Successes of the Doctoral School in the implementation of the HR4R Strategy: EC visit | Gdańsk University of Technology

The evaluation delegation from the EC, led by Prof. Adriana Burlea-Schiopoiu, spoke throughout the day with University authorities, representatives of four groups of researchers, including young researchers and administrative staff about Gdańsk Tech's activities to ensure ethics, equality, strengthening internationalization, intellectual property management and commercialization, support in preparing projects and obtaining research funding, activities focused on staff development, and changes in the recruitment process for academics.

The Doctoral School was recognized, among other things, for implementing a recruitment policy based on open, transparent, merit-based recruitment principles, known as the OTM-R Policy, and for its internationalization efforts. The final report emphasized that the recruitment process at the Doctoral School is exemplary in this regard.

Recruitment process

In order to improve the quality of the recruitment process, we make full use of e-tools for publishing announcements, such as EURAXESS, ResearchGate, the website of the Ministry of Science and Education, as well as the website of the Gdańsk University of Technology, which has been specially created for this purpose. All announcements are prepared in a unified, bilingual template, which greatly increases the transparency of the process and makes it friendlier for both recruiters and candidates. The Doctoral School has also prepared guides and instructions to help employees, doctoral students and post-docs implement the recruitment process.

Another important step is the involvement of PhD students in the process of recruiting new PhD School candidates. As a result, the admissions process is more transparent and representatives of doctoral students, who can attend committee meetings as observers, have a say in ensuring that everything is done in accordance with regulations. The added value is that the atmosphere surrounding the entire process becomes more friendly, which promotes integration and the formation of an academic community at a very early stage.

Scholarships

We also distinguish ourselves by offering additional scholarships that are supported by our doctoral school, which include IDUB scholarships - Polonium, Francium, and Nitrogenium, as well as STER NAWA scholarhip. It is also worth noting that education at the Doctoral School is completely free of charge, and the amount of basic (doctoral) scholarships is higher than in other universities in Poland, and even in some other countries, if a doctoral student receives more than this one basic scholarship.

We strive to continuously improve our activities and enhance the quality of our unit. The visit of the representatives of the European Commission was an important impulse for us to develop, and the recognition of our achievements is an additional motivation to continue our efforts to provide even better conditions for our doctoral students.