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To support our members during the confinement due to coronavirus, DION is organising a special grant round for online events. All PhD candidates, Postdocs and other temporary scientific employees at NTNU are eligible to apply for this round.
Please check out the rules for the grants and apply via application form. Then send it back to us at post@dion.ntnu.no by 23:59 CET 2nd April 2020.
//Discussions between NTNU and other Norwegian universities are on-going to come up with a common policies on how to address research delays and extensions of temporary contract. Several unions have been advocating a universal extension policy financially supported by the Norwegian state. If this position is unsuccessful, universities would most likely adopt a case-by-case approach to extension.
DION strongly advise PhDs, postdocs and temporary staff to start preparing for such an eventuality and start logging their work, their activity/inactivity, delays and difficulties in their research faced due to the situation, including issues related to unsuitable working conditions, anxiety, etc. Such a log will be helpful to argue for an extension later on. Unions also advise to continue recording absences due to sickness, child care and other leaves on Paga even during confinement as regular extension rules related to these still apply (new guidelines have been created for recording corona-related absences).
There is no information so far about the criteria that will apply, the process and deadlines to apply for extensions. For temporary staff with urgent matters (e.g. end of contract, residence permit applications) who cannot wait until the end of the confinement period, NTNU has recommended that they get in touch with their supervisors or the PhD contact at their faculties.
In the meantime, here are key updates and guidelines from NTNU:
Follow NTNU Innsida channel on coronavirus for updates. If you have questions about how specific guidelines apply to you, please contact your supervisor, your superior or the PhD contact at their faculties.
For internationals who have questions about their immigration status and procedures, NIRS is putting together a list of useful links for you to check:
Finally remember that you can still contact Occupational Health Services at NTNU for mental health support. They have also published advice on how to set up a home office.
This post will be updates regularly as more information becomes available.
DION is also collecting information about how this situation will impact PhDs, post-docs and temporary scientific staff’s contracts. If you have any work-related inquiries your department cannot answer, please contact us at post@dion.ntnu.no.
//Feeling a bit like this?
DION’s got you covered! Here are a few things to help you survive and stay sane in these confined times.
Here are a few things you can try or organise:
Can’t go to the gym? Here are a series of exercise you can do from home without special equipment:
Have you run out of shows to watch and room to tidy up? Here are a few suggestions
10 museums offering virtual tours:
Opera on-line:
Sir Patrick Stewart Reading Shakespeare everyday on Twitter.
//DION was invited by the The Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (MH) to contribute to a supervisor seminar. The seminar targeted new supervisors at the MH faculty. DION was asked to summarize what PhD candidates could wish for from their supervisors. After meetings with over 30 participating supervisors we have written a report that summarizes our findings of the most central themes for being a good supervisor. The report looks at the relationship between supervisor and PhD candidate from a very general perspective and can hopefully give supervisors and impression what PhD candidates care and worry about.
The whole report can be found here, with the central themes being:
– Open door policy – be welcoming to your student.
– Clear expectations – and communicating them.
– Balancing freedom and guidance for the PhD-student.
To complete the report, the board and a sub-working group met several times and discussed from their own and their peers’ experiences what are best and worst practices regarding the supervisor to PhD candidate relationship. DIONs contribution at the seminar was held in an interactive manner. The 30 participating supervisors were encouraged to engage in group discussions regarding their own good and bad experiences as a PhD candidate.
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The classical music festival Barokkfest is just about to start in Trondheim, and the festival has some exciting news: they would like to give all DION members free tickets for the event Lytt og knytt on Thursday 30th January!
We will start the evening with speed friending at Den Gode Nabo. Speed friending is a concept that is almost the same speed dating, but with a twist: here you can meet new people and expand your social network!
After the speed friending we move on to Vår Frue kirke, where we will experience opera by the world’s first opera composer, Monteverdi: Combattimenti! Together with our new friends, we get to hear the incredibly beautiful tones of one of the world’s first operas in our own beautiful medieval church.
The free ticket includes both the speed friending and the concert. To collect your ticket, please follow this link or write in the code INTERNATIONAL on the ticket page.
