DIWA Doctoral Education Pilot started in the beginning of January and last week was the first time when all the doctoral researchers were gathered together to meet at the University of Oulu, meet each other across the participating organizations, to hear about the goals of the Digital Waters Flagship. The Doctoral researchers also presented their research to local water businesses, to initiate discussion about collaborations.
The 60 new doctoral researchers working in DIWA PhD Pilot project are distributed in 5 Finnish universities: University of Oulu, Aalto university, University of Turku, University of Eastern Finland and Åbo Akademi. The doctoral degrees are always granted by one the partner universities, but many of the researchers have supervisors in Finnish governmental research institutes, such as Natural Resources Institutes LUKE, Finnish Geospatial Research Institute FGI and The National Institute of Health and Welfare THL or Geological Survey of Finland (GTK), and part of their research is done physically at these research institutes.
Some of the doctoral researchers have secondments at Finnish water businesses, which are aiming to tighten the discussion and collaboration between research and the Finnish water sector business development. To create new collaborations, local businesses from Oulu were invited to meet up with our new doctoral researchers, who were presenting their research topics and interests in a poster session in the afternoon of 6th February.
Doctoral researchers from Åbo Akademi and University of Turku getting to know each other’s research plans. Image: Annukka Pekkarinen/University of Turku
The Doctoral researchers have now three fully funded years to complete their research and submit the thesis for evaluation, which is in line with the European model of doctoral degrees. The average time spent on completing PhD’s in Finland is currently several years longer than 3 years, and this pilot project will aim to see how enhanced supervision procedures and sufficient, secured funding can help the researchers submit the thesis within the given time frame of 3 years.
We are looking forwards to keeping you updated on the journey of our doctoral researchers, the highlights of their scientific findings, their stories from the field, experiences from the Finnish Water Oriented Living Labs and new collaborations arising from this work!
Digital Waters Flagship (DIWA) Staff and new Doctoral Education Pilot research staff in Oulu. Image: Annukka Pekkarinen/UTU
More information from DIWA communications:
Annukka Pekkarinen, University of Turku, annupek(at)utu.fi
Hanna Holappa, University of Oulu, hanna.holappa(at)oulu.fi
