Each year the annual meeting of the Netherlands Society
for Behavioural Biology will be preceded by a workshop for PhD-students. This
year that will be on Wednesday the 26th of November. All PhD students in
behavioural biology are invited to attend! This workshop focuses on
methodological and ethical issues in behavioural biology. During the workshop
PhD students have the opportunity to present their plans or preliminary results
from their research projects. Presenting at as an early stage PhD is highly recommended.
Ample time for discussion is planned in. The costs for the PhD Workshop are 90
euro, including lunch and tea/coffee breaks.
The annual NVG PhD Workshop will take place in 2014 at
Soesterberg. The goal of these workshops is to facilitate contact and
discussion among PhD students in behavioural biology. Normally there are about
15 PhD students and 2 or 3 senior researchers, all of whom will be present
throughout the day. This year we have a special speaker:
Gert van Maanen
Gert is known from his role as Editor in chief at
Bionieuws (NIBI).
Bionieuws is a magazine made by journalists and
scientists that appears
20 times per year and contains new information for
biologists about scientific publications, education and society.
The workshop will this year consist of three main parts:
1) Gert van Maanen will introduce the topic ‘Science
communication and societal relevance’. Gert will give an interactive
presentation in which he will explain the do’s and don’ts of science
communication and where he will give hints on what to do when you want to make
you scientific findings public. The goal of this part is get a feeling for the
position that PhD’s have in the discussion on societal relevance, but also how
society should view our work. What do you want the general public to think
about your work and what do they need to remember. And most of
all: to practice how to discuss and develop your own
opinion on a topic that might not be as easy as it seems.
2) A series of talks by (some of) the PhD students about
their work plans (Max. 10 minutes talk + 20 minutes discussion). All of the
students (including those who are not presenting a talk) + the senior
researchers are present and contribute to the discussion. Although not all the
students present their work, the discussions typically range across a whole
series of general issues related to research (the importance of the research
question, the approach chosen, the design of behavioural experiments, data
analysis, etc). But more importantly, the PhDs should prepare 2 slides in which
he or she will try to present their work to a general public. And above that
indicate what the societal relevance is if the work. Starting PhD students (in
the first or second year of their PhD research) are particularly encouraged to
offer a presentation, though the topic will be usefull for all PhDs.
Recently, one of the talks that generated the most useful
discussion (both for the student and audience) was given by a PhD student who
had started their project only 6 weeks before: this is a good chance to think
about your project plans and get useful feedback!
3) Small-group discussions about the highs and lows of
PhD research. A chance to exchange experiences about what worked or didn’t
work, and to get to know some of the other PhD students better.
Provisional program:
Coffee available from 9.30 am
10.00 – 11.00 Gert van Maanen + Discussion
11.00 – 11.30 Coffee & Tea
11.30 – 12.30 2 Student Talks + Discussion
12.30 – 13.30 Lunch
13.30 – 15.00 3 Student Talks + Discussion
15.00 – 15.30 Coffee & Tea
15.30 – 16.30 2 Student Talks + Discussion
16.30 – 17.30 Small-group discussion
Registration fee for the PhD workshop: €90, including
lunch and tea/coffee Details of NVG meeting:
Register for NVG meeting & PhD workshop:
For other information on the PhD workshop contact Kees
van Oers: