The supervision, monitoring, and evaluation of doctoral programs are the responsibility of the Doctoral School, through the Postgraduate Studies Committee and the Program's Academic Committee. Pursuant to Articles 14-16 of the REODULL (Regulations on the Functioning of the Doctoral Program), the program's Academic Committee will be composed of a maximum of seven participating professors and/or researchers, including the academic coordinator, who will act as its chair. This position must be held by a relevant researcher and be supported by at least two periods of recognized research activity in accordance with the provisions of Royal Decree 1086/1989, of August 28, on faculty remuneration. The committee will include at least one member from each line of research that makes up the doctoral program, respecting the aforementioned limit. If there are more than seven lines of research, the academic committee will be renewed at the end of each term, and professors and/or researchers from those lines that did not have representatives in the previous term will be included as members. In addition, representatives from entities external to the doctoral program that collaborate in its development may be included as members of the academic committee, in a number not exceeding three. In all cases, they must meet the requirements established for thesis supervisor, as described in section 5.1 of this report. If necessary, a rotating system for appointing representatives by external entities will be established.

Membership of the academic committee will last three academic years from the date of appointment, provided the conditions for membership are met. Research line members may replace the members they appoint if any of the reasons provided for in the regulations governing membership of collegiate bodies arise. Membership of the academic committee may be extended once if the members of the research line to which they are assigned so deem appropriate.

The functions of the academic committee will be the following: a) Propose the admission of students, b) Establish the training complements that must be taken, if applicable, by the admitted students based on their access profile, c) Assign a tutor and director to each new student, d) Evaluate the research plan and the document of activities of each student of the program within the established deadlines, e) Choose the doctors who must issue the reports in the doctoral theses that aspire to the title of Doctor with "International Mention", f) Analyze the doctoral theses that are presented to begin their defense process and issue the corresponding report, g) Formulate the proposal for the appointment of the doctors who will form part of the thesis committee, h) Verify each academic year that the members of the doctoral program meet the requirements established to be assigned as thesis directors.

Procedure for assigning a tutor and director

As regulated by Article 9 of the REODULL (Regulations on the Functional and Functional Disorders of the University of Alicante), once admitted, each student will be assigned a tutor by the Academic Committee. The tutor must hold a doctorate and meet the requirements for supervising doctoral theses mentioned in Article 10 of the aforementioned Regulations. The Academic Committee, after consulting the doctoral candidate, may modify the appointment of the tutor at any time during the doctoral program, provided there are justified reasons. If it deems it appropriate, it may request reports from the tutor and the thesis supervisor.

• The duties of the tutor are: a) to regularly review, together with the thesis director, the doctoral student's activity document; b) to endorse, together with the thesis director and before the end of the first year, the research plan drawn up by the doctoral student; c) to sign the teaching commitment, together with the doctoral student, the thesis director and the competent vice-rector representing the ULL; d) to issue the annual report on the doctoral student's activity to the academic committee; e) to ensure the visibility of the ULL in all publications and activities for the dissemination of research results developed by the doctoral student.
• Assignment of supervisor: Within one month of enrollment, the Academic Committee will assign a thesis supervisor, who may or may not be the same as the tutor.
• Thesis supervisors must meet the requirements mentioned in section 5.1.
• At any time during the doctoral program, the Academic Committee, for justified reasons and after consulting the doctoral candidate, tutor, and supervisor, may modify the appointments and authorize the inclusion of a co-supervisor.
• Supervision Commitment Document: The supervision duties of doctoral students will be established through a documentary commitment, signed by the vice-rector responsible for postgraduate studies, the doctoral student, their tutor, and their supervisor or co-supervisors. The commitment must be signed within the first three months of the assignment of a tutor and supervisor. The document must include the unconditional acceptance by the doctoral student and supervisor of the respective rights and responsibilities set forth in the REODULL and in section 5.1 of this report. It will also include a conflict resolution procedure and address aspects related to intellectual or industrial property rights that may arise within the scope of the doctoral program. The commitment document, once signed by the parties involved, will be incorporated into the Doctoral Student's Activity Document and filed in their file. The commitment document must conform to the established model.
• Conflict resolution procedure: In the event of non-compliance with any of the points included in the commitment document or the occurrence of any other disagreement related to the development of the doctoral programme, either party may bring it to the attention of the Academic Committee, which will act as mediator with a view to reaching an agreement that puts an end to the controversy. If mediation does not allow the conflict to be resolved after two months have elapsed since the doctoral programme coordinator has been informed, it will be forwarded to the Doctoral Committee (or Doctoral School when it is in operation), which must issue a resolution within three months, after hearing the parties and the doctoral programme coordinator. An appeal may be lodged against the agreement of the Doctoral Committee (Doctoral School) before the rector, under the terms provided for in Law 30/1992, of 26 November, on the Legal Regime of Public Administrations and the Common Administrative Procedure.

Activity Record Control and Data Certification

Once the Supervision Commitment Document has been signed, the program's Academic Committee will create the Personalized Activity Document (DAD) for the individual registration of the doctoral student's activities. This document will record both the training activities referred to in section 4 of this report and the additional training activities established by the Academic Committee based on the applicant profile and the tutor's recommendations (point 3.3.1 of the report). Each activity must include the identification data (type, title, location), source of funding, if applicable, authorization from the tutor/director, purpose of the activity, its relationship to the topic and research plan. Once completed, a summary of its content, duration in hours and date of completion, proof of completion, any incidents, and verification/certification by the tutor of its completion, as regulated by the program's CA and the Postgraduate Studies Committee or the ULL Doctoral School when operational. Annually, the tutor, the thesis director, and the CA will incorporate their reports on the completion of the scheduled activities into this document.

Annual evaluation of the Research Plan and the Activity Document

Before the end of the first year, the doctoral student will prepare a Research Plan that will include at least: a) justification of the study, b) methodology to be used and objectives to be achieved, c) available resources, and d) timeline. This plan may be improved and detailed throughout the student's stay on the program and must be endorsed by the tutor and director. The program's academic committee will annually evaluate the development of the Research Plan and the document of activities carried out by the doctoral student, along with the reports that the tutor and director must issue for this purpose. The tutor and director's report may be joint or independent. It must include an assessment of the degree of compliance and use of the planned activities, a general evaluation of the doctoral student's performance, the progress made in the planned research plan, the difficulties encountered and the proposed solutions, and a summary of the results obtained, including publications and conference papers, if any. Starting in the second year (fourth year for part-time work), a reasoned estimate of the time required to complete the thesis will be included, along with the possibility of requesting an extension until the end of the third year (fifth year for part-time work). If the supervisor deems completion of the thesis unfeasible, they must provide adequate justification. A positive evaluation is an essential requirement for continuing on the program. In the event of a negative evaluation, the academic committee will issue a report justifying the decision, proposing appropriate corrective measures for the next evaluation. In the event of a negative evaluation, the doctoral student must be re-evaluated within six months, for which purpose a new Research Plan will be drawn up. In the event of another negative evaluation, the doctoral student will be permanently withdrawn from the program.

Forecast of doctoral students' stays at other centres.

One of the priority challenges facing the ULL in recent years has been promoting collaborations with other national and international research and postgraduate training centers. Our geographical location influences these relationships in two ways. On the one hand, our remoteness makes it more difficult to maintain direct and fluid interaction with national and European reference centers, and on the other, it makes us a strategic hub for interaction with African and Latin American countries. The efforts made in recent years to strengthen these relationships are reflected in: a) the awarding of the "International Campus of Excellence" status in 2010 by the Ministry of Economics and Business (MINECO); b) the signing of doctoral training agreements in the area of Health Sciences with various European universities: Universität Ulm, Germany; Universität degli Studi di Verona, Italy; Universität degli Studi di Udine, Italy; Universität degli Studi di Bari, Italy; c) the execution of two European projects that contemplate the mobility of pre- and postdoctoral researchers: «Exploring Marine Resources for Bioactive Compounds: From Discovery to Sustainable Production and Industrial Applications» (MAREX, FP7-KBBE-2009-3), and «Improving Biomedical Research and Innovation in the Canary Islands» (IMBRAIN, FP7-REGPOT-2012-CT2012-316137), d) agreements with different universities and research centers in Latin American and African countries in the field of Health Sciences and Public Health that include doctoral training: University of the West Indies (Jamaica) and the Technological Institute of Sonora (Mexico), University of Santiago de Chile (2011), the University of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay (2012) and the Michoacana University of Mexico (2013), the Atlantic Platform for the control and research of tropical diseases (PACIET) with the participation of other Spanish and international universities and research centers Portugal, Cape Verde, South Africa, Cameroon, Senegal, Chile and Venezuela, (see document compendium of agreements and collaborations attached to point 1.4 of this report) and e) Numerous non-agreed collaborations between researchers participating in the program and researchers from national and international reference centers (see section 1.4.1). These interactions allow us to foresee an increase in the mobility of doctoral students in the coming years.