EDMI Annual Progress Report

In order to evaluate the progress of the thesis or the knowledge of the PhD student, the thesis director (and co-director if applicable) and the PhD student meet once a year to prepare a report. A confidential meeting between the mentor and mentee is a mandatory element of the annual report.

The information is entered into an online tool that will generate a final PDF document as a report.

 

Access to the online tool is via a link sent by your doctoral program.

Connection: with your GASPAR account.

Your doctoral program assistant will send you an email and generate a link to access the online tool near the time your annual report is due for submission.

Annual report’s process

The annual reporting in EDMI takes place each year between December and March 1st and only concerns PhD students who have successfully passed their candidacy examination and have not yet submitted their final examination thesis jury proposal.

In the online tool, you are requested to fill in 3 sections with the information below:

  • your basic information;
  • your research progress;
  • and a self-assessment of your progress: this section is completed separatly by you and your thesis director (and co-director if applicable), then discussed during a meeting (collaborative meeting).

Please note that the content you fill in is not confidential and will be revealed to all parties after the independent self-assessment and once the process is completed.

You will also discuss this report with your mentor in a confidential face-to-face meeting. Please note that you are responsible to organize this meeting.

The report will be sent to the director of your doctoral program for verification if:
• it is rated as: “Need some improvement” or “Unsatisfactory”;
• you disagree with the content of the report.

And if the report is rated as “Unsatisfactory” or you disagree with the content, a meeting will be arranged with the program Director.

At the end of the process, everyone involved in the report, including the mentor in blind copy, will receive a PDF version by email.

Please note that the information is not stored in the online tool.

Annual report’s deadlines

You are responsible for completing your report on time. Please follow up regularly with the various people involved. Should you be eligible to submit an annual progress report, you will be notified by email in December and will have until March 1st the following year to complete the process. 2nd year PhD Students have to submit their first annual progress report 12 months after candidacy examination.

For further details on eligibility and deadlines: see Annual Report’s good practices section.

Should you have any questions:
Annual report’s process

Once your PhD student has completed the annual report, you will be requested by email to connect to the online tool to review the information provided and complete your progress evaluation.

Please note that the content you fill in will be available to all parties at the time of the annual report meeting and once the process is completed.

You will then be asked by email to arrange a face-to-face meeting with your PhD student (and the co-director if applicable) to review the information, discuss goals achieved and planned, and evaluate overall progress.

During this collaborative review, you, as thesis director, will be able to access the content to be edited and completed.

Finally, the report will be sent to the EDMI Program Director for verification, and everyone involved will receive a PDF version of the report by email.

Annual report’s deadlines

Should your PhD student be eligible to submit an annual progress report, she/he will be notified by email in December and will have until March 1st the following year to complete the process.

Exception: 2nd year PhD Students have to submit their first annual progress report 12 months after candidacy examination.

For further details on eligibility and deadlines: see Annual Report’s good practices section.

Should you have any questions:
Annual report’s process

As part of the annual report, mentors meet with their PhD students to discuss the evaluation confidentially.

The following themes could be discussed:

  • Advancing as a researcher (what has gone well, less well, how to improve, goal setting, which resources are needed, …)
  • Facets of career-building (contributions to the community, conferences, awards, networking opportunities, participating in possible courses such as soft skills, academic english, article writing, communicating, managing, spin-off training, …)
  • Work-life balance
  • Communication (within the laboratory, with the thesis director and other lab members, matching expectations in terms of progress and future goals, …)
  • Life after the PhD (what kind of career options are there and how to explore them, …)

You will be notified by email in order to arrange a face-to-face meeting with your PhD student. The PhD student is responsible to organize this meeting. You will then have to confirm in the online tool that the meeting has taken place.

A PDF version of the report will be sent to you once the process is completed.

Annual report’s deadlines

Should your mentee be eligible to submit an annual progress report, she/he will be notified by email in December and will have until March 1st the following year to complete the process.

Exception: 2nd year PhD Students have to submit their first annual progress report 12 months after candidacy examination.

For further details on eligibility and deadlines: see Annual Report’s good practices section.

Should you have any questions:
Annual report’s process

You will be notified by email each time a doctoral student in your program submits an annual report.

Using the online tool, you will have to confirm that you have reviewed the content of the annual report. If needed, comments may be added.

You and all the people involved in the annual report (PhD student, thesis director(s), mentor and program assistant) will then receive a PDF copy of the report.

Should you have any questions:

Annual Progress Reports are requested via email and need to be completed by using the online tool. It is important to prioritize these requests and, complete your report punctually. Annual Progress Reports must to be submitted by a specific deadline depending on your PhD timeline. Please carefully read the instructions below to understand when you have to submit your Annual Progress Report or whether you are exempted from submitting one.

  • 1st year PhD students: not required to submit a report (progress being monitored by candidacy examination).
  • 2nd year PhD Students: report due 12 months after candidacy examination.
  • 3rd year PhD Students, if candidacy examination took place:
    a) between January 1st and August 31st = report due March 1st, two years after the candidacy exam.
    b) between September 1st and December 31st = report due March 1st, three years after the candidacy exam.
  • 4th year (and following years) PhD Students: Report due March 1st. Exempted if Jury Proposal is submitted before December 31st.