A doctoral training supervised by a personal team

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Doctoral training

The SEED programme aims to equip its early stage researchers (ESRs) with the best skills to help them in developing their ability to support the changes in society. To achieve this vision, SEED provides a comprehensive doctoral training programme, which does not only deliver the required scientific training, but also provides a thorough education in soft skills that are increasingly important for all scientists and technologists. This is complemented by a carefully designed career development programme, which equips the ESRs with the skills required in the modern workplace to become innovators and future leaders in academia, industry, or their own start-ups.

The SEED programme has therefore fixed itself three objectives:

  1. Provide scientific knowledge beyond the SOTA to strengthen career perspectives and to develop science-based applications. 
  2. Provide the knowledge, ability and confidence to undertake broad interdisciplinary research by maximising exposure to different environments.
  3. Provide professional, communication and management skills enabling to succeed in any sector.

A comprehensive training programme with 7 core pillars

  1. Open Science and Ethical Research Skills Training, notably in critical literature searching, ethical and professional issues in research, design of experiments, etc.
  2. Scientific Skills Training, notably interdisciplinary scientific training, skills specifically taught by industrial and academic associated partners, etc.
  3. (Continuous) Training through research and Secondment Training 
  4. Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training, notably practical skills and knowledge on entrepreneurship, start-up creation, intellectual property rights, etc.
  5. Communication Skills Training, notably with regards to public engagement and properly writing scientific papers, providing French Language courses, etc.
  6. Management Skills Training, notably project management, intellectual property rights management, etc.
  7. Career Development Training, notably sessions on career planning, preparation for job interviews, career overviews, etc.
SEED: an accompanied growth

Supervisory team for the doctoral training

A personal supervisory team will supervise each early stage researcher (ESR). This team is composed of three people: the main supervisor, the co-supervisor and the mentor.

  • The main supervisor from IMT Atlantique who provides the thesis topic and will be in charge of the daily monitoring of the ESR, providing supervision, expertise, advice and support. The main supervisor will be the main point of contact for the ESR throughout the thesis. The name of the main supervisor is therefore made available on the SEED application website in addition to the thesis topic.
  • The co-supervisor from the academic or industrial partner offering the secondment, depending on the track choice (standard, academic co-supervision, industrial). The co-supervisor will be responsible for co-supervising the ESR, with a significantly active role in monitoring the ESR during the secondment phase of the programme. Co-supervisors will not publically be assigned during the application phase, but instead, will be validated by the main supervisor, project management, and ESR at the commencement of the thesis.
  • A mentor with an academic or industrial background will provide an additional international or intersectoral expertise. Depending on the chosen track, the mentor will be the expert providing the additional secondment opportunity. The involvement of the supervising mentor is lighter than that of a co-supervisor. As with co-supervisors, mentors will not be publicly assigned to a thesis topic during the application phase, but will be allotted appropriately during the start of the thesis.