positively to the achievement of these goals in their research and future professional work. DTU also wants it’s PhD students to be able to reflect on the role of science and research in public debate. All PhD students must therefore train their communication skills and be able to communicate their research to a non-expert audience in a popular science form, as well as reflect on their own responsibility and willingness to communicate with the general public.

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

• Know the fundamental principles of sustainability assessment of technologies and be able to use sustainability issues to communicate about research in public
• Be familiar with different prevailing definitions of sustainability and know the history of the sustainability concept and the development of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
• Be able to interpret the outcomes of your project into potential technological and societal changes of relevance for a sustainable development.
• Understand the importance of considering the outcomes of your project in a life cycle/system perspective
• Understand the importance of considering a broad coverage of impacts within each sustainability dimension - environmental, social, economic
• Be able to perform a sustainability screening of your own project against in a systemic perspective
• Understand why it is relevant to communicate science and identify opportunities for communication
• Identify the use of jargon and translate jargon into language that fits the audience and situation
• Create engaging and captivating content, written and orally
• Analyze the communication situation and tailor the content accordingly
• Master techniques that improve stage presence

The course introduces you to the concept of sustainability and the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) and to the role of technology in sustainable development. You are introduced to a methodology and guideline in life cycle based evaluation of the sustainability implications of research projects, and you will apply the methodology to your own PhD project (or, alternatively, to a pre-defined research project) to analyse the potential sustainability implications that the outcomes of your research may have. The course also introduces you to theory and practice of communication in general and to a non-expert audience in particular. During the course you are introduced to theory and tools for communicating, and via individual exercises and group work you are able to practice your communication skills during the course. As part of the course, you are expected to prepare and deliver a presentation at either a Danish high school or to another non-scientific/laymen audience. The course workload of 2.5 ECTS includes the 5 in-class days of lectures, exercises and group work (expected 30-35 hours) as well as homework related to both the preparation and finalisation of the SDG evaluation report and communication support (expected 35-40 hours).