Welcome

Welcome! In this document, you will find information about what it means to work as a PhD at the Radboud University and the Faculty of Science specifically. In the menu on the left you will find the table of contents of this document. Remember that this document is a guide, and no rights can be derived from this information. This is a living document made by PhDs for PhDs; if you notice that something has changed, contact us via phdnetwork@science.ru.nl. Other useful sources of information:

• Radboud Information for PhD candidates: link
• RadboudNet: link
• PNN (Promovendi Network Netherlands): link
• For RadboudUMC PhD candidates: link

Starting your PhD at the faculty of science

In this section, you can find information on:

• Getting started at Radboud University
• Organisational structures relevant to PhDs
• Checklist: before your research starts
• Hora Finita
• The go/no go interview

Getting started at Radboud Univeristy

1. Activate your email login (firstname.lastname@ru.nl) with the activation link that was send to you to your private mail address. If you already have an @ru.nl email address, for example because you studied at the Radboud University, you get a second (or third, or more) email adress with a number (firstname.lastname2@ru.nl). The email adress without number remains your main email address, the ones with numbers are alliases.
2. Activate your science account (ilastname@science.ru.nl). Your department’s secretariat will send the instructions for this to your RU account.
3. Request a campus card with your u-number. After confirmation, you can pick up your employee card.
4. Get informed about building and floor access via the management assistants at your department.

Organisational structures relevant to PhDs

• PROBE: an informal structure of all Faculty of Science institutes, serving as a gateway between Faculty of Science/RU bodies and PhD students.
• Gender and Diversity committee (GenDI): has been set up to help to make the faculty a great place for everyone and to make sure that diverse talents are welcome and appreciated.
• PNN (Promovendi Network Netherlands): Promovendi Netwerk Nederland (PNN) is the national interest organization for and by PhD candidates affiliated with one of the Dutch universities, university medical centers or research institutes.

Checklist: before your research starts

• Training and Supervision Plan (TSP): In the first three months of your PhD you have to hand in your TSP. The requirements and templates vary between graduate schools, so please check which graduate school you belong to and what requirements they have.
• Research Data Management: Certain graduate schools and departments will request you to write a Research Data Management plan. Check with your graduate school what this means to you.
• Ethical approval: Some research projects should be ethically assessed by the ethics committee. E.g. projects that may involve human test subjects, can have a large impact on society, or contain personal data. To ensure the ethical principles and guidelines are met, an ethical assessment must be requested. Check with your graduate school what this means to you.
• Research proposal: Writing a research proposal is strongly suggested, whether it is a requirement by your department/graduate school or not. Thinking of a good research question, summarizing your background information, setting a preliminary chapter division, and creating a timeline for your research increases your PhD trajectory. The gROW course ‘designing a PhD research project’ can possibly help you. Check with your supervisor(s) whether it’s required to write a research proposal, and if so, what it should contain.

Hora Finita

• Hora Finita is Radboud University’s registration and monitoring system for PhD programmes. This tool supports the entire PhD process from the PhD candidate’s registration to their defence and provides those involved with relevant information at any moment of the PhD programme.
• Register for Hora Finita by logging in with SURFconext via: Hora Finita - RU
• Make sure to upload finished PhD courses in Hora Finita and the following milestones. The requirements can differ per institute. Contact your graduate school coordinator.

The go/no go interview

• The go/no go interview is a formal meeting: an assessment of the PhD candidate to decide on the continuation or termination of the project.
• Often, the progress in the first year will be discussed with your supervisor(s) within 8 to 14 months after the start of your contract.
• Ask your supervisor (in time) what is expected of you to hand in before your go/no go interview since this can differ per supervisor.
• There is a Planning and Evaluation Form available for PhD interviews, including the go/no go interview. You receive this via the management assistants in your department.

During your PhD at the faculty of science

In this section, you can find information on:

• Labour conditions
• Selection model
• Leave: Holiday
• Leave: Sick
• Leave: Care
• Supervision
• Education: Training and supervision plan
• Education: Compulsory courses
• Education: Radboud gROW courses
• Education: Graduate schools
• Teaching
• Teaching: University Teaching Qualification
• Traveling: Grants
• Traveling: Reimbursement
• (Social) Networks for PhDs
• Support: Writing and Open Access publishing
• Support: Mental health and well-being
• ICT: BASS-environment
• ICT: Software

Labour conditions

• You can find all information on labour conditions via the Collective Labour Agreement (CLA) of Dutch Universities or the CLA university medical centres.
• In some cases, it is possible to work a four-day work week instead of a five-day work week and extend the duration of your contract. This depends on, for example, whether your project has a strict end date or not. You can discuss this option with your supervisor. You can switch to a four-day work week during your contract.If you want to build up extra holiday hours, you can work 40 instead of 36/38 hours per week. Contact HR for more information.

Selection Model

The Selection Model allows you to use some of your employment conditions flexibly. In some cases, this may well result in tax benefits. Note that your choices may affect the calculation of salary-related benefits. See the website for more information.

Things you can get in trade of salary, holiday allowances, end-of-year bonus or holiday hours.

• A bike; once every six years. On the condition that part of your journey to work is done via cycling.
• Extra salary
• Extra commuting expenses
• Extra holiday hours

Every year you can reimburse €120 as an art, culture and sport allowance. You can find more information about what qualifies here.

For those eligible under the 30% ruling, employees receive tax-free reimbursement for almost all the same expenses as those without, except for extraterritorial expenses, which are not covered under the 30% ruling.

Practical aspects about the 30% ruling (consult with your HR contact when you have questions):

• If you leave the Netherlands before the expiry date of the 30% ruling, you must notify the Tax and Customs Administration thereof.

We would like to draw your attention to the fact that the reduction of your taxable income may have consequences for all salary-related remunerations and benefits, including social security benefits and social security benefits under the Enhanced Unemployment Scheme. Further, employees under the 30% ruling can only use the following sources:

• Holiday hours: Employees may sell up to 76 holiday hours annually.
• Sports expenses budget: Eligible for reimbursement of sports-related expenses (e.g., gym memberships, courses).
• This means they are not allowed to use other sources in the Selection Model, including salary, holiday allowance, end-of-year bonus, or extra income.

Leave: Holiday

Regarding holiday leave, there is a difference between personal holiday hours, public holidays (compulsory) and collective days off (compulsory), as detailed below. You can find more information at the RU website.

• Holiday leave: Your holidays are counted in hours (8h= 1 day vacation). You can request leave in BASS to take on personal holiday hours. More information on how to request leave is detailed on the RU website ‘request leave’.
• Public holidays: During public holidays, the university is closed and you automatically have a vacation day without using your personal holiday hours:
  • New Year’s Day
  • Good Friday (exchangeable for another holiday)
  • Easter Sunday
  • Easter Monday
  • 5 May
  • Ascension Day
  • Whit Sunday
  • Whit Monday
  • Christmas Day
  • Boxing Day
  • The national celebration of the Dutch king or queen’s birthday.
• Collective days off: These are days known as compulsory days off and the university will be closed. You will have to take these compulsory days off yourself in BASS.
  • Days between Christmas and New Year
  • Friday morning of the Four Days Marches
  • Friday after Ascension Day
  • 24th of December, if it falls on a Monday
  • 2nd of January, if it falls on a Friday

Leave: Sick

Please be aware that the RU makes a difference between short and long(er) time of sick leave. This difference can have influence on your possibility of receiving an extension at the end of your PhD contract, as detailed below. More information can be found in the Collective Labour Agreement and on the RU website under ‘sickness and well-being’.

• Short time: Contact your supervisor or management assistant of the department. They will list you as sick in the BASS system. After you feel better, they can stop the sick leave in BASS. These hours are paid, and are not subtracted from your holiday hours.
• Long(er) time: At your request, your employer can (but do not have to) decide to extend your employment contract in the case of illness, if there is a continuous period of illness of at least 8 weeks. Please, make sure to check your Collective Labour Agreement.

Leave: care

Care leave in this section is regarded as care for yourself or others.

• Bereavement leave: When someone close to you passes away, you are entitled to a short leave of absence (with pay). After that period, you can make agreements with your supervisor about your needs regarding time off. More information via the RU website.
  • Birth leave: You are entitled to 16 weeks of leave consisting of pregnancy and maternity leave. More information on the RU website.
  • Please note that there is additional financial support during pregnancy and after pregnancy leave available for PhDs at the Faculty of Science organized through the Gender, Diversity and Inclusion Committee (GenDI). This support can e.g. be used to extent your contract time. More information via the GenDI website.
• Parental leave: You are entitled to 26 weeks of parental leave for each child up to eight years. During the first 13 weeks you receive 70% of your salary. The other 13 weeks are unpaid. More information on the RU website.
• Adoption or foster care leave: You are entitled to 6 weeks of leave. More information on the RU website.
• Caregiver: You are entitled to short-term leave (1-3 days per year, paid), short-term care leave (10 days per year for 70% of your salary), and long-term care leave (6x your weekly working hours, unpaid). More details can be found via the RU website.
• Moving leave: If you move on request of the university, you can receive a short leave (with pay), otherwise you must use your own personal holiday hours.
• Marital or civil partnership leave: You can receive days off regarding your personal wedding or civil partnership or the celebration of the 25th, 40th, 50th, and 60th wedding anniversaries of (step-)parents(-in-law). More details are available on the RU website.

Supervision

• Your supervision team typically comprises at least two, and at most four, experts holding a PhD, with your primary supervisor being affiliated with Radboud University.
• This team is responsible for providing guidance throughout your PhD journey, including holding regular meetings to discuss research progress, training opportunities, and career development.
• Note that supervision requirements tend to vary greatly across different graduate schools within Radboud University. Therefore, it’s recommended you consult the specific guidelines of your respective graduate school to ensure compliance with all expectations and to make the most of the resources available to you.
• As an incoming PhD student, you can expect your supervision team to be composed of:
  • Your Primary Supervisor must hold a PhD and be a faculty member at Radboud University. This person will guide your overall research, offer academic advice, and ensure you stay on track. They should have experience supervising PhD students and a strong research background.
  • A Co-Supervisor also holds a PhD and brings expertise in specific aspects of your research. They provide specialized knowledge and feedback, either from within or outside the university, and help support your academic progress.
  • You may also have an Advisory Committee or additional Supervisory Team Members, all of whom must hold a PhD and offer expertise in your field. They will review your progress and provide feedback to ensure your research is on track. Among the supervision team, one member is typically designated as the Daily Supervisor. This individual provides regular, hands-on guidance to ensure the day-to-day progress of your research.
  • If your research involves external collaboration, you may have an External Supervisor. This person must hold a PhD and be an expert in your research area. They will help guide the external aspects of your work and maintain alignment with academic or industry standards.
  • Lastly, while optional, you may also have a Mentor. Although not always required to hold a PhD, a mentor should have significant experience in academia or industry. They provide career guidance, help with networking, and offer support in balancing the demands of your PhD. Please note that Mentors’ roles and requirements vary per graduate school and you should search for graduate-school specific guidance on this matter (usually clarified in your TSP template document).

Education: Training and supervision plan

At the start of your PhD, you have to fill in a training and supervision plan (TSP). A clear training and supervision plan (TSP) is an essential tool for planning your PhD trajectory. Moreover, it forms a useful part of your annual appraisal meeting. Every PhD candidate should complete a TSP with his or her supervisor(s) and submit this to the relevant graduate school within three months of their research start date. This plan is regarded as a formal agreement between PhD candidate and supervisor.

• Each graduate school has different requirements for the TSP. Check the websites below for the requirements of your own graduate school: IMAPP: Institute for Mathematics, Astrophysics and Particle Physics Donders: Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour RIMLS: Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Sciences IMM: Graduate School Institute for Molecules and Materials
  RIBES: Radboud Institute for Biological and Environmental Sciences Graduate School iCIS: Graduate School Institute for Computing and Information Sciences ISE: Graduate School Institute for Science Education ISiS: ISiS Graduate School

Education: Compulsory courses

• PhDs at the Faculty of Science have to complete the three compulsory courses below.
• It is important to note that you cannot sign up for these courses through gROW. Instead activate your Brightspace account via the account portal. Once your Brightspace account is activated, you can register for the courses by emailing your RU email address and U-number to TIPscience@ru.nl.
  • Basic didactic skills;
  • Scientific ethics and integrity;
  • Essential skills to manage your PhD project.

Education: Radboud gROW courses

The gROW online learning environment provides you with the opportunity to attend workshops and take e-learning modules, training courses and programmes that will allow you to realise these ambitions:

Legend

Remember to gain access to Brightspace beforehand so that you can look at announcements and materials for the courses you registered.

Education: Graduate schools

All PhDs are required to be part of a graduate school. Below you will find the graduate schools of the Faculty of Science. Yet, please note that you can also join graduate schools outside of Radboud University, for example on a national level.

• IMAPP: Institute for Mathematics, Astrophysics and Particle Physics
• RIMLS: RadboudUMC Graduate School
• IMM: Graduate School Institute for Molecules and Materials (IMM)
• RIBES: Radboud Institute for Biological and Environmental Sciences Graduate School
• iCIS: Graduate School Institute for Computing and Information Sciences
• ISE: Graduate School Institute for Science Education
• ISiS: ISiS Graduate School

Teaching

• Teaching duties can significantly enhance your CV and contribute to your personal development. However, it’s important to be mindful of the number of hours you commit to teaching. Regular PhD contracts typically have a teaching workload of 0.1 FTE, which equates to about 3.8 hours per week. Supervision of students and assistance with courses both fall under teaching responsibilities. It’s also a good idea to inquire with your department about the number of hours allocated for supervising students, so you can manage your time effectively and avoid overcommitting.
• On the home page of Brightspace there are e-learnings available with information on teaching. You can enroll when you click: Help; Discover.
• PhD students of the FNWI faculty are required to complete at least one teaching course. The recommended courses include Practical Didactic Skills (12 hours of study), Teaching Practise (24 hours of study) and Student Supervision (24 hours of study). By completing either Teaching Practise or Student Supervision, you can obtain your partial University Teaching Qualification (more information below).

Teaching: University Teaching Qualification

• Educational PhD candidates, or those who wish to enhance their teaching skills, can obtain (a portion of) the University Teaching Qualification (UTQ). The UTQ serves as proof of the didactic competence of educators in higher education and is recognized by 14 Dutch universities. By participating in a UTQ track, you will develop your teaching skills in areas such as designing, delivering, evaluating, and assessing high-quality education.
• Educational PhDs are allowed to participate in the complete UTQ track. To complete the UTQ track, you first obtain partial certificates for Teaching Practise, Student Supervision, Course Design and Evaluation, and Assessment and Learning. After completion of these partial certificates, you will have a final assessment.
• For PhD candidates with a 4-year contract or teaching task of < 0,2fte it is possible to obtain separate partial certificates for the competency domains Teaching Practise and Student Supervision, if your teaching tasks meet the requirements for this. These partial certificates are part of a national pilot for partial certificates in which most universities in the Netherlands participate. PhD candidates cannot follow the entire UTQ track because of their limited teaching load (except educational PhD candidates).

Teaching: Grants

Reasons for travelling conferences, (summer/winter) schools, visiting scholar

Personal experience from RIMLS PhD Candidate: It is quite easy, log in and add the details. They ask for a letter signed by your supervisor, this can be quite simple. Just an explanation on why you would benefit from the event. After that mine got approved quite quickly, and after the event I uploaded the certificate of attendance, and it got reimbursed.

Requirements:

• Conditions
• You are a PhD candidate at Radboud University;
• PhD candidates going abroad within the EEA should first find out whether they are eligible for an Erasmus+ grant;
• Your supervisor provides you with a support letter;
• The travel grant consists of a fixed lump sum (irrespective of the actual costs). For destinations within the EEA this sum is: EUR 400, for destinations outside the EEA this is: EUR 700;
• You have to submit your application at least two weeks before departure;
• To apply follow this link and sign in with you university account, make sure you fit into the requirements and submit the form.
• The money goes to the department you are in, so you need an account number from them to add it. The money should be there after the upload of the proof after some weeks.

Might be affected by the budget cuts.

Traveling: Reimbursement

• Before booking a trip, it’s important to consult your supervisor. The management assistant or secretary in your department can help you with both booking the trip and securing reimbursement for travel expenses. Generally, you should follow these steps when planning your trip:
  • If your destination is in the Netherlands, claim your costs after your trip in BASS.
  • Booking a trip abroad for your PhD requires you to submit a travel request (in BASS), even if you already have permission from your supervisor. You can only make a final booking after you have received a travel request number (starts with a T, followed by six digits)
  • Before booking your trip, check the infographic of Radboud University to determine whether you have to book a train or aeroplane ticket. You may use your car for a trip abroad if you submit a travel request for this in advance. The costs for using your car must be submitted via BASS (kilometre allowance). 
  • After you have obtained a travel request number and know which mode of transportation is approved, you can book your trip via the Radboud travel agency (currently Diversity Travel).
  • You can claim other costs (e.g. local transport and meals) in BASS after your trip.

(Social) Networks for PhDs

• PON (PhD Organisation Nijmegen):  PON represents the interests of all PhD candidates in Nijmegen. 
• PNN (Promovendi Network Netherlands): Promovendi Netwerk Nederland (PNN) is the national interest organization for and by PhD candidates affiliated with one of the Dutch universities, university medical centers or research institutes.
• LNVH: Dutch Network of Women professors (Landelijke network voor vrouwelijke hoogleraren) - offers amongst others grants, career training and mentorship programs.
• Labour unions for PhDs:
  • AOb: 80% of the members in the sector Scientific Education and Research at the AOb belong to academic staff, including PhD candidates, which means that there is a lot of substantive expertise within the AOb.
  • FNV: The largest labour union in the Netherlands.
  • CNV: Labour union for different branches.

Support: Writing and Open Access publishing

• Radboud Writing Lab: offers 1) Writing days (free of charge): When your schedule gets busy, finding the time to write your PhD project can be hard. That’s why we host online Writing Days, designed for PhDs who want to boost their thesis in just one day. 2) Writing coaching (free of charge): Talking about your writing assignment with a writing coach, will improve your text. You can have 5 coaching sessions a year. Each session lasts 45 minutes.
• Tools to help you find fitting journals and avoid questionable/predatory journals:
  • Plan S Journal Checker Tool: To check if your funder (e.g. NWO) allows you to publish in your selected journal.
  • RU Open Access journal browser: To check if RU has a discount deal with the journal on the publishing costs.
  • DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals only displays fully open access journals and articles that have passed a quality check.
  • OASPA: Open Access Scholarly Publisher Association screens all members on integrity, quality and transparency.
  • COPE: Committee on Publication Ethics offers guidelines for integrity in research and research publications.
  • Think Check Submit: checklist to judge whether a journal is trustworthy or not.

Support: Mental health and well-being

ICT: BASS-environment

BASS is the administrative system for Radboud University. You can use BASS to register your leave, change your personal information, register your commuting, and much more. If you have a specific question about BASS, the management assistants are typically able to help.

Access to BASS:

You can reach BASS directly via bass.ru.nl. In order to log in to BASS, you must be connected to Eduroam, or use a EduVPN. To log in to BASS, use your U-number or ru-email and corresponding password.

Homepage:

The BASS homepage consists of six blocks:

• My employment conditions
• Absence
• Expenses
• My workflow
• Purchasing
• My requests and letters

My employment conditions:

In this block, you can find all the information related to your employment. The Overview my information button will open an extensive overview, containing your personal and employment information, and overviews of your leave of absence, sickness/pregnancy, selection model choices, and travel- and work from home days.

Furthermore, this block contains three buttons:

• My personal information: Change your personal information, such as your address, private email address, and bank account number.
• Enter Employment Conditions Selection Model: Enter new choices for the selection model, see Selection model.
• Payslips and annual statements: View your payslips and annual statements.

Absence:

In this block, you can find all the information about your leave hours. The block contains a simplified overview of your leave hours for this year. You can get more details by clicking the Detailed leave overview-button. For information about your leave hours, see Leave: Holiday.

Furthermore, this block contains one button:

• Enter Leavedetails: Request leave via the self-service system, see this RU website for information on the self-service system for requesting leave.

Expenses:

In this block, you can request reimbursements, apply for travel, find information about earlier reimbursements. The More information about expenses and business travels leads to this RU website with information about submitting expense claims.

This block contains five buttons:

• Create Expense Report: Request reimbursements, see this RU website for more information about how and what expenses you can claim.

• Business Travel Application: Apply for travel, see Travelling: Reimbursement for more information about the steps of travel application.

• Claims Overview: View your previous expense claims.

• Commuting days and Work from home days: Claim expenses for your commute and work at home days, see this and this RU website for more information on how and when to claim expenses for your commute work at home days.

My workflow:

In this block, you can create rules for delegating notifications during your absence and view notifications you received via BASS.

• Create Absence Rule: Delegate tasks via BASS. Not relevant for PhD candidates.

• Viewing notifications: See information about your requests and actions in BASS.

Purchasing:

In this block you can find information about loaning home office furniture. All information can be found via the Home office button in this block.

My requests and letters:

In this block, you can view letters and request notifications that are handled via BASS.

ICT: Software

• RU software centre: Please note that you can download many software programmes through the software centre. Press the bottom-left start menu and search for ‘Software Center’.
• Adobe creative cloud license: You can email icthelpdesk@ru.nl about this so they can add you to the license list. Afterwards you will have to follow the following steps: 
  1. Press the bottom-left start menu and search for ‘Software Center’ 
  2. In the Software Center, search for ‘Creative Cloud Desktop’ in the top right corner 
  3. Click Install and wait for the installation to complete 
  4. Once the software is installed, you have to install the applications you want, such as Adobe Acrobat DC, yourself via the Adobe Creative Cloud software. You don’t need admin rights for this. You do it in the following way: 
  5. Press the start menu at the bottom left and search for ‘Adobe Creative Cloud’ 
  6. The application may need to update first. Wait for this, once Creative Cloud has closed itself, perform step 1 again. If you don’t have an update, proceed to step 3. 
  7. You’ll see a list of all the applications you can install yourself. If you want the paid version of Adobe Reader, install the Acrobat application by pressing Install. 
  8. The application will now install, you will see its progress in this same window. 
  9. Once the installation is complete, you can find it from the start menu. 

Finishing your PhD

In this section, you can find information on:

• Timeline defence
• Contract ended, but not finished
• Defence costs

Timeline Defense

Each graduate school has slightly different requirements, so please check what the additional requirements are with your supervisors and your graduate school. The general official steps of finishing your PhD are listed down below, more detailed information can be found here: link to roadmap.

1. Write a manuscript.
2. Set up Manuscript Committee: The Dean will set up a Manuscript Committee and your PhD supervisor can issue advice on the composition of this committee.
3. Evaluation of Manuscript Committee: The Manuscript Committee will decide whether the work is of sufficient quality within five weeks of receipt of the manuscript.

• If the Manuscript Committee judges that the PhD thesis is among the top 5 to 10 per cent of dissertations, the Manuscript Committee will advise the Dean to establish a Cum Laude Committee.

4. Set a graduation date.

• Think about whether you want to organize a reception, party and dinner with the manuscript committee around this date.

5. The registrar checks the formal requirements.
6. Printing the PhD thesis: You must arrange the printing of your own thesis and can declare your printing costs.
7. Hand in thesis to the Doctoral Examination Board.
8. Submitting your PhD thesis: Deliver 10 copies of your thesis to the registrar. Also deliver a digital copy to the University Library.
9. Defending your thesis: During the PhD graduation ceremony in front of the Doctoral Examination Board.
10. Deliberation and decision of the Doctoral Examination Board.
11. Awarding the doctorate & signing the diploma.

Rapid graduation bonus: you might be able to get a rapid graduation bonus. Ask your graduate school about this.

Contract ended, but not finished

WARNING: Please be made aware that you are not allowed to claim unemployment benefits while continuing to work on your thesis. The PNN states the situation such that it [finishing your employment contract] “entails that you should not make arrangements for unpaid activities if this does not allow you to start a new job immediately.” This includes working on your thesis without being able to begin a new employment contract.

How do I maintain access to my data, files etc after my employment contract ends? If you are not completely finished with your PhD project before your contract ends, you can maintain access to (most) Radboud systems and services by requesting a guest account (as a ‘visiting staff member’) with your department.

More about visiting staff can be found on Radboudnet: EN: https://www.radboudnet.nl/science/faculty-services/faculty-services-d-tot-en-met-k/human-resources-hr/supervisors/visiting-staff/

! Please be aware that you cannot submit this form yourself: contact your department secretariat for the procedure.

Contract extensions: According to the guidelines and procedures for appointing academic staff (by HR), a PhD contract can be extended if one of the following criteria are at play:

• Illness;
• Parental leave;
• Other reasons, e.g. due to long-term equipment failure.

Please note: If one of the above reasons for extension arises, the PhD candidate is expected to discuss this with their supervisor, the PhD supervisor and the institute management at an early stage. The institute management decides after evaluating priorities. For the Works Council and Representative Council membership the Executive Board always grants an extension of the appointment duration

Defence costs

Printing dissertation: you can get a reimbursement for the printing costs up to € 1,200 or you can print it at the university press. See for more information the website.

Reception: Approximately €350 - €700

Dinner/buffet with committee: Approximately €50 per person

Optional celebration party: Approximately €35 - €45 per person

Beyond your PhD

In this section, you can find information on:

• Unemployment benefits
• Career prospects

Unemployment Benefits

Please note, as noted on the Promovendi Netwerk Nederland (PNN) site, once you have terminated your contract, you “You are immediately available for paid work. This entails that you should not make arrangements for unpaid activities if this does not allow you to start a new job immediately.”

• The situation for international, non-EU/EEA/Switzerland residents is complex. Your first concern is that upon the termination of your contract, you lose formal sponsorship for your residence in the Netherlands. In many cases, you can ask for up to a year of extension (search year), which depends on a myriad of factors (read more about this here). It is recommended you speak to an employment attorney to understand how to stay, and whether or not it is possible to claim unemployment for the period of time while you search for new employment.
  • Read more about this here: Introduction working in the Netherlands / residence permit for orientation year.
  • Note that you are automatically entitled to three months of searching for a new job when you become unemployed independent of how your employment ended (meaning this is also the case even if you choose to terminate the employment) See here.

Please have a look on the PNN website (See for more information.) which details the conditions you must meet to apply for unemployment benefits and how to calculate the amount of benefit that you are entitled to.

Career Prospects

• Career coaching: Coaching | Radboud University (ru.nl)
• (Promovendi Network NL) Only 20% of the PhD Candidates find a job in science Research shows that 80% of PhD candidates aim for careers in science, but only 20% are likely to secure university positions, while 10% find research roles outside academia. The remaining 70% often transition to business or government jobs. If you plan to pursue a business career, it’s useful to network and gain related experience during your PhD. While many companies may undervalue a doctoral degree compared to a master’s, PhD candidates possess strong analytical and organizational skills and have successfully completed complex projects.
• (Academic Transfer) Learn how to highlight your transferable skills.
• Research grants for recent PhD graduates:
  • Grants from the Dutch Science Organization (NWO):
    • Rubicon: Funds your salary and travel expenses to gain experience at a foreign knowledge institute for 1-2 years. Target group: graduating and recently graduated PhD students (<12 months since PhD defence).
    • Veni: Fund your salary and research equipment for max. 3 years. Target group: recently graduated PhDs (<3 years since PhD defence).
  • ERC starting grant (European Research Counsil):
    • Funding for the first five years will be provided to help you establish your own research group. Target group: more experienced PhD graduates (2-7 years after defence).
  • Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grants (European Union): Requirement: move to another EU country for your research career.
    • Post-doctoral fellowships: Get funds for a post-doctoral research project for 1-2 years. Target group: PhD graduates (<8 years since defence)