Well before the starting date of your PhD trajectory (2-3 months), you need to register at the PE&RC Graduate School. To do so, download the PE&RC registration form here, complete it and send it to the PE&RC Office, with your supervisor in cc.

Once your registration has been confirmed, you will be invited by one of our PhD Programme Coordinators for an introduction meeting. The purpose of this meeting is to explain the role and value of PE&RC for a PhD candidate as well as the requirements related to the PE&RC PhD Programme.

The PE&RC PhD Council maintains a 'Buddy system' to welcome new PhD candidates. The buddy is a fellow PhD candidate who assists with information about administrative and practical issues, shows candidates the way around the university and the town and introduces them to the ‘Dutch way of life’. On registration with PE&RC, new PhDs indicate if they like to have a buddy to help them settling in. At this moment, the PE&RC Buddy System is only implemented in Wageningen.

Contact persons for the PE&RC Buddy System can be found here.  

More information

Three times a year, PE&RC organizes a 3-day retreat for new PhD candidates. It is strongly recommended that new candidates participate in the retreat. 

As a PhD candidate, you should spend 15% of your PhD research contract on an educational programme. The Training and Supervision Plan (TSP) formalizes this. 

The TSP describes a PhD candidate's planned training and teaching activities, as well as agreements on supervision and evaluation of performance and progress. The minimum number of credits required is 30 ECTS, which corresponds to a time investment of about 22 weeks. The TSP is a structure that facilitates the planning of activities related to personal development and the frequency, format and responsibilities of supervision. Rights and obligations are formalised through this document. Discuss and agree these matters with your supervisors. 

Download the TSP form here. 

Specific TSP form for Naturalis PhD candidates. 

The TSP:

• Must be submitted by the PhD candidate within the first three months.
• Is signed by (co)-promotor(s) and supervisor(s), and is officially approved by the Graduate School. Please first prepare a draft version together with your supervisor(s) and send this by email to the PE&RC PhD Programme Coordinator with whom you had an intake meeting. They will give feedback and advice when needed. You, your (co)-promotor(s) and supervisor(s) sign the TSP after which you send it for formal approval to the head of the PE&RC PhD programme (claudius.vandevijver@wur.nl). PhD’s registered in Wageningen should then upload the fully signed and approved TSP to Hora Finita.
• Once the TSP has been approved, your chair group will reserve a “training and education backpack” for you to pay for activities listed in the TSP, usually €3000 - €4000. Always confirm with your supervisor how much you can expect. (WUR candidates can check here). If the budget is not enough, the PhD candidate and supervisors may need to find additional funding opportunities. PE&RC subsidizes participation in courses by all WUR Graduate Schools and may offer financial support for the participation in external courses.
• The TSP should be annually reviewed with supervisors during the results and personal development meeting (R&O gesprek). The TSP can be altered in the course of the PhD period. The PE&RC office must be informed on changes with respect to supervision, but this is not needed for changes in the training components.

Teaching duties of PhD candidates

PhD candidates with a university employment contract are expected to fulfill teaching activities such as assisting in practical classes, lecturing or supervising MSc thesis students up to 10% of their overall workload.  The agreed activities are documented in category 4 of the TSP, with clearly identified learning goals. PE&RC adheres to a maximum of 6 ECTs in the teaching category. In exceptional cases a chair group can appeal to a PhD candidate to spend more than 10% on teaching duties. In those cases an extension of the employee contract is compulsory to compensate for the extra time.

NOTE: Bursary, external, or scholarship PhD candidates have no teaching obligation and are exempt from this requirement. However, they may include teaching activities in their programme if they want to develop their teaching skills.

When one starts a PhD it is essential to know what one will be doing, why and how. This requires a clear project proposal that can support an effective trajectory of your PhD. PE&RC strongly suggest that PhD’s write a project proposal within first 6 months of their PhD trajectory. Note that for WUR PhD’s a project proposal is mandatory to be fully registered as PhD. 

The general PE&RC Project Proposal form can be found here.  
The specific Proposal form for PhD candidates of Naturalis can be found here. 

Candidates who join PE&RC at an advanced stage of their PhD do not need to submit a full proposal but must instead provide:

• An outline of the project (thesis outline)
• A summary of progress to date
• Planned research activities under PE&RC

Data management plan
The WUR data policy requires that candidates develop a data management plan approved by their first supervisor. The PE&RC template for project proposals also contains a section on data management, that should be related to the more detailed data management plan. Find the WUR data management plan template here.’

Go / No-go evaluation

The Go / No-go evaluation (generally scheduled around 1 year after the start of the PhD project) is obligatory for PhDs of most of PE&RC partner universities. The outcome of the Go / No-go evaluation is a decision whether the PhD candidate may continue their PhD project or not. The decision is based on progress, knowledge and insight of the PhD candidate in the project, but also on the status of the university's admission criteria (e.g., approval of the TSP and project proposal, and proof of proficiency in the English language).

The procedure for and timing of the Go / No-go evaluation may vary between the different PE&RC institutes. Candidates should therefore inform themselves what applies to them (see below). We urge PhD supervisors to discuss the Go/No-go  procedure, evaluation criteria, timeline and consequences of a Go or a No-go with new PhD candidates prior to the start of their project.

Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen: Find information on the Go/No-go evaluation here

Universiteit Leiden: Find information on the Go/No-go evaluation here

Universiteit van Amsterdam Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED): Still to be specified

Utrecht University: Still to be specified

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam: This varies per department. 

Wageningen University & Research: Find information on the Go/No-go evaluation here

Find the instructions on how to process the GO/No-go in Hora Finita here.