a) Description of the procedure used for the appointment of the doctoral student's tutor and thesis director.
The program's Academic Committee will be responsible for assigning and coordinating the doctoral tutors and supervisors associated with the program and will oversee the validation of the training and research pathways proposed by them. It will also develop training initiatives for the team of tutors on the doctoral tutoring model itself, as well as on the development of the tutoring plans that materialize their work.
The academic committee of the program, after listening to the doctoral student, may assign a new tutor provided there are justified reasons.
The tutor
The tutor will be a teaching or research staff member of any of the universities involved in the doctoral programme, assigned, with their prior consent, by the academic committee of the programme. The tutor must be a doctor with proven research experience.
The PhD Tutor will have the following responsibilities: to welcome the PhD student, design and propose an individualised training and research itinerary, ensure its follow-up, help him/her to find a thesis supervisor and guide him/her and provide him/her with support during the first academic year of the PhD programme, particularly during the first semester of the programme. For the PhD student, the PhD Tutor will be an academic point of reference, especially at the beginning of the programme, and will coordinate the interaction between the PhD student and the academic committee of the programme.
Once the Tutor has verified that the PhD student is completing the training itinerary established for him/her adequately, he/she will ensure that the professor or researcher who can carry out the duties of the PhD student's doctoral thesis supervisor is identified. In addition, with the support of the Academic Committee of the programme, the Tutor will facilitate the assignment of the PhD student to his/her future supervisor. The Tutor, initially assigned to the PhD student, may assume the duties of thesis supervisor when the subject of the thesis and the interests of the PhD student so require.
The thesis director
The academic committee of the programme will assign a thesis supervisor to each doctoral candidate within a maximum period of 6 months from the first enrolment. The academic committee of the programme will assess the candidate's previous experience in directing research plans and doctoral theses and the Director's availability to take on the supervision. The agreement of both the future thesis supervisor and the doctoral candidate will also be ensured. The supervision of a doctoral thesis will be conditional on the candidate successfully completing the additional training, if any, preparing the research plan and having it approved in the first academic year of the doctoral programme.
The thesis supervisor is the person ultimately responsible for the consistency and suitability of the PhD candidate's training in research and cross-disciplinary skills. As a basic requirement, the potential supervisor will be required to meet the corresponding requirements demanded by the regulations in force at the different universities, in the event that they are not included in the requirements to accredit research experience as indicated in the previous point.
The thesis director will work with the doctoral candidate to achieve, first, the presentation and approval of the doctoral research plan and, subsequently, the preparation and defence of the doctoral thesis, in accordance with the procedures and deadlines established in the applicable regulations. The thesis director will regularly monitor the doctoral candidate's research plan, guiding and directing him/her as he/she develops it. As he/she progresses in the development of the plan, he/she will ensure that the doctoral candidate takes the initiative and gains autonomy. The thesis director will ensure that the research plan has an original, formative and innovative character, and that it is feasible in the terms that have been proposed, as well as that it is consistent with the line of research to which it has been linked.
The thesis director will ultimately be the doctoral candidate's main academic advisor at the University, once he or she has completed the activities that have been incorporated into his or her personal training itinerary during the first semester of the doctoral programme. In the case of doctoral candidates who are beneficiaries of competitive predoctoral grants, the director will also be responsible for the activity that the grantee carries out within the institution. The thesis director will be responsible for supporting and guiding him or her regarding temporary stays at other higher education institutions or research centres, regarding his or her participation in research projects, regarding the publication and dissemination of the results obtained in his or her research and regarding the development of any other research initiative that is considered relevant to carry out.
Once the director has been assigned, the Doctoral Letter will be signed, a commitment document that establishes the rights and obligations of the doctorate. The Doctoral Letter, which will be signed by the doctoral student, the thesis director, the tutor and the coordinator of the Academic Committee of the Doctoral Program, will contain the following content:
b) Procedure for controlling the registration of activities of each doctoral student and the certification of their data.
The doctoral student's training itinerary, research plan, and doctoral thesis are recorded in the academic record of the Doctoral School responsible for the program.
After a doctoral student enrolls for the first time, an individualized activity document, the Doctoral Student Activity Document (DAD), will be generated and maintained. This document will include all activities related to their academic career. Specifically, it will include the research plan that the doctoral student must prepare before the end of the first year. This plan, which may be improved throughout the doctoral studies, must be endorsed by the tutor and supervisor and must include the methodology to be used, as well as the desired research objectives. In addition, the DAD will include training activities completed, publications, placements at other centers, grants or scholarships, participation in conferences and seminars, etc. It will also include changes in tutor or supervisor.
The DAD will be an electronic record, kept by the responsible Doctoral School corresponding to the coordinating University. Each participating University will keep a copy of the DAD of the doctoral students belonging to it. The doctoral student, the assigned tutor and director and the members of the Academic Committee will have access to the DAD. The DAD will be an instrument of continuous evaluation of the researcher in training and will include evidence of their training in research and in transversal competences. For this reason, it will be given to all members of the thesis committee.
c) Procedure for the annual evaluation of the Research Plan and the record of the doctoral student's activities.
The local academic committee will prepare a report that will be sent to the Academic Committee, assessing the Research Plan presented by the doctoral student andwill propose, in a reasoned manner, its approval or rejection, although the decision on this and other evaluations rests exclusively with the Academic Committee of the program.
The tutor and supervisor will regularly review the doctoral student's activity report, and the program's Academic Committee will evaluate it annually, according to the schedule established by the Doctoral School. These reports will be incorporated into the activity report.
To prepare these reports, the program's local academic committee will appoint a committee composed of three program professors. Each doctoral student will briefly present the activities carried out, research progress, and possible deviations from the research plan. This committee may include an international expert when the research topic or its development makes it advisable.
The local academic committee will issue reports on the progress of doctoral research to provide relevant information to the program's Academic Committee in the performance of its duties of monitoring and evaluating the doctoral student's work.
Based on these reports and the evidence provided by the doctoral students in their activity report, the Academic Committee will determine whether the doctoral student should be enrolled in the following academic year.
Once the doctoral candidate has completed their thesis, always in accordance with the deadlines established in the regulations for continuing doctoral studies, the local academic committee will prepare a final report on this work and, if appropriate, will grant their reasoned request for its deposit to the program's Academic Committee. Based on these reports and the activities document, the Academic Committee may accept or reject the thesis deposit. If there are no previous publications on the results of the thesis in JCR journals in one of the mathematics fields, the Academic Committee may appoint two independent evaluators, experts in the field of the doctoral thesis, to submit an evaluation of the thesis, which will be taken into account by the Academic Committee before authorizing its reading.
d) Provision of stays for doctoral students at other national and international training centers, joint supervision and European mentions.
The director will facilitate the doctoral student's research stays in national and international centers, suggesting the most appropriate ones and facilitating theintegration of the doctoral student into it.
The program will promote internationalization, both through joint supervision agreements and through collaboration with researchers from other countries and among professors from the various participating universities. It will also ensure that a high percentage of theses are defended through international doctoral programs.