EDNE Annual report

In order to evaluate PhD student’s progress on their thesis, the thesis director (and co-director if applicable) and the PhD student meet once a year to prepare a 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 and connection with your GASPAR account (or Guest account for co-directors outside EPFL).

Your doctoral program assistant will send you the link by email near the time your annual report is due for submission.

Annual report’s process

Each year, starting one year after the Candidacy exam, you are required to submit an annual report to your thesis director on the state of progress of your work using the on-line tool.

Attention: For the second and third year:  you will also need to bring together your jury from your candidacy exam for a Scientific Discussion. This is constructive discussion about your thesis project in order to help you focus your work. Please download this form,  fill out what you can, and then the candidacy president fills in the summary of your progress.  Send the completed and signed form to the EDNE administrator as a pdf. 

For the on-line Annual Report tool, you are requested to fill in 3 sections with:

  • your basic information;
  • your research progress: you will complete this section and then discuss it with your thesis director (and co-director if applicable) during the annual report meeting;
  • and a self-assessment of your progress: this section is completed separately by you and your thesis director (and co-director if applicable), then discussed and approved by both during the annual report meeting.

using the online tool.

Please note that the content you fill in is not confidential and will be available to all parties at the time of the annual report meeting and once the process is completed.

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

Finally, the report will be sent to the director of your doctoral program for verification, and everyone involved will receive a PDF version of the report by email.

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

Annual report’s deadlines

On the anniversary date of your matriculation, you will receive an email form your doctoral program to start the annual report process.

You will have 1 month to complete it.

Should you have any questions:
Annual report’s process

Once your PhD student 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 is not confidential and will be available to all parties at the time of the annual report meeting and once the process is completed.

You will then be prompted by an email message 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, fill in the field of the appropriate field accessed by the most recent email message.

Finally, the report will be sent to the director of the doctoral program for verification, and everyone involved will receive a PDF version of the report by email.

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

2nd and 3rd Year Scientific Discussion:  In addition to this on-line tool, the EDNE program is continuing the Scientific Discussions for the 2nd and 3rd students. The goal is to explore ways on how to maximize the success of the PhD project. It is not an exam, but we would like to have a record of the discussion in the student’s file.  The form is found here.

Annual report’s deadlines

The annual report starts on the anniversary date of your PhD student’s matriculation.

The process must be completed within 1 month.

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 soft skill courses on 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 have to confirm in the online tool that the meeting has taken place.

At the end of the process, you, as mentor, will receive a PDF version of the report by email.

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

Annual report’s deadlines

The annual report starts on the anniversary date of your mentee’s matriculation.

The process must be completed in 1 month.

Should you have any questions:
Annual report’s process

You, with the doctoral program’s admin in copy, will be notified by email each time a doctoral student in your program submits an annual report.

In the online tool, you will have to confirm that you have checked the annual report and you may indicate any comments you have. This task can be delegated to your admin in order to distribute the number of reports to be confirmed. However, it is you as doctoral program director who remains responsible for the follow-up of these annual evaluations.

You will then receive a PDF copy of the report by email, as well as all the people involved in the annual report (PhD student, thesis director, co-director if applicable, mentor and admin).

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

Should you have any questions:

2nd and 3rd year Scientific Discussion
You need to reassemble your jury from your candidacy exam for a constructive discussion of your progress and challenges ahead. Skype and Zoom are approved for this.
Download the form, fill out your part and have your thesis director fill out their part and take it to the discussion.
Return the completed pdf to the EDNE administrator.