Interested in increasing skills, competences and insight to pursue a career in scientific research?

Go for the PE-RC:

 Research Master Programme in Ecology

 

Intended for MSc students who have just started their MSc up to those who are just about to do their MSc thesis project.

Summary

The Graduate School Production Ecology and Resource Conservation (PE-RC) of Wageningen University has set up a Research Master Programme in Ecology together with the MSc programmes Biology, Plant Sciences, Earth and Environment and Forest and Nature Conservation.

 

The programme is meant for those students who clearly have the ambition to pursue a career in scientific research. To this end the research master programme focuses  on the required competences, skills and insight which accordingly can allow a jump-start of the PhD track. 

 

The Research Master Programme is part of the current 2-year science-oriented MSc programmes within Wageningen University that encompass 120 ECTS. It is an optional choice within the regular MSc programmes Biology, Plant Sciences, Earth and Environment and Forest and Nature Conservation, but also inflow from other study programmes is possible.

The PE-RC Research Master Programme in Ecology to a large degree overlaps with the running MSc programmes but differs with respect to:

  1. An element “Research in Ecology” (6 ECTS, preferably in the first phase of the master studies) in which the master students will get acquainted with ecological research in general and specifically the ecological fields addressed in PE-RC. This includes a number of short rotations.

  2. A Research Master Cluster (RMC) that is a specific option of the Academic Consultancy Training of 9 ECTS and modular skills training of 3 ECTS (total = 8.4 weeks) consisting of:

    1. Modular Skills (3 ECTS) partly combined with c.

    2. Insight and analysis of required academic skills and competences (1 ECTS).

    3. A group of 4-5 Students write a joint programme proposal involving a number of PhD projects and an overarching Post-doc project (9 ECTS).

  3. Research Internship: This internship specifically focuses on a research assignment which must be performed at an international renowned ecological research institute/university, outside the home institute. The internship must be in the field of ecology and must be organized through one of the participating groups in the Research Master Programme.

Based on the Research Master curriculum (total 120 ECTS), students will receive e regular MSc Degree with an additional certificate indicating the specific skills, competences and insight as obtained from the activities specific for the Research Master Programme (as listed above)

  1. Research Master Cluster + (RMC+): This is extra-curricular (scheduled in the final part of the MSc study on top of the Research Master Programme). The RMC+ involves the writing of a PhD project proposal which will be evaluated and assessed for funding. Four of these proposals will be awarded a PhD research grant, funded by the Dutch Science Foundation (NWO). Only a limited number of MSc students who participated in the Research Master Programme (max. 12) will be admitted to the RMC+. A hard criterion is that those who want to enter the RMC+ must have obtained their MSc degree by September 2012 at the latest. The RMC+ is also open to talented students from outside the Research Master Programme (max. 4). Closing date of submission of the proposals will be May-June 2012.

Those interested in the PE-RC Research Master Programme, please contact Claudius van de Vijver (Claudius.vandevijver@wur.nl, tel: 0317-485116)

Detailed information about the programme can be found in the following document. Please note that minor changes in this document can still occur.