Procedures

Research Activities

In case of educational and research activity carried out at locations other than the one of your Doctorate programme in UniTrento, PhD students must ask for the authorisation from their supervisor and the SIS Director, for the following reasons:

• for insurance reasons (if you do not respect the procedure you won’t be covered by the insurance of the University);
• to notify the Accounting Office of your temporary change of location(useful in case you are going to participate in a conference);
• to receive reimbursement (if requested).

These rules are valid for your whole doctoral period, from the enrolment until your thesis oral discussion. For more information, please refer to the document E-Travel you can find in the box Download. PhD students are recommended to familiarise themselves with the Guidelines for Carrying out Research Activities in Risc Areas (box Download).

Research Budget

Please note that your research budget is available as a contribute for conferences and workshops application fees, for travel and accommodation costs and for other preauthorised costs. Please find below some basic rules you are expected to follow.

How to ask for the Research Budget

If you are attending an event ABROAD, where fees are requested:

• you can pay the fees yourself and then ask for the reimbursement. The invoice/debit note must
  • detail all the items it includes (registration fee, board and lodging etc.)
  • be addressed to the university (see below) and
  • include the participant’s name.
• You can ask the School to pay the fees for you for amounts exceeding 500 Euros

Please fill in all the required details in the above - mentioned form (Partecipazione corsi/seminari/convegni), i.e. institution’s full address, VAT number and institution’s bank details (bank name, address and IBAN/SWIFT code).

You are required to enclose a certificate/letter/document stating:

• The registration procedure
• The event dates and programme
• The fee amount and what this includes.

With regard to the fees, the invoice must be addressed to
Scuola di Studi Internazionali
University of Trento
Via T.Gar, 14
38122 Trento
Italy
VAT number/C.I. 00340520220

With regard to the fees, please note that the School can NOT reimburse invoices addressed to you.
The invoices regarding travels, meals and accommodation MUST be addressed to your person instead.
The travel expenses reimbursement request (on line procedure – see MyUnitn/Gestione Trasferte) must be completed when you return. Please note that this form will not be taken into consideration and the reimbursement will NOT be paid if the travel authorisation request form has not been filled in in advance.

Please note that the university can only reimburse travel tickets with dates consistent with the event. Tickets with dates distant more than 1 day from the beginning of the event (outbound ticket) and tickets with date distant more than 1 day from the end of the event (return tickets) will not be reimbursed. Please contact the staff for further details if you need to travel in more distant dates.

Please note that you are asked to submit all the documents (tickets, invoices etc.) in original to the School Secretariat.
If you need help in filling in the online forms please feel free to contact the School Secretariat.

Admission to the Second and Third Years

At the end of the academic year, the PhD Program Committee evaluates the performance of each student and decides upon admission to the successive year.
In order to be admitted to the second year, PhD students must:

• attend all first-year courses, lectures and seminars, and pass the first- and second-semester seminar exams/papers;
• successfully defend their research proposal in the Graduate Student Conference presentation. In October, the PhD Programme Committee formally approves admission to the second year. The PhD students will be notified by the Central PhD Office of the University (Cognitive, Social Sciences and Humanities Area: phd.office-cssh [at] unitn.it) about their registration in the following year.

The PhD Programme Committee formally approves admission to the third year, following a positive evaluation of the PhD student’s progress.
In order to be admitted to the third year, PhD students have to:

• submit a review of the relevant literature to the supervisor by the end of the third semester (January);
• submit at least one draft chapter of the dissertation to the supervisor by the end of the fourth semester (September);
• obtain a positive evaluation from their supervisor, based upon a report of the second-year research activities, in particular, those performed during the time abroad.

Enrolment in the second and third year

Final Examination - 36° cohort

N.B. Each administrative deadline is postponed for a duration equal to the period of extension of the doctoral period for reasons related to the health emergency COVID-19.

Within the deadline* the following 4 files must be mailed to phd [at] sis.unitn.it :

1. DISSERTATION in pdf format.
2. DISSERTATION ABSTRACT no longer than 300 words, with thesis title and your name on the top of the page. The School will email the Abstract to your ‘referees’ to enquire about their availability to evaluate your thesis and to be part of the Board of Examiners.
3. PhD COMPLETION REPORT It is a brief summary of the main activities that you carried out while studying for the Doctorate in Trento (no standard format to be followed). The report should list your presentations at conferences, publications, periods of research outside Trento, and any other information that might be useful to the ‘referees’.
4. DOCTOR EUROPAEUS The PhD candidates who request the label need to send a signed self- statement listing the European institutions and the time where the research was carried out while studying in Trento.

* 1 February 2024 for the Students who have a 3-month extension.

* * * * * * * * * *
External Referees
The supervisor makes recommendations for the choice of the ‘referees’, who are approved by the Graduate School Committee. The Coordinator will forward the dissertation Abstract to the ‘referees’; upon receipt of their availability, the School will email the dissertation and inform the PhD candidate.
Thesis Evaluation
The referees will be given up to 30 days to produce their report, which will be emailed to the supervisor and the PhD candidate by the Secretariat. The thesis may be
- accepted without revisions (the dissertation is accepted as is),
- accepted with minor revisions (the admission to the Dissertation Defense is granted with minor changes on the thesis indicated by the referees; the new version containing the implemented revisions will not be submitted for further evaluation);
- major revisions required (the admission to the Dissertation Defense is granted after a second review is performed by the same ‘referees’; a period of up to 6 months is given to the candidate to implement the changes. The thesis will be submitted for a second review with a Rebuttal letter). The Final Exam is then scheduled. The PhD students will be informed of the date in due time.