Starting your doctorate: the toolbox

Summary

The aim of the ‘Starting your doctorate: the toolbox’ course is to provide PhD candidates with the tools they need to adapt as quickly as possible to the specificities of the research environment, to become more autonomous and to develop and become aware of their skills. It is designed as a toolbox, providing doctoral candidates with practical tools and methods (time management, self-motivation, be familiar with their rights and duties, etc.).

Program

1 – Finding your place in the French academic world

• Understand how the academic world works,
• Understand the role of a research unit or doctoral school,
• Identify the doctoral researcher’s rights and duties
• Know the regulatory tools (individual agreement, portfolio, monitoring committee),
• A quick word about scientific integrity and plagiarism

2 – The doctorate as a scientific project, project management tools and methods

• Identify and avoid time thieves,
• Set clear, achievable objectives,
• Use planning tools adapted to research,
• Fight procrastination without putting pressure on yourself.

3 – Communicating with supervisors

• Clarify the respective expectations of supervisors and doctoral researchers,
• Anticipate how these roles and expectations will evolve over the course of the doctoral project, and how this transition will take place.
• Discover interpersonal communication methods.

4 – Some research tools

• Take stock of one’s epistemic positioning and the biases to be avoided in research
• Good bibliographic monitoring practices
• An overview of bibliographic monitoring tools
• Learn about useful tools for note-taking and thesis writing (Notion, Obsidian, Word, LaTeX…)

5 – Career development and training

• Know the skills of doctors (Career study, RNCP),
• Consider the transferability of these skills to other professional fields,
• Learn how to use the portfolio approach to map skills and training needs

Trainer

Dr. Anna-Livia Morand (ADOC METIS)

Informations

The training will take place on Wednesday, May 20, 2026, from 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and on Thursday, May 21, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

Place : Université Paris Cité – Bâtiment Condorcet – salle 054A – 4 rue Elsa Morante – 75013 PARIS