Study plan

The State Doctoral Examination (SDE) is to be held well in advance of the defense of the thesis (ideally 1 year) and the first step is to announce the intention to take it by the student to the relevant Dean's officer. Students elaborate on the theses of the state of their project on one page and send it to the chairman of the committee at least one week before the exam. The SDE should is held as a deep debate above the doctoral thesis from its importance and context to the data, it's processing, and conclusions. During the exam, the student should prove good orientation in areas including mainly the scientific problems in the dissertation. Within a maximum of 20 minutes, the Ph.D. student will present his / her research project, its hypotheses, and the present data, their evaluation, conclusions, and suggestions for further research. This presentation has a preliminary form of the future defense of the completed dissertation. In the follow-up discussion with the committee members, the student should prove the ability to apply her / his knowledge to solve specific problems. Evaluated is: 1) Overall knowledge of the topic including context and significance, 2) ability to explain and present own work, 3) knowledge of hypothesis and methods of solution 4) knowledge of experimental techniques, 5) ability to correctly interpret data, draw and discuss conclusions.
Dissertation defense: The first formal step of the defense is to announce the intention to do so to the relevant Dean's Officer and the President of the Subject Board. Students prepare self-reports of their final theses, which they submit before the defense together with the work. The dissertation must be submitted to the relevant Dean's Officer at least 8 weeks prior to the planned defense. The dissertation defense committee meeting is held in English. The work will be judged by 2 opponents, with at least one being from a workplace outside MUNI. It is expected that at least one of the opponents will be from abroad. The presentation during the defense has a maximum duration of 25 minutes, followed by the statement of two opponents based on written reviews and their discussion with the student. For a dissertation that meets just the minimum requirements, the evaluation committee assesses the overall quality of the results and the dissertation particularly carefully and critically and generally evaluates the result with a reduced grade.

Duties are defined in each student's Individual Study Plan (ISP). The total expected workload corresponds to about 60 ECTS credits per year (one EC is about 25 hours, i.e. a total of 1500 hours of study and research duties per year). With respect to the individual nature, the data of load (see% below) is indicative, specified in the ISP, which is prepared by the student with the supervisor and approved by the Subject Board. Students have research and study responsibilities (activities 1-9), which increase their competencies in five areas of A-E.


FULFILLMENT ACTIVITIES ISP
(A) Research activities (approx. 70% of the student's workload)
1. Research project and dissertation project, research of the current state of the issue, research methodology, own planning and implementation of scientific activities (40%).
2. Publications (at least two articles in impacted journals are required for defense, the Ph.D. student is the first author of at least one work published in the journal from the first two quartiles of relevant periodicals), writing dissertation text, knowledge synthesis, critical assessment of novelty, interpretation of results %)
3. Presentation of research results at seminars, conferences incl. preparation of lectures and posters (15%). Presentation Workshop of Ph.D. students of the 3rd semester (defense of passage through study) - must be completed in the 3rd, and at the latest by the end of the 5th semester.
(B) Specialized subjects and theoretical training (approx. 20%). The student completes courses to deepen professional knowledge according to the focus of his specialization and acquires a systematic knowledge of the latest developments at the seminars of the program.
4. Theoretical training (15%) - students choose from a wide range of courses and their specialization. Students must also complete at least one 14-day internship at a potential employer at least once during their studies.
5. Seminars of the doctoral program (5%) - Obligatory are Doctoral seminar IEB (Bi0100 and Bi0101), seminar Life Sciences (XD010)

(C) International experience and competitiveness
6. Further improvement of language competencies - in professional subjects taught in English, participation in seminars in English, presentation of results and preparation of articles. The student must demonstrate active participation in min. one international conference.
7. Internship abroad, the obligation of international cooperation. The minimum requirement is 1 month of an internship abroad, but longer internships (3+ months) according to the specific dissertation topic are preferred.

(D) Pedagogical competences
8. Students acquire pedagogical experience by participating in teaching and are obliged to help with teaching in Bc and MSc study programs. In addition to teaching and assistance in practical lessons, they can also engage in other educational and similar activities. Students are obliged to present at least once during their studies at the EBZI diploma seminar. The total extent is about 100 hours during the whole study. In the case of long-term regular teaching activities, they have the right to conclude an agreement and payoff.

(E) Other transferable experience

9. Students gain practical experience in project preparation and management and are offered other soft skills courses according to current possibilities. At least one soft skills course and at least two courses extending experimentally methodological skills (Advanced Methodology Course) are required.

The student may complete the SDE at the earliest in the 5th semester of study and after fulfilling the above-described duties. The duties are summarized in the table in the Self-Assessment Report.

Examples of defended works:
- Regulation of plasticity of cell surface phenotype and its role in cancer progression. Ján Remšík, 2018, https://is.muni.cz/auth/th/slfpc/
- Wnt secretion and transport in the mammalian nervous system. Karol Kaiser, 2018, https://is.muni.cz/auth/th/udd21/
- The Role of Migration in the Pathogenesis of Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia. Pavlína Janovská, 2013, https://is.muni.cz/auth/th/a6f09/
- Modulation of lipid metabolism and its impact on cancer cell functions and the action of carcinogens. Onřej Zapletal, 2013, https://is.muni.cz/auth/th/r7b2j/
- New possibilities in cardiomyogenic differentiation of pluripotent stem cells. Katarzyna Anna Radaszkiewicz, 2018, https://is.muni.cz/auth/th/xpqib/

Examples of topics in newly conceived fields:
- Developmental processes contributing to cleft lip and palate formation. Marek Hampl.
- Signaling pathways controlling jaw identity. Petra Celá.
- New pathways of FGF-receptor signaling.
- Impact of centrosome abnormalities on human embryonic stem cells and their differentiated progeny
- Molecular mechanisms controlling formation of primary cells in human cells
- Role of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species in modulation of generation and activity of neutrophil extracellular traps.
- Role of post-translational modifications in the regulation of function in myeloid cells.