Transversal Activities
PhD programmes include both transversal and specific activities in the area of each programme.
Transversal activities are useful for people who are doing their doctorate outside their area of knowledge, since they offer the opportunity to acquire transversal competences during the training period of the PhD programme. They are elective activities. You can find the transversal activities organised by the UAB and presented by the School for Doctoral Studies in all together in this section for quick and easy access to the information.
For the specific activities, you can find the information in individual folders for each of the PhD programmes.
Within the transversal activities, the Language Service of the UAB offers language courses specifically addressed at PhD students: the course Support for writing a doctoral thesis in Catalan and the course Thesis writing in English.
The Doctoral School also offers some seminars related to the competences of Industrial Doctoral Research such as How to validate your research, Technology-based intellectual property, Leadership techniques, Home office or How to expand your network of contacts to get a job, among others. The activities offered may change each academic year depending on the trainers' availability. In the description of each activity the course language is also detailed.
For further information on how to get the attendance certificates for transversal activities, please contact Gestió ed.transversals@uab.cat.
To include these activities in your academic record, please check this video (click on the subtitle icon at the bottom right corner). Select the type of activity 65 (Transversal Activity) and write the name of the activity in the field “Description”. It is highly recommended to fill this field in the three available languages (Catalan, Spanish and English).
Below you can find the available courses. These activities are exclusively addressed to early stage researchers enrolled at UAB Doctoral School as students of a doctoral programme offered by the UAB. Please bear in mind that the scheduled activities may be subject to some changes.
30th Anniversary CERec
Date: 19 & 20/09/2024
Mode: on-site
Venue: sala d'actes, Rectorat
Language: Catalan (some interventions will be in English)
Trainer: UAB Research Ethics Committee (CERec)
The UAB Research Ethics Committee organizes a series of conferences to commemorate its 30th anniversary. The first day, of an academic nature, will count on outstanding speakers facing current ethical challenges such as animal models, big data in health and AI, among others. The second day, more institutional, will make it possible to rediscover and recognize the work of so many people who have made this ephemeris possible.
Writing a Thesis in English
Sciences, Health Sciences and Engineering
Date: 21/10/2024 to 20/11/2024, Mondays and Wednesdays from 5 to 7 pm
Mode: on-site
Language: English
Trainer: Servei de Llengües
Addressed to: first stage researchers with an accredited B2.2 English level and who do not have English as a native or native-like language
Issues related to academic-scientific writing, specialized languages and the conventions of formal university texts are addressed. The course is thought as a support in the writing process of the thesis. Participants can share small fragments of their text, so specific doubts can be solved. The classes for this course will be online via videoconference.
For more information visit the Servei de Llengües website.
Presenting Research
Date: 22/10/2024 to 21/11/2024, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1 to 3 pm
Mode: virtual
Language: English
Trainer: Servei de Llengües
Addressed to: first stage researchers with an accredited B2.2 English level and who do not have English as a native or native-like language
The Doctoral school organises, together with the Languages Service, this course aimed at strengthening researchers’ skills for presentations in English in working sessions, workshops, seminars and conferences. Participants will learn to control anxiety and nerves before a presentation, to choose and organize contents to make an interesting and persuasive oral presentation and to adapt their discourse to the public. They will also learn to develop and use a script and other support systems for the transmission of content (PowerPoint or Prezi), to express themselves naturally and to manage the questions of the audience. The course also focuses on aspects such as register and linguistic correctness.
More information and registrations via Aula Moodle.
From Science to the Marketplace
Date: October-December 2024, schedule to be confirmed
Mode: on-site (Startup UB lab)
Language: Catalan and Spanish
Addressed to: master's degree and PhD students
The University of Barcelona, the Autonomous University of Barcelona, the Polytechnic University of Catalonia and the Pompeu Fabra University have launched the fifth edition of 'From science to the marketplace', a 100% subsidised training course to foster scientific entrepreneurship. The programme consists of 100 hours of training on knowledge transfer and business creation. In addition, each project will have between 2 and 10 hours of individualized tutoring with professionals from the sector.
More information and registrations here.
Chemical Risks in the Laboratory
Virtual self-learning course available all the academic year round.
Mode: virtual
Language: Catalan, Spanish and English
Trainer: UAB Risk Prevention Service
Addressed to: course specially recommended to early stage researchers working in a lab. This activity is equivalent to the one with the same name offered by the Unitat de Formació.
The Doctoral School organises, together with the Risk Prevention Service, this course that aims at informing and rising awareness about the most common risk factors for human health and safety in the laboratories by training in risk detection and protection systems.
Aims
- To identify the most common risks in a laboratory.
- To know the most common entry channels of chemical contaminants and biological agents.
- To know the most common protection systems in the laboratory. Fume hoods, biological safety booths, individual protection equipment.
- To learn tools for a qualitative risk assessment.
- To raise awareness about preventive culture.
More information via Aula Moodle.
Open Access Publishing of Research Data
Date: several sessions
Mode: virtual
Language: Catalan, Spanish and English
Trainer: Servei de Biblioteques
Addressed to: first starge researchers
The Doctoral School organises, together with the Libraries Service, this course that aims to offer a general overview on the publication of open access research data. Firstly, attendees will be given an explanation about research data, the benefits of publishing them open access and the regulations ruling it. The repositories to publish those data will also be explained, such as the institutional repository for research data at UAB, CORA RDR.
Contents
- Research data
- Requirements
- FAIR principles
- CORA RDR
- Other research data repositories
- Good practices
Registrations and timetables via Aula Moodle (not available yet).
Data Management Plan for PhD Students
Date: several sessions
Mode: virtual
Language: Catalan, Spanish and English
Trainer: Servei de Biblioteques
Addressed to: first stage researchers.
The Doctoral School organises, together with the Libraries Service, this course where all aspects related to the creation of a Data Management Plan (DMP) will be discussed, showing the specific template for doctoral students of the CORA.eiNa DMP application, as well as the elements that must be included in the DMP to ensure that the data generated will be FAIR.
Contents
- Data Managemnt Plan
- FAIR contents in a DMP
- CORA.eiNA DMP
Registrations and timetables via Aula Moodle (not available yet).
Good Research Practices and Research Integrity at the UAB
Virtual self-learning course available all the academic year round.
Mode: virtual
Trainer: Ethics Committee on Animal and Human Experimentation
Language: English
Addressed to: first stage researchers
The Doctoral School organises this online seminar to transmit to early career researchers their responsibilities as future scientists, including awareness of and ability to deal with issues concerning research integrity and research ethics in a wider sense while promoting responsible conduct of research. Early career researchers will have the opportunity to learn ethical principles and apply them to problems they will encounter during their professional activities as researchers.
More information via Aula Moodle (not available yet).
Welcome Session. The Doctoral Studies as a Formative Process. Academic year 2024-2025
Date: 27/11/2024, from 11 to 12 h.
Mode: hybrid (virtual and on-site)
Language: Spanish
Addressed to: early stage researchers
The Welcome Session of the UAB Doctoral School is specially addressed to first year PhD candidates but it is also open to other early stage researchers that may be interested in attending. This session will combine a live conference about open science with some videos available on Aula Moodle where some practical information will be given.
More information and registrations via Aula Moodle.
Research Design with the Idea Puzzle® Software
Date: 2/12/2024, 10 am to 11.30 am
Mode: virtual
Language: English
Trainer: Ricardo Morais (Idea Puzzle)
Addressed to: first stage researchers
The Doctoral School organises this seminar where the use and possibilities of the Idea Puzzle® software will be explained. This software is thought to design, diagnose and defend research projects. It constitutes an investment in life-long research skills.
Contents:
- Research as a system of 21 decisions
- Theoretical decisions of your research
- Methodological decisions of your research
- Empirical decisions of your research
- Rhetoric decisions of your research
- Authorial decisions of your research
- Application to participants' research with the Idea Puzzle® software
More information via Aula Moodle.
Elevator Pitch
Date: 4, 9, 11, 16 & 18/12/2024, Mondays and Wednesdays from 10 am to 12 pm
Mode: on-site
Venue: to be confirmed
Language: English
Trainer: Servei de Llengües
Addressed to: first stage researchers with an accredited B2.2 English level and who do not have English as a native or native-like language
Aim: to prepare attendees to explain their projects in English and in a limited time.
The Doctoral School organises, together with the Language Service, this course to create an interesting, entertaining, persuasive and attractive speech from the point of view of substance and form. The course will address aspects such as the analysis of the expectations of the interlocutor or the audience, the ability to synthesize and the communication of complex content in a simple and informative language. All attendees will produce a short speech to be presented in front of their colleagues. Feedback on the strengths and weaknesses of the intervention will be given.
Registrations via Aula Moodle.
Scientific Illustration
Date:10 & 12/12/2024, 10 am to 2 pm
Mode: on-site
Venue: aula 2, Doctoral School
Language: Spanish
Formador: Mikel Graphic Science
Addressed to: first stage researchers
The Doctoral School and the Scientific Dissemination Unit of the UAB organize this course aimed at promoting the dissemination of science using graphic resources.
Contents
- Design applied to the creation of scientific posters: typography, color, layout, accessibility, user experience improvement
- Visualization of data: applied design or data viz, types of graphics, creation of impactful graphics in RawGraph, editing of graphics in Inkscape
- Creating illustrations, maps and icons for scientific figures in Inkscape
- Free websites and resources
Registrations via Aula Moodle.
Research Papers
Social Sciences and Humanities.
Date: 10/12/2024 to 23/01/2025, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2 pm to 4 pm
Mode: virtual
Language: English
Trainer: Servei de Llengües
Addressed to: first stage researchers with an accredited B2.2 English level and who do not have English as a native or native-like language
Aim: To improve the writing of scientific papers in English
The Doctoral School organises, together with the Languages Service, this course on one of the most common sorts of discourse in scientific communication, the scientific paper. The participants develop and consolidate the necessary skills to write scientific papers in English. The course addresses aspects related to the standardized structure of papers (introduction, methodology, results, discussion, conclusions) and the formal and discursive characteristics that these parts must have. Questions related to English vocabulary and correct grammar and syntactic structures when writing papers are also addressed.
Registrations via Aula Moodle.
Gender Perspective in Research
Date: 17 & 19/12/2024, 10 am to 1 pm
Mode: on-site
Venue: aula 1, Doctoral School
Language: Catalan (slides in Spanish)
Trainer: Enrico Mora, Department of Sociology
Addressed to: first stage researchers
The Doctoral School organises the course "Gender Perspective in Research". The course will enable researchers to embed gender equality in their own research proposals, as well as training their ability to review research proposals from a sex-gender perspective.
For more information and registrations visit the Aula Moodle.
Communicating Science
Date: 8 to 22/01/2025, Mondays and Wednesdays from 10 to 12 h
Mode: virtual
Language: English
Trainer: Servei de Llengües
Addressed to: first stage researchers with an accredited B2.2 level and who do not have English as a native or native-like language
The Doctoral School organises, together with the Languages Service, this course aimed at the production of texts for scientific dissemination, both oral and written, to learn how to use plain language to reach non-specialised audiences. Attendees will learn to adapt the content to the audience, the register and the pitch; to choose the appropriate words; to manage the redundancies and the words of transition; to control the negative and affirmative modalities of the speech in order to achieve maximum clarity; to properly manage the emergence of known and unknown information; to foster a good thematic progression; to determine the lengths of the sentences and the paragraphs to build them appropriately and to foster the comprehensibility and readability of the text, among other aspects.
More information and registrations via Aula Moodle.
Information Resources for PhD
Date: several sessions
Mode: virtual / on-site (depending on the session). The English edition will be available as a self-learning course.
Language: Spanish and English
Trainer: Servei de Biblioteques
Addressed to: first stage researchers. Specially recommended for 1st year PhD students
The Doctoral School organises, together with the Libraries Service, this course that offers an overview of the main resources of bibliographic information, both contracted and open access, informing about the search strategies, contents, alerts, possibilities for storage and export of results.
Contents
- The need for information
- Development of a search strategy
- Evaluation of results
- The UAB libraries' browser
- Internet Search
- Databases
More information for the Spanish sessions and registrations via Aula Moodle.
Self-learning course in English (not avaliable yet).
Open Science Course of the Catalan Universities
Virtual self-learning course available from January to May.
Mode: virtual
Language: Catalan and English
Trainer: CSUC
Addressed to: first stage researchers
The Consorci de Serveis Universitaris de Catalunya (CSUC), together with the UAB, offers this online seminar to raise awareness about the principles and benefits of open science in the university community. The course comprehensively presents the different open science pillars and aims to offer basic training on this subject.
Contents
- Introduction to open science
- Open knowledge management: data, publication and infrastructures
- Legal and ethical aspects of research and education
- Citizen science and research assessment models
More information via Aula Moodle.
Zotero
Virtual self-learning course available from January to May.
Mode: virtual
Language: Catalan, Spanish and English
Trainer: Servei de Biblioteques
Addressed to: first stage researchers
The course is structured in five modules. The aim of this course is to offer a broad vision of the reference manager Zotero, that allows storing, organising and sharing information. Estimated dedication time is 4.5 hours.
Contents
- What is Zotero?
- Personal library
- Organising your personal library
- Gathering and inserting references in a text
- Teamwork
More information via Aula Moodle (not available yet).
How to Read a Paper Using Common Sense and AI
Date: 28/01/2025, 9.30 am to 5.30 pm
Mode: on-site
Venue: sala Carles Perelló, (floor -1, Doctoral School)
Language: English
Trainer: TPM Science
Addressed to: first stage researchers
The aim of this workshop is to accompany the participants during the process of reading scientific literature by offering appropriate tools to help gather, manage and extract scientific evidence from the literature. Key competencies and good practices will be reviewed for approaching this task in a more systematic way. Likewise, the growing offering of AI tools that can be used to speed up and automate different parts of the process will be explored.
More information and registrations via Aula Moodle (not available yet).
Technology-based Intellectual Property: a Practical Approach to the Use of Patents, Know-How and Utility Models
Virtual self-learning course available all the academic year round.
Mode: virtual
Language: Catalan
Trainer: Xavier Vallvé, Head of the Office of Patent Valuation UAB
Addressed to: first stage researchers, preferably from scientific and technological fields
The seminar "Technology-Based Intellectual Property" provides a theoretical overview of patents, know-how and utility models. Early stage researchers will watch several videos with basic information about how to protect their research and how to manage patents. The seminar is organized by the Office of Patents Valuation together with the Doctoral School and is part of the transferable skills training programme.
Topics
- Uses of Technology-based Intellectual Property (or how to become a smarter researcher).
- Patents: Requirements and exclusions, structure, prosecution, and infringement.
- Utility models.
- Know-how: when to keep information confidential and comparison with patents.
- Patent information: how to take advantage of research patented by others, and multiple uses of using patent databases.
Course and programme via Aula Moodle.
Teamwork
Date: 3, 10, 17 & 24/02/2025, 10 am to 12 pm
Mode: Virtual
Language: Spanish
Trainer: Grup Sural
Addressed to: first stage researchers
Objectives
- Knowing ourselves to better understand others and to have more tools for teamwork
- Discover the available resources to use them
- Value the importance of all aspects that define a team
- Our role inside a team
- Discover the benefits of teamwork
- Turn differences into added value
More information and registrations via Aula Moodle (not available yet).
Introduction to the Code of Good Practice in Research at UAB
Date: 5, & 6/02, 10 am to 12.30 pm & 7/02/2025, 10 am to 12 pm
Mode: on-site
Venue: room 1, Doctoral School
Language: Spanish
Trainer: Josep Santaló, Cell Biology Cathedratic Professor
Addressed to: first stage researchers
The objective of this programme is to transmit to early career researchers their responsibilities as future scientists, including awareness of and ability to deal with issues concerning research integrity and research ethics in a wider sense while promoting responsible conduct of research. Early career researchers will have the opportunity to learn ethical principles, apply them to problems they will encounter during their professional activities as researchers and to discuss grey zones of scientific practice.
More information and registrations via Aula Moodle (not available yet).
Research Yourself ®
Date: 6, 13, 20 & 27/02/2025, 3 to 5 pm
Mode: on-site
Venue: room 1, Doctoral School
Language: Spanish
Trainers: Elvira Reche, PhD in Health Psychology
Addressed to: first stage researchers
Is your doctorate causing you stress? Do you feel overwhelmed by pressure? Are you worried about your relationship with your supervisor and your team? Do you find it difficult to maintain a good work/life balance? According to recent studies, earning a doctorate, although gratifying, can also be a mentally challenging process. For that reason, the Doctoral School has organised this 4-session course that, by using coaching and mindfulness techniques, will give you tools to combat the anxiety, fears and frustrations that may arise during this training phase.
Session 1: What is and what is not mindfulness. Is it useful for scientific personnel?
Session 2: Do we have an emotional profile? What is emotional regulation? Can it be measured?
Session 3: What are the main stressors of research staff? What are my time constraints during my PhD and why do I procrastinate...sometimes?
Session 4: Is a conscious communication with my research group and/or thesis director possible?
More information and registrations via Aula Moodle (not available yet).
Web of Science and Scopus
Date: several sessions
Mode: virtual
Language: Spanish, Catalan and English
Trainer: Servei de Biblioteques
Addressed to: first stage researchers
The Doctoral School organises, together with the Libraries Service, this course which offers an introduction to the main features of these two bibliographic and bibliometric resources of paramount importance for doctoral students. The course will explain search strategies, content, storage possibilities and export of the results, as well as the analysis of the quality of the journals and the scientific production of the authors.
Contents
1. Designing your search strategy
2. Search options in WOS
3. Search options in Scopus
4. Main indicators
More information and registrations via Aula Moodle (not available yet).
Writing a Thesis in English
Sciences, Health Sciences and Engineering
Date: 17/02 to19/03/2025, Mondays and Wednesdays, 5 to 7 pm
Mode: virtual
Language: English
Trainer: Servei de Llengües
Social Sciences and Law, Arts and Humanities
Date: 18/02 to 20/03/2025, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2 to 4 pm
Mode: virtual
Language: English
Trainer: Servei de Llengües
Addressed to: first stage researchers with an accredited B2.2 English level and who do not have English as a native or native-like language
Issues related to academic-scientific writing, specialized languages and the conventions of formal university texts are addressed. The course is thought as a support in the writing process of the thesis. Participants can share small fragments of their text, so specific doubts can be solved.
For further information visit the Servei de Llengües website.
Defending your Thesis in English
Date: 17/02 to 19/03/2025, Mondays and Wednesdays from 1 to 3 pm
Mode: virtual
Language: English
Trainer: Servei de Llengües
Addressed to: first stage researchers in their last year, with an accredited B2.2 level and who do not have English as a native or native-like language
Course to prepare doctoral candidates in their last year for the reading and defense of their thesis.
For further information visit the Servei de Llengües website.
Welcome Session. The Doctoral Studies as a Formative Process. Academic Year 2024-2025.
New edition.
Date: 26/02/2025, from 11 to 12 h.
Mode: hybrid (virtual and on-site)
Venue: sala Carles Perelló, Doctoral School
Language: Spanish
Addressed to: first stage researchers who couldn't attend the welcome session last November
The Welcome Session of the UAB Doctoral School is specially addressed to first year PhD candidates but it is also open to other early stage researchers that may be interested in attending. This session will combine a live conference about ethics and AI with some videos available on Aula Moodle where some practical information will be given.
More information and registrations via Aula Moodle (not available yet).