PhD in Biosciences

The doctoral programme is designed in such a way that candidates can complete their studies within the stipulated time frame, normally three years of full-time work. An important part is the educational training component with a set of appropriate courses at PhD level. The training component consists of an educational segment of credit-earning courses (30 ECTS) and a presentation segment that covers the dissemination/communication of the research conducted by the candidate as an essential part of the programme. Courses included in the training component are normally bioscience-related and this helps the candidate to get an in-depth understanding of the research theme. Technology-related topics such as those on bioinformatics, artificial intelligence, and other topics may also be included, if deemed relevant for the training component, to support the PhD research project.

The training component consists of mandatory coursework of 10 credits: covering philosophy and ethics in science (DR443F Science and Ethics in Practice, 5 ECTS) and one PhD level course in a subject area directly related to the student's research topic (DR444F, Frontier Topic in Bioscience, 5 ECTS). PhD students are advised to complete the mandatory course Science and Ethics in Practice during the first year of their studies. This helps to create awareness on the philosophy of science, and to anchor the candidate’s research efforts on ethical principles relevant for the fair conduct of studies by following national and international standards, guidelines and regulations to generate knowledge relevant for the society, preserve biodiversity and protect nature. The remaining 20 credits of the training component consist of elective coursework (an overview of the electives is found in appendix 7). Students are encouraged to choose courses from the PhD course portfolio at the faculty, provided they are relevant for their research theme. A minimum of 10 ECTS should be obtained from courses offered at Nord, which opens the possibility of including up to 10 credits of master-level courses that are suitable for the candidate’s research project (in this case §9-1 of the PhD regulations at Nord University applies and candidates must obtain a grade B or better). Relevant PhD courses offered at other universities in Norway or abroad, or by a third party that conducts appropriate workshops/PhD-level courses, may also be recognised as part of the training component. External courses that do not have a formal approval as components of PhD education must be quality assessed by the main supervisor in consultation with the programme coordinator to verify their learning outcomes (no more than 5 ECTS can be gained from such courses). Furthermore, the candidate may participate in and earn credits from Research Schools funded by the Research Council of Norway (e.g., “NORBIS”, “PHOTOSYNTEC”) where researchers with expert knowledge in the field of biosciences hold courses and share their competence with PhD students.

As part of the presentation segment, candidates are required to actively participate in recognised national and international research environments and disseminate and communicate results originating from their PhD project (transferable skill activities). The candidate must give at least two internal presentations (oral) at the faculty and at least two external presentations (either oral or poster), mainly at national / international conferences. The study programme coordinator approves the course and presentation segments which form part of the candidate’s training component.

Research component:

The research component together with transferable skill activities includes preparation of a PhD thesis that is an independent academic work based on an original piece of high-quality research within biosciences. Normally the research topic is aligned to one of the research disciplines at the faculty. In certain cases of multi-disciplinary themes, competences from other faculties at Nord University or regional institutions or industry can be made use of to conduct cutting-edge research. Candidates in the programme that are linked to externally-financed projects, especially those funded by the industry, gain knowledge and skills that are important for the chosen area of applied biosciences. These learning outcomes could then be directly transferred to the respective sectors, thus benefiting society. Irrespective of the funding source, all PhD research work is carried out, in accordance with the existing learning outcomes, under the guidance of an academic supervisory committee. The research theme is normally part of an externally-funded research project, or a PhD project awarded by the faculty administration. The PhD student is expected to prepare a scientific thesis at an advanced academic level based on the research performed and to submit it for evaluation within the contractual period. The research work undertaken by the candidate during the contract period will be laboratory-based or field-oriented investigations, and/or bioinformatics-based on data collections. The research component in biosciences generally consists of several parts, normally including: 1) preparation and submission of the initial research project proposal for admission that describes the project objectives and envisaged experimental plan, and the feasibility of carrying out the research within the stipulated time; 2) performing sampling/data collection/ laboratory work according to the project plan; 3) data analyses and interpretations that address the project objectives; 4) writing scientific papers or chapters aimed for peer-reviewed publication; and 5) compiling a coherent thesis that documents the candidate’s scientific proficiency in the research theme. By addressing important and relevant problems, formulating new questions, developing new tools, methods, or approaches the candidate can acquire the necessary skills for self-driven investigations.

The resulting thesis is normally a compilation of coherent peer-reviewed published articles, or publishable scientific papers that reports new findings from the doctoral research performed by the candidate. The thesis includes an introductory segment that reviews the state-of-the-art in the field, and a discussion section that integrates the generated new knowledge in the articles and contextualises the research to meet international standards in the field. A thesis submitted by the candidate must be approved by the Research Board prior to it being sent for evaluation by an external committee. The evaluation committee appointed by the Research Board includes national and international experts in the field. The committee evaluates the thesis and submits a recommendation stating whether the doctoral work is worthy of defence for the doctoral degree and explaining the reasoning behind its assessment.

The educational training component and research component of the PhD programme together with the thesis and defence are in accordance with the national and international guidelines, and are intended to develop highly skilled scientists, and provide the academic breadth and depth as stated in the learning outcomes of the programme.