As a PhD student in SSRI, you are part of a research team in one of the three basic research departments at SRL. Usually, at least one of your thesis supervisors will be employed in the same group. While keeping synchronised with the goals and strategies of the hosting research department and project group, your personal goal will be to pursue a PhD degree at the end of your three year period. In that process you will receive a solid education and develop as an independent researcher. Through scientific publications, you will provide proof of your ability to perform in-depth research.

Since SSRI can not award any academic degrees, your study for a PhD degree must be conducted in collaboration with a university partner, either in Norway or abroad. In any case, even if you are located at an institution outside Oslo, you will be affiliated with SSRI and the relevant research group in Simula.

Studying for a PhD degree

Being a PhD student is like entering a certain mental state and taking part in a continuously evolving learning process, than just having a job. At the same time, you, your supervisors, and your research group should not be unrealistic when defining the ambition level for your work. This ambition level and, most of all, the path to reach that level should be monitored and revised. Surprises are the only certain ingredients in a research project, and these surprises, good or bad, must be handled.

Of course, you should have other interests than your research and a social life also during your PhD period. Usually, this is necessary to recharge yourself now and then. Still, your research problems will churn away at the back of your for almost every waking hour. In periods, you will have the need to work long hours, several days or even weeks in stretch.

There are several papers and other publications describing the process of research, and especially with a doctoral degree in mind. These expositions are of varying quality and are usually coloured by the culture in which the manuscripts have been developed. PhD students at Simula will find the locally authored paper [1] to be of special interest.

The doctoral student, the supervisors, and SSRI

Most PhD students employed at Simula are also doctoral students at the University of Oslo (UiO). Therefore, the discussion in this guide is centred at UiO. However, many of the principles will apply to other universities as well, but you should check the local regulations at your university if you are in doubt. The following subsections outline the regulations at UiO, but you will need to look into details that are available at UiO’s web site, http://www.uio.no. The easiest way to access the relevant documents is to follow the links provided at SSRI’s web page.

The supervisors

At UiO, each doctoral student needs at least two supervisors. At least one of these supervisors must be employed at the University of Oslo. Several senior researchers at Simula have an affiliation with UiO and will qualify as a university-based supervisor. One of the supervisors will be listed as the principal supervisor. This person should normally be the one that is closest to your research, and the one that you will need to access most frequently. Usually, the principal supervisor will be a person working at Simula. Affiliation to UiO is not required for the principal supervisor, as long as one of the other supervisors can be the formal link to the universtiy.

Admission to the PhD program at UiO

Towards the end of your period as a research trainee, or at the beginning of your PhD period, you should complete and submit the application to your university’s PhD program. For doctoral students at UiO, this involves filling in the application form and submitting this form together with a project description, CV, and other documents. In addition to the application form, PhD students at Simula will have to submit the additional form Avtale om gjennomføring av doktorgradsutdanning i samarbeid med ekstern part. This document is an agreement for doctoral education in collaboration with an external part., which in this context means SSRI. At the time of writing, this form is unfortunately available in Norwegian only.

Doctoral students with a background from other universities than UiO will have to supply certified copies of diplomas and transcripts of grades. If you have a background from a foreign university, there will also be need for a description of the courses, the credit system, and the grading system. It is highly recommended to let the university start the evaluation of your educational background as early as possible, even before your PhD application is ready for submission. It is then not necessary to resubmit the documents concerning your education as part of the application to the PhD program. Grades awarded by a foreign university will be converted to the A-F grading in use at UiO. Regardless of the educational background, the PhD regulations require that the applicant has an average undergraduate score of C or better, an average of B or better at the master level, and the grade B or better for the master thesis.

In addition to describing your project, the application must contain a list of courses intended for the theoretical syllabus in your PhD degree. This list must show 30 credits worth of courses intended for studies at the PhD level, including the mandatory course MNSES9100: Science, Ethics and Society (5 credits). The selection of courses should be made in collaboration with your supervisors. The application form must also contain a list of milestones for the project period, as well as a recommendation from your principal supervisor.

Your application to the PhD program at UiO is expected to be submitted no later than two months after you have started in the PhD position.

It is important that all applications for the doctoral program are submitted through SSRI. This is essential since SSRI performs a quality assurance of the application in order to minimise the risk of problems in the processing of your application. Moreover, SSRI keeps records of the applications and of the formal state of each PhD student. If you have any questions regarding the application form or the regulations for admissions, please consult SSRI’s administration. Please be aware that when you receive the formal letter granting your admission to the PhD program, you need deliver a copy to SSRI’s administration.

Also the annual progress reports to the university should be submitted via SSRI, which will file local copies before the reports are sent to the relevant university contact.

Research culture

The world of research is manifold, and the principles used for conducting research and supervising doctoral students differ between countries, universities, research groups, and individuals. Although there might be some practical variations between different groups, any PhD study at Simula will follow the same principles. Across the organisation, there is a shared interest in having the PhD students succeed by submitting a high quality thesis on time. In particular, your supervisors have a strong interest in seeing you succeed, and should therefore be regarded as your most important allies. When you reach problems that you can not handle on your own, you should not hesitate to seek advice from your supervisors and colleagues. They will not solve the problems for you, but they will assist you in finding a way to deal with these problems.

The thesis

The first step towards a doctoral degree is to properly define the directions for your research project. During this process, your supervisor will make sure that the planned research will have the relevance and the quality that is needed for the degree. This phase goes naturally hand-in-hand with the application procedure described above.

As a doctoral student at Simula you will write a thesis that either takes the form of a monograph, or consists of several related papers that typically are intended for journal publication. The choice of thesis format will depend on the nature of your research, and on the traditions in the specific research group and the research field that you contribute to.  You should discuss the format of your thesis with your supervisors at an early stage of the research project, such that an intentional schedule for dissemination of your results can be integrated with your research plan.

Expectations

As a general rule, you and your supervisors should map out the expectations from all parties at an early stage, and later keep revising these expectations as experience is gained. In this context, you should together address the Simula environment’s expectations to your research, your expectations for supervision, and the supervisors’ expectations to you as a PhD student. Proper alignment of expectations between the student and the supervisors seems to be an important factor that can help avoiding future problems in their relationship.

As with many types of challenges, the hardest part of a PhD study is to get started. To help you focus in the first stage of your work, SSRI encourages that you summarise the obtained results and the planned work in a formal presentation towards the end of your first year as a doctoral student. In addition to the work drive imposed by a deadline, the presentation may help you and your supervisors to assess the chosen research strategy, and, if needed, to take the necessary steps to ensure a healthy progress.

The relationship between the PhD student and the supervisors

As was outlined above, different supervisors and different research groups may prefer different strategies with respect to supervision of PhD projects. However, independent of the chosen strategy, SSRI will strive for student-supervisor relationships that are efficient and at the same time lead to strong research results. The goal for the doctoral education is to educate the PhD student and to let him develop as an independent researcher. Through scientific publications, the doctoral student will provide proof of his ability to perform in-depth research. That is, it is natural to expect that the student takes responsibility and grows into this role.

Most supervisors are involved in many research activities, and will be supervising several PhD students in parallel. Therefore, it is impossible for a supervisor to spend the same amount of time on your topic as you do. The main resource you want to tap into is the supervisors’ experience and general knowledge about the research field. You, as a doctoral student, will be expected to go into the details of the problem, and compile the necessary descriptions and presentations for your supervisors. However, whenever you find yourself in too deep water, having difficulties with handling the assigned task, you should consult your supervisors. In most cases, the clarification from an experienced senior can help you avoid weeks of wasted time and a lot of despair. This assertion is particularly valid for your relationship with your principal supervisor.

It is difficult to generalise the criteria for where the line goes between proper use and misuse of your supervisors’ time. The better your PhD project is integrated with the supervisors’ and the research group’s work, the more natural and better will the continuous communication be.

As mentioned in the description of SSRI in Chapter 1, Simula conducts annual performance appraisal interviews. The interview of a PhD student, which will be centred at the progress of research, will normally be conducted by the principal supervisor or the head of department. In addition, the administration of SSRI will conduct an employment dialogue with you, in which the focus is on the organisational conditions for your work. The relationship between you and your supervisors is a particular topic for discussion in these dialogues. SSRI’s task is to monitor these relationships, to provide advice for adjustments of your interaction with the supervisors, and to intervene in case of emerging conflicts.

The PhD student's checklist

Specific actions (startup, during, at end), towards the academic institution as well as Simula. In particular, submission procedures.

Useful resources

Aslak Tveito, Planning to take a PhD? Survival guide for fledging researchers

SSRI’s information for PhD students
Simula Publication Guidelines
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