A HGS-HIRe PhD-committee consists of
The senior mentor should be a knowledgeable expert in the field who can support the participant in questions related to the current thesis, future perspectives and career planning if advice is requested. The mentor does not necessarily need to participate in every meeting of the PhD committee though as an official member he may choose to attend if he deems his presence helpful or necessary. Participants and mentors should be in contact on a regular basis. The mentor does not necessarily need to be a member of HGS-HIRe.
The HGS-HIRe PhD committee meets every six months. The first meetings should be held within the first two months of the
thesis project. The committees discusses the current status of the project, mid- and long-term plans and expectations,
both from the official supervisor as well as the participant. At the end of the meeting the current status is summarized
on a standard form 
and a time plan is set up for the comming
six months. The original protocoll has to be submitted to HGS-HIRe.
In the next meeting - after six months - this protocoll is used as input for discussion to see if the working plan was met or to dicsuss why and how it could not be realized and what this means for the next steps in the thesis project.
It should be emphasized that the purpose of the meeting is not simply a report by the participant to the supervisors but a critical assesment by all parties involved to help the participant to prepare a better thesis in an adequate time frame.
It is the initial task of the participant to arrange for possible external HGS-HIRe-supervisors and mentors. This should be done in close contact with the official supervisor.
Though HGS-HIRe will remind the participants about the due date for the next meeting of the PhD committee it is under the responsibility of the participant to schedule the meeting self organized. HGS-HIRe allows for a grace period of plus/minus one months around the due date of the meeting.
If you are searching for an external supervisor keep in mind that you actually have to meet. External supervisors working at foreign institutions are in principle possible but in practice it's quite difficult to make appointments. Some people are confused with the term that the external supervisor should 'not come from the immediate vicinity of the working group'. This does not mean, of course, that the external supervisor should come from an unrelated field. The meetings are only productive when the extrernal supervisor can contribute, so he/she should be familiar with the science. The idea is to bring in something extra. Some point of view different from what you already get by talking to your working group members. If the external supervisor is too close to your working group than his/her opinion is heavly biased and potential problems in the thesis project will remain undiscovered.
External HGS-HIRe-supervisor and mentors are not reimbursed for this service by HGS-HIRe.
You can download the standard form for the HGS-HIRe PhD Committee here .
Each participant in HGS-HIRe has his/her own travel budget to participate in conferences or workshops. The participant decides how the budget should be used. We strongly suggest however that the travel plans are discussed with the supervisor... The travel budget must be used to enhance the proficiency of the participant. It should allow the participant to go to scientific meetings he/or she could not go otherwise. It can not be used to cover travel expanses for data taking shifts or collaboration meetings, as an example.
The travel reimbursement request
(has to be filed BEFORE the trip):
For travel budget, travel reimbursement request and confirmation:
Sylke Schneider
Institut für Kernphysik
Max-von-Laue-Str.1
60438 Frankfurt/Main
Germany
Email: sschneider(at)fias.uni-frankfurt.de
Room: 01.415
For travel expense report, receipts, preparation of billing report and email to traveler:
Johanna Dilley
FIAS
Ruth-Moufang-Str. 1
60438 Frankfurt/Main
Germany
Email: dilley(at)fias.uni-frankfurt.de
Room: 1.202
The general HGS-HIRe travel budget rate is set by the HGS-HIRe executive council. At the beginning of each
year of
Example: Participant Mr. X started as a new participant February 1, 2011. His year of
