Doctoral procedure

UPDATE: Please note our new address!

ATTENTION! Information on the public traffic:

For questions around the PhD process please contact us by phone (0681 302 2400) or email (promotionen-nt@uni-saarland.de).

For a personal consultation/handing in documents make an appointment with us.

 

Doctoral regulations of the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Technology of Saarland University of April 14, 2021

Please note: Only the German version of the Doctoral Regulations, as published in the official gazette, is binding. The English translation is for guidance only.

 

The doctoral procedure

On the following pages you will find all the necessary information for your doctora procedure, along with the required forms. 

The doctoral procedure of the faculty NT

The path to your own doctorate (first overview and further info)

If you wish to pursue a doctorate in the NT Faculty, you must first be included in the Faculty's doctoral list!

On the following pages you will find all the necessary information for your doctorate procedure, along with the required forms. 

The subtopics explain the doctoral project in chronological order. Please read everything!

Steps 1 - 4 require your intervention! Please take a close look at these points at the corresponding moment.Your doctoral procedure is not completed until point 4 has been completed.

  • Step 1: entry into the doctorate list
  • Step 2: opening of the doctorate procedure
  • Step 3: the doctorate colloquium 
  • Step 4: publication of the thesis (the last steps to receive the doctorate certificate)
  • (Steps 2-4 time schedule: Due to the deadlines to be met throughout the doctoral process from the time of opening, you can expect this to take at least 3-5 months.)

 

In addition, all doctoral students are required to register at the university. This means that doctoral students must be either immatriculated or registered in the Student Secretariat from the beginning of the doctoral phase (= inclusion in the doctoral list of our faculty)  until they receive their certificate! For more information about and on how to register or enroll as a doctoral student, please visit the University's website at "Anmeldung von Promotionen" under step 2.

Please note that enrollment/registration as a doctoral student at the university (Student Secretariat) can only take place after inclusion in the doctoral list of the faculty!

 

Further useful information and documents

Step 1: Inclusion in the doctoral list

Application for inclusion in the doctoral list of the faculty NT

Admission to doctoral studies requires an inclusion in the faculty's list of doctoral candidates (our office) and registration or enrolment at Saarland University (students` office).                

To note: First the admission to the doctoral list takes place.  Only after being included in the doctoral list the enrolment/registration at the university as a doctoral student can take place!

For the application for inclusion in the doctoral list please use this form:

We only accept applications that have been completed in full and signed in original! Please read page 2 of the application carefully (To-DO-List)!

Applicants with foreign qualifications:

Applicants with a foreign degree PLEASE also have a look here: a guide and a checklist.

 

Instructions for registration as a doctoral student at the university

  • the university requires registration/enrollment as a doctoral student during the entire time of the doctorate. This can only be done after you have been included in the doctoral list of the faculty!  You must register for the PhD via the SIM portal . Please go to the page "Anmeldung von Promotionen". There you will find all the information. Under step 2 you register your PhD. (Our letter for inclusion in the doctoral list of the faculty is sufficient as confirmation).
  • If you want to change your registration to matriculation or vice versa, you will find the corresponding one-page application here or on the page of the students office  "Anmeldung von Promotionen" (under step 3. )This must be signed by us.

 

IMPORTANT: The candidate’s suitability shall be determined in advance by means of a specific procedure. The procedure  is decided by each department itself. The chairs of Systems Engineering, Physics and SuD use a special form for this evaluation. This form is optional; here you can find a sample of the evaluation form. Please ask your supervisor for more information.

In case you have overlooked it so far, here again the hints to avoid plagiarism

Graduate School of the Faculty

Since 01.01.2012 you can enrol in the graduate school of the faculty. Within the framework of the Graduate School, you can attend doctoral, interdisciplinary continuing education courses. The successful participation will be confirmed with a certificate.
As a participant in the Graduate School, you can also apply for funding for active participation in conferences and congresses.

Further information you will find in the area "Doctoral phase and opening of the doctoral procedure".

The function of the scientific supervisor

Ensuring good scientific practice and mediating in conflicts between the doctoral candidate and his/her supervisor
However, the scientific supervisor is not an automatically appointed as a "substitute supervisor" in the event that the doctoral supervisor leaves the service of Saarland University.

 

Applicants from Homburg

Students of Faculty 2 from the field of human and molecular biology in Homburg can do their doctorate at our faculty.
In this case the doctoral supervisor must be co-opted at our faculty. 

Please bear in mind, however, that you can also obtain the Dr. rer. nat. from the medical faculty.

Sponsorship for conference participation in chemistry

Chemistry doctoral researchers can apply for funding from the Elisabeth and Prof. Dr. Horst-Dietrich Hardt-foundation to participate in conferences.

Further education and network building during the doctorate

The graduate program of Saarland University GradUS aims to offer doctoral students of all subjects at the UdS complementary qualification opportunities and to contribute to a cooperative, transdisciplinary and internationally oriented doctoral culture. Here you can find all information about the GradUS program.

Step 2: Promotion phase and opening of the doctoral procedure

 

The interdisciplinary Graduate School of the Faculty 

The faculty offers you to participate in the Graduate School of our faculty.

An application for enrollment in the programm can be submitted by all PhD students who apply for entry into the doctorate list of the faculty.

PhD students who are already registered in the doctorate list of the faculty can also participate. The minimum period for participation in the Graduate School is 12 months.

For this purpose, a qualification agreement with the supervisor of the thesis (= Ausbildungsvereinbarung) is concluded.

With the successful completion of your doctorate, you will receive a certificate which identifies the additional skills required and documents your participation in the Graduate School.

As participant in the Graduate School, you can also receive funding for the participation in conferences related to your doctorate . 

The application form for admission into the Graduate School (=Ausbildungsvereinbarung) as well as the guidelines for the funding you find further below. 

Participation at GradUS courses

During your participation at the Graduate School you will have to collect 12 SWS. It is up to you when you participate at lectures or/and seminars. For this, please submit all relevant supporting documents upon submission of the application for the opening of the doctoral procedure.

By participating at additional courses you can develop your basic knowledge on another subject field. Furthermore you can add methodical competences to your PhD studies.

Graduate Schools with close relation to disciplines and departments

The following Graduate Schools are existing in our faculty:

The Graduate program of Saarland University (GradUS) - Qualification and Networking

The Graduate program of Saarland University, GradUS ...

... offers additional qualification opportunities for PhD students from all disciplines and wants to contribute to a co-operative, cross-discipline and international oriented doctorate culture.

 Here you will find all information about the GradUS program.

Funding of conference participations in the department of chemistry

PhD students in the department of chemistry can get funding from the Elisabeth and Professor Dr. Horst-Dietrich Hardt-foundation for participating in conferences.

DAAD-Project "GradUS global"

Doctoral students wishing to attend scientific conferences abroad or to do research stays or internships abroad can apply for financial support from GradUS global. They can also hold international workshops or small conferences or invite renowned foreign scientists to guest lectures. Funding of subject-specific courses or workshops is also possible.
However, the project not only offers pure funding opportunities, but also a platform for intensive exchange between doctoral students and professors of all disciplines.

Graduate School of the faculty - forms & guidelines

Presentation: Graduate School of the faculty

Evaluation of the thesis, time line

The thesis shall be evaluated within two months (section 10, para. 4 of the doctorate regulations).

Please check with us from time to time whether the reviews have arrived, so that we can plan the further course of the doctoral process together with you, taking into account the following deadlines (see below)!

(Deadline 1) Once the evaluations have been submitted, the thesis and the evaluations are available to the members of the doctorate committee as well as to other members of the faculty who are authorised to supervise doctoral candidates for examination for two weeks during the lecture period and for three weeks in the period in which no lectures are given.

(Deadline 2) Only after the expiration of these 2-3 weeks (= acceptance of the dissertation) the invitation to the doctoral colloquium can be issued (with a deadline of 10 days!).

Due to the above-mentioned deadlines and the scheduling of the final colloquium, you can therefore definitely expect a total duration of the doctoral process of up to 6 months.

Step 3: The doctoral colloquium

After the acceptance of the thesis, a scientific colloquium takes place before an examination board.  
Please bear in mind that we work with a notice period/ invitation period of 10 days. 

In order to invite to the colloquium, we require the following information from you: 

  • the appointment/ the date (agreed with us),
  • the name of the chairperson,
  • the name of the research assistant with a doctorate and
  • the room in which the colloquium is to take place.
  • link for MS teams - in short form (to keep it public)
  • a short (max. 10 lines) summary of the dissertation

Composition of the doctoral committee

  1. The Chairperson
    a university professor from the NT Faculty
    (or co-opted or equivalent member)
  2. The reviewers
    authorised in accordance with section 10, para. 1 of the doctorate regulations
  3. A PhD academic from the Faculty NT

The doctoral committee points out (meeting on February 28th, 2011) that in the examination board according to §11 the doctoral researcher may not come from the working group of the supervisor of the doctoral thesis. In addition, no more than one member of an institute / chair should be represented on the examination board.

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Upon application to the Doctoral Committee, researchers with a doctorate from another public research institution and other faculties of Saarland University may also be appointed as members of the Examination Board instead of the doctoral academic employee of the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Technology. Upon request, the Doctoral Committee may also appoint additional Postdocted experts as members of the Examination Board to participate in an advisory capacity. At least half of the members of the examination board must consist of members of Saarland University.

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Instructions for conducting doctoral colloquia with MS teams

In accordance with special rules on doctoral regulations for the period of the pandemic and the period of limited functional operation of Saarland University, doctoral colloquia can be held as video conferences. Here you can find information on how to use video conferencing.

Guidelines for applicants from Homburg

With exeption of the second reporter (who can be external), all other members of the examination board must be members of our faculty, or co-opted members (list of co-opted professors from faculty NT).

The examination board must in all cases include at least one member from faculty NT (faculty council decision of May 05, 2003).

The junior research group leaders/ junior professors from the ZHMB are to be considered 'co-opted' in this context, and can therefore participate as a research assistant in the examination board (based on an application of Prof. Schmitt, which was accepted by the doctorate committee on June 9, 2004).

Here you can find examples of how an examination board might look.

Step 4: Publication of the thesis

The last steps to receive the doctorate certificate

For the publication of your thesis, you will need the following documents: 

  1. Two mandatory printed copies of the thesis (one for the NTNM-library and one for the Dean`s office);
  2. an electronic version of your dissertation (e.g. pdf); not for the doctoral office, but for publication in the SULB.
  3. The signed form  "Abgabe der Pflichtexemplare/Vervielfältigung der Dissertation" : this functions as a receipt for both mandatory copies and the (electronic) publication.
  4. Two copies of the 'publication agreement' (Veröffentlichungsvertrag) signed by you and the SULB: one for you and one for the library.

Please do not start the publication process without consulting us. The protocol of the examination must be received by us first. So please contact us FIRST after your defense (by phone or email) before doing anything.

Only when we have given the okay for the publication, you can come to our PhD office with the above mentioned documents to start the process.

Then your way leads you to the SULB for further countersigning of the form. After you uploaded your dissertation in Sci-Dok you bring the 1st deposit copy to the NTNM-library (Geb. C 6.2).

Last step: the 2nd deposit copy, including the signed form (!), has to got to the doctoral office.

If you are not on site to make the publication, please contact us (preferably by telephone). We will then find a solution.

 

Publication of the electronic dissertation in SciDok:

Publishing is done in pdf format.

To submit your document to SciDok, you must have Internet access. In addition, you must have the prepared pdf document saved on the computer and call up the corresponding submission form.

Here we provide the corresponding handout of the SULB for the publication.

For further questions regarding the publication, please contact:

Saarland University and State Library
Phone: ++49/ 681/ 302-3076
Fax: ++49/ 681/ 302-2796
scidok@sulb.uni-saarland.de

PLEASE NOTE:

for cumulative doctorates, you must clarify in advance with your publishers the conditions for signing the publication agreement with the SULB.

"Blocking period" for publication

Upon justified request, the Faculty shall only make the content of the dissertation publicly accessible after a reasonable period of time of a maximum of 2 years after the day of the colloquium (§ 15 para. 7 of the Doctoral Regulations of Faculty NT).

This applies if important economic or legal interests are at risk, for example in ongoing patent proceedings in connection with the doctorate. 

Published dissertations of our faculty

Dissertations of our faculty are to find as complete text in SciDok, the science server of Saarland University (document "Dissertation" and faculty "Fakultät NT").

 

Plagiarism software

The plagiarism software „Turnitin Originality Check“, which was bought 2019, can be further used in 2020 by members of the Saarland university. The originality and the similarity of any text sort to other published texts can be inspected regardless of the test procedures´ quantity.

Here you will find further information about the plagiarism software.

Doctoral figures

Doctorates per academic year in the faculty NT

A total of around 650 doctoral students are entered in our faculty's doctoral list.
An average of 96 doctorates are completed each year.

These are distributed among the departments as follows:

Life Sciences - 13
chemistry - 21
Materials science and materials engineering - 15
Pharmacy - 20
Physics -15
systems engineering - 12


(average of the last 10 years)

Theses published by our faculty

Theses from our faculty can be found as complete documents in SciDok, Saarland University's academic server; you can find the advanced search page (enter document type 'thesis' and faculty 'Faculty NT').

Dr. Eduard Martin award winners of the Faculty

The Dr. Eduard Martin Prize is awarded annually to the best young researchers at Saarland University.

Herre you will find the award winners (Faculty NT).
Here you wil find the award winners of the former Faculty 7.
Here you wil find the award winners of the former Faculty 8.

Faculty PhD Students' Day

Since 2013, the doctoral students of the faculty have been presenting their doctoral theses in a poster session in the assembly hall of the university. 

The PhD Students' Day 2024  will take place on Wednesday, 8 May 2024 in the assembly hall of the university.

At the end of the event, the participants decide on the awarding of poster prizes.
Here are the winners and awarded posters from past events:

Posterpreise 2023

Inga-Alexandra Bischoff

"A monomeric cyclopentadienyl aluminylene" 

Jennifer Greve

"Total Synthesis of Rufomycin Derivatives"

Markus Tost

"Asymmetric Synthesis of Tertiary Boronic Esters via Matteson Homologation" 

Poster awards 2022

Annchristin Andres

"Individual Postoperative Treatment after Fractures of the Lower Extremities"

Svenja Pohl

"Synthesis and Characterization of Polysilsesquioxane Hybrid Melting Gels"

Tobias Straub

"Mechanochemical activation of metal oxides – Synthesis, modification, and application of manganese oxides"

Poster awards 2019

Nadine Poitiers

"The Unprecedented Chemistry of Siliconoids"

Nils Steinbrück

"Perylene Polyphenylmethylsiloxanes for Optoelectronic Applications"

Quirin Werthner

"Network based mathematical modelling of HPV transmission and cervical cancer in Germany"

Poster awards 2018

Selina Neuhaus

"Modellierung der anisotropen Plastizität zweiphasiger Stähle"

Martin Reis

"Investigation of stochastic noise in DIC measurements"

Öznil Budak

"Facile synthesis of vanadium (III) oxide/carbon core/shell hybrid particles as an anode for lithium-ion batteries"

Rishab Handa

"Large Amplitude Oscillatory Shear (LAOS) Rheometry of wet and dry
granular matter and their non-linear dynamics"

Poster awards 2017

Hannah Britz:

"Physiologically-based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modeling of dronedarone and its main metabolite N-debutyldronedarone"

Mohammed Hijjo:

"Minimizing Fuel Costs of Conventional Power Backup Systems in Developing Countries"

Nadine Poitiers:

"Functionalization and Cluster Expansion of a Si6 Cluster (Siliconoids)"

Poster awards 2016

Christiane Dings: Pharmacokinetic/ Pharmacodynamic Modelling of Acetylsalicylic Acid and its Major Metabolite Salicylic Acit

Mohammed Hijjo: Microgrid Energy Management for Buildings Subject to Grid Outages

Frederik Scherff: Simulation der Materialeigenschaften von Dualphasenstahl auf Basis von 3D-Mikrostrukturen

Poster awards 2015

Anna Dembek, Pharmazeutische Biologie:
Characterization of patient-derived tumor-associated macrophages and setup of an in vitro model

Tobias Dier, Analytische Chemie: Analysis and Characterization of Electrochemically Decomposed Lignin Using Liquid Chromatography and High Resolution Mass Spectrometry

Marco Zeiger, Nanotechnologie Funktionaler Energiespeichermaterialien:
Electrochemical energy storage with carbon onions

 

Conferral of doctorates in Faculty NT

Consultation in doctoral matters: By appointment only!

Postal dispatch to:

Dekanat NT

Promotionsbüro

Campus C4 3, EG, Raum 0.06

66123 Saarbrücken

 

 

Doctoral Colloquia of the Faculty NT

Here you will find a calendar overview of the defences of our faculty.

Notes on the setting of dates for the doctoral colloquia:

In order to set dates for doctoral colloquia, a request must be made to the doctoral office  in ADVANCE.

There must be a 2 hour gap between 2 colloquia.

A free time slot in this calendar is no guarantee that this date will still be available without prior consultation with the promotion office/dean´s office.