Summary
Information about WIAS research proposal
null
WIAS PhD candidates must submit a project proposal to WIAS in the first 6 months of their project. Writing a proposal will create ownership of the project. The proposal is peer reviewed to ensure that proposals are of sufficient scientific quality.
Proposal
A WIAS PhD proposal should have a good but short literature summary, and ample attention for a workplan. Even in cases when a peer reviewed project proposal is available, we ask the PhD candidate to write a project proposal as the available proposals often do not contain a detailed work plan.
In exceptional cases, when an extensive project proposal is already available, we ask the PhD candidate or supervisor to contact the WIAS office. WIAS will discuss the option of writing a literature survey with the chair of the Research Committee. The chair of the Research Committee will then decide if a proposal or literature survey should be submitted.
The proposal will be sent to three reviewers by the WIAS Office. The reviewers assess the scientific quality and the feasibility of the proposed research. The PhD candidate and the supervisor are informed of any suggestions made by the reviewer. In many cases, these suggestions lead to further improvement of the project proposal. The revised project proposal is submitted again to WIAS if required. Once approved a letter of approval is sent to the PhD candidate and the supervisor.
If the proposal is not approved within a year of the official start date of the PhD candidate, the final TSP of the PhD candidate will not be approved by WIAS. Consequently, a chair group will receive less PhD compensation ('promotievergoeding').
Literature survey
In exceptional cases an extensive peer-reviewed proposal is already available at the start of the PhD project. If the PhD candidate did not write this proposal, the candidate or the supervisor must contact the WIAS office to determine if a literature survey or a research proposal is to be submitted. The literature survey (including an abstract and conclusions) provides an overview of the relevant literature and discusses the consequences of the analysis of literature for the execution of the project of the PhD candidate, with a maximum length of 10,000 words. The literature survey and supporting documents must be submitted within the first six months of the start of the PhD project. The submitted survey is refereed by two WIAS research committee members. The PhD candidate will be invited for an interview by these research committee members.