This course aims to provide knowledge and tools to PhD students at FSE on how to live their PhD life in a sustainable way. Participants will follow presentations on different topics, ranging from digitalization, open science and mental health, and discuss those topics with experts and each other. 

In the early afternoon, two parallel workshops will be provided about sustainability in the lab and for computer simulation, thus participants can choose the topic that fits their work the most. The organizers of the course will contact you after registering to ask for your preference regarding these two parallel workshops

During group discussions and presentations, participants will brainstorm suggestions on crucial topics (e.g. integrating sustainability in science education, making FSE more sustainable, reducing one’s impact in daily life). 

At the end of the course, social drinks will be provided.

Program

9:30 - 10:00 Coffee and introduction
The course starts with an informal introduction.

10:00 - 10:30 Sustainability at the UG
The Sustainability Programme will provide a brief overview of sustainability at
Groningen University, with a focus on current projects, policies and ambitions for the
next 5 years.

10:30 - 11:00 Sustainability & PhD
The Sustainability Programme and PhD Council will discuss with the PhD students
how to be more sustainable in the PhD daily life

11:00 - 11:30 Reference manager (Joost Driesens, University Library)
Our University supports many different reference managers, do you use them? The
Academic Information Specialist Joost Driesens from the University Library will give
us a quick introduction to reference managers in general and give tips on how to
choose. Furthermore, he will explain the future of reference managers with the RUG.

11:30 - 12:00 Digitalization and sustainability
How has the impact of our digital behaviour evolved? And what can we do to also
become sustainable in this aspect of our lives? Zuzana Kubínová (CIT) will guide this
conversation with short discussion rounds on these topics.

12:00 - 12:30 Lunch

12:30 - 13:15 Parallel workshops: Greener Lab and Computer Simulation
In the first workshop, Suzanne Lanooij from the Greener Lab group, will talk about her initiative and provide tips on how to reduce waste and energy use at the lab. In the second workshop, Fokke Dijkstra, a high energy performance computing expert from CIT, will talk about energy efficiency of research computations

13:15 - 14:00 Open Science
The goal of Open Science is to stimulate greater scientific and societal impact or
research. Sonja Billerbeck, Open Science ambassador at FSE, will discuss current
strategies, stakeholders and challenges towards reaching Open Science.

14:00 - 15:00 Mental Health
How can you make sure you will keep mentally fit and healthy throughout your
trajectory? PhD psychologist Karen Huizing will share the most common stress factors
for PhD students, discuss alarming signals and give you tips on how to sustain a
healthy work life balance.

15:00 - 15:20 Break

15:20 - 16:20 Group brainstorming on different topics
Participants will be divided into groups and brainstorm different topics (e.g.,
integrating sustainability in research and education at their faculty, making your
faculty more sustainable). The groups will provide short presentations based on their
brainstorming.

16:20 - 17:00 Scientists for future & Closing remarks
The last guest is Ceciel Nieuwenhout, researcher at the Faculty of Law at the UG, who will talk about
the movement Scientist4Future. Group discussion will follow. The event will close
with group reflections and feedback.

17:00 - 18:00 Drinks and Social Networking