Scientific Writing Camp will once again promote interdisciplinary collaboration among PhD students

PhD students will be able to present their research during the two-day meeting and then look for possible connections with colleagues from other disciplines. Their subsequent collaboration could lead to a joint publication. The students will be supported in their efforts by experienced mentors from among the academics and researchers of the VŠB-TUO and the University Library staff. This year they will be joined by an international expert and proven PhD Academy lecturer Conor O'Carroll, an independent consultant on research and higher education policy, and chair of the European Steering Group on Human Resources and Mobility. PhD students at VŠB-TUO have been able to take his Open Science and Researcher Integrity courses in the past semesters as part of the PhD Academy, which he will follow up with a third course on Research Career Planning before the SWC itself.

"Students will form interdisciplinary teams, jointly define a research gap, and design a methodology and research goal. They will learn about the requirements of quality scientific journals and the structure of a scientific article. Throughout the event, participants will have the opportunity to consult their work with experienced mentors. This approach has proved successful for us, and participants of the last Scientific Writing Camp should soon publish the articles whose themes they created then and subsequently worked on together," said Vice-Rector for Science and Research Jana Kukutschová, who is once again sponsoring the event.

The results of all teams' work during the SWC will be evaluated by an expert committee. Individual members of the three teams with the best-defined and developed scientific project can look forward to a financial reward. Interested applicants can apply here.

Eighteen PhD students from three faculties participated in the first edition of the SWC, some of them also working at the Centre for Energy and Environmental Technologies (CEET). The eight micro-teams that applied eventually formed four groups, looking for collaborative opportunities to, for example, develop a unique photocatalytic membrane for the degradation of pollutants in water, shielding gamma rays with a composite material containing lead foam, using waste for home heating, or investigating water quality and its use in critical infrastructure, specifically in healthcare.