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Introduction

Welcome to the DISCnet Handbook! This handbook provides a practical guide to all students and supervisors as to how DISCnet runs.

If you are looking for a more externally facing view of DISCnet you should go to the DISCnet public www pages. discnet.co.uk

 

Introduction About DISCnet Academic regulations Financial regulations Supervisor Responsibilities What DISCnet Provides DISCnet studentship modes Recruitment & Registration Student Stipend & Institutional Fees STFC Registration Data Intensive Training Careers Health and welfare Mental Health or PhD support in in particular.. Code of Conduct External Placements Resources for Travel Student Representation Access to HPC at different sites Publication, press and acknowledging DISCnet support Key Contacts Communication Mailing lists DISCnet Calendar Frequently Asked Questions

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About DISCnet

DISCnet is the Data Intensive Science Centre in the South East Physics Network. DISCnet is a centre for doctoral training, receiving funding from STFC and 5 universities in the south east of England (University of Sussex, University of Southampton, University of Portsmouth, Queen Mary University of London, and the Open University).  We are open to students from the South East Physics Network, SEPnet. We are focused on training in data intensive science techniques and their application to both academic research projects (particularly in particle physics and astrophysics) and also outside the academic sphere in industry and the wider society.

 

Academic regulations

Since DISCnet students are registered at many different institutions the academic regulations governing the supervision, progression, etc. are all covered by the local institutions.  The DISCnet guidelines presented here do not supersede those regulations.

 

We will aim to provide up-to-date links to the relevant regulations at your university, but it is your responsibility to locate the most recent versions of these and be familiar with them.  If you have any problem with finding what you need at your university then please contact the DISCnet Director.

 

• University of Sussex
• Postgraduate Institutional Regulations http://www.sussex.ac.uk/rsao/regulations
• Guidance for students in School of mathematical  & Physical Sciences http://www.sussex.ac.uk/mps/internal/researchstudents
• University of Southampton
• University postgraduate quality handbook https://www.southampton.ac.uk/quality/pgr/index.page 
• Guidance for postgraduate students in the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences https://www.gradschool.fpse.soton.ac.uk/ 
• Queen Mary University of London
• QMUL academic regs and the PhD Code of Practice docs http://www.arcs.qmul.ac.uk/research-degrees/research-degree-students/
• PGR HANDBOOK 2017 18 FINAL 2017 18.pdf
• University of Portsmouth
• Code of Practice for Postgraduate Research Degrees 
• Open University
• The Graduate School Network including core research training, regulations, supervisor training and PACE workshops

 

Financial regulations

The rules (particularly around funding) that govern how the multiple institutions interact are defined in the Consortium Agreement (CA) - anything written in this Handbook is intended to be consistent with that agreement but, in the event of any discrepancy, the CA will apply.  The university finance offices should have access to the CA.

 

Supervisor Responsibilities

The PhD research project is an essential part of the DISCnet training.  Each student has an identified primary supervisor (in most cases this will be someone who is in an STFC area). There will be a supervisory team of at least a primary and secondary supervisor.  For DISCnet Scholarship and Registered students (see below) the supervisory team should include an expert from a data-intensive area outside STFC/PPAN.

 

The supervision team are responsible for

 

• Supervising the PhD student academic research project
• Supporting the PhD student 
• Understanding the obligations of the student
• Management of resources for the student
• Negotiation of placement arrangements between university and placement provider
• Monitoring and supporting the student during placements (see below)

 

What DISCnet Provides

DISCnet provides a number of different benefits to students.

• "Scholarship" Funding: some students will have their stipend and fees paid for by DISCnet (sourced either 100% from STFC funding, 100% from universities through our matched funding obligations, or 50% from each)
• Core Training: DISCnet provides a core data intensive science training programme. This consists of six courses and is primarily delivered through residential courses.
• External Placements: some students will be undertaking placements in partner organisations outside universities. DISCnet will arrange for placement opportunities to be advertised and facilitate the pairing of student and placement partner.
• Additional training that goes beyond the core, e.g. attending PyData meetups, Science To Data Science
• Peer-peer network
• Industry partner Network with career opportunities e.g., through the DISCnet Showcase event and via Linked-In group).
• Other events, e.g. hackathons

 

DISCnet studentship modes

Students may be involved with DISCnet in different ways.

• DISCnet Scholarship Students are those who are funded by DISCnet and are obliged to undertake the core training programme and undertake 6-months of placements
• DISCnet Registered Students are those whose stipend and fees are not funded by DISCnet (e.g., students on an institutional STFC Doctoral Training Programme), but who register with DISCnet through the payment of a £1,000 fee.
• DISCnet Affiliated Students are those who have signed up to mailing lists to receive information about DISCnet training and have attended at least one training event.  Some students have also done placements as Affiliated Students.
• Year of entry: DISCnet currently has two cohorts of students, who started in September 2017 and September 2018. Students from earlier cohorts have benefited from DISCnet as Affiliated students.

 

Summary of benefits by type of student

	Student Stipend & Institutional Tuition Fees Funded by DISCnet	Duration of PhD / years	Up-front DISCnet membership fee	Annual Training Fee	Year 1 Core Training	External Partner Placements	Additional Training	STFC registered	RTSG	Fieldwork Funding
Scholarship	Yes	4 years (including 6m placement)	No	£600	Yes (Mandatory)	Yes (Mandatory)	Yes	Depends	£1230 p.a.	£2,230 p.a. (see below)
Registered	No	3-4 years	£1,000	£0	Yes	Yes (where external partner is funding)	Yes (subject to any additional fees)	Depends	May vary, e.g., STFC-DTP £1230 p.a.	Varies e.g. STFC-DTP average £1,075 p.a.
Affiliated	No	3-4 years	No	£0	If space available; £400 per course	If space available	If space available (subject to any additional fees)	Depends	-	Varies e.g. STFC-DTP average £1,075 p.a.

 

 

Recruitment & Registration

Students are recruited to their host institution.  The project, supervision team and student recruitment processes needs to be validated by the DISCnet recruitment committee in a "light touch" process, using the following form.

• DISCnet Recruitment Form

 

Student Stipend & Institutional Fees

For Scholarship students the student stipend and institutional tuition fees are funded from DISCnet. Ultimately the funds for this come either from STFC, or the host institution, or some combination of the two. This should be transparent to the Student who should receive their Stipend in the same way as any other PhD student. However, the balance does affect whether the student can be considered as an STFC student, and students and supervisors should contact their institutional administration representative to find out their funding source.

 

STFC Registration

Students in DISCnet may or may not be registered as an "STFC student". The benefits of being an STFC student are that you have access to Long Term Attachment Funding (see below) and you can attend STFC training events for free. The assessment depends on where your funding comes from. The rules for STFC Data Intensive CDTs (like DISCnet) are slightly different than for normal STFC DTP studentships.  You will need to check this with your host institution.

For DISCnet Scholarship students if (over the course of your studies)  50% or more of your funding comes from STFC then you will be counted as an STFC student.

 

Data Intensive Training

The details of our core training program can be found on our www page. www.discnet.sussex.ac.uk

The 2018 programme is outlined below.  An up-to-date schedule can be found through our google calendar. Attendance at the "Core" courses is mandatory for Scholarship students.

 

Careers

An important consideration in DISCnet is the student's future career.  DISCnet place equal value on academic or a non-academic career paths and recognise that students may move from one to another. 

 

Specific careers training will be provided as part of the core DISCnet training above

 

Careers training is also provided through the host institutions and in particular supported through the SEPnet employability officers.

• University of Sussex: Employability Advisor/SEPnet Employer Engagement Emma Hallatt
• University of Southampton: SEPnet Employer Engagement: Michelle Limbert
• Queen Mary, University of London: Veronica Benson
• University of Portsmouth: Jaewoo Joo
• Open University: Sharron Jenkins 

 

An important part of any career development path is networking and DISCnet facilitates this through a large network of partners.  Networking is supported with the DISCnet Showcase event and through our Linked-In Group 

 

DISCnet students will be eligible to apply for Pivigo's Science to Data Science course S2DS. This course is five weeks of intensive, project-based training turning exceptional analytical PhDs and MScs into Data Scientists. This course is extremely focused on employability and students work with a company on a commercial data science project designed to kick-start a data science career! For DISCnet Scholarship students this course is free for students accepted on to the course.

 

 

Health and welfare

We take the health and welfare of the DISCnet students very seriously.  However, as a distributed organisation it is hard for us to provide direct support.  The host organisations have well structured systems in place to support student health and welfare. 

• University of Sussex: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/students/support/
• University of Southampton: https://www.southampton.ac.uk/edusupport/index.page 
• University of Portsmouth: Student Wellbeing Service
• Queen Mary University of London: https://www.welfare.qmul.ac.uk/
• Open University http://www.open.ac.uk/students/research/ou/services/student-wellbeing 

 

If any student is concerned about their health or welfare (or those of other students), and they cannot or are not sure how to resolve that at local institutions, then they should contact the DISCnet Director.

 

Mental Health or PhD support in in particular..

• Sussex Doctoral Researhers http://www.sussex.ac.uk/internal/doctoralschool/new-doctoral-researchers/wellbeing
• Sussex Doctoral School mental health http://www.sussex.ac.uk/internal/doctoralschool/wellbeing/mentalhealth
• QMUL PhD wellbeing  https://www.qmul.ac.uk/queenmaryacademy/researcher-development/wellbeing/
• Southampton  https://www.southampton.ac.uk/edusupport/mental_health_and_wellbeing/index.page
• Open https://help.open.ac.uk/mental-health-support
•  

 

 

Code of Conduct

In response to student feedback and following good practice in other organisations we have adopted a code of practice for our training events and other meetings.  The principles of this code of conduct would also apply to other DISCnet activities

 

DISCnet-Code_of_conduct_meetings.pdf

 

 

External Placements

The external placement policy is in the following documents

 

DISCnet_PPC_policy.pdf

 

DISCnet_PPC_policy_addendum2020_Final.pdf

 

The procedure for placements in 2019-2020 is in the following document.

 

Process_DISCnet placements_20192020.pdf

 

 

Requirements Upon Securing a Placement

When a student has successfully agreed a placement they should inform the Placement Manager-Michelle Limbert M.Limbert@Soton.ac.uk

 

They should then contact the appropriate named individual/email address at their host university as soon as possible (well before starting the placement) to arrange the next steps relative to their stipend/insurance requirements etc. 

 

Contact details as follows of who should be contacted as follows:

 

Portsmouth

icg-admin@port.ac.uk

 

Sussex

mps-pgrsupport@sussex.ac.uk

 

Southampton

feps-gradschool@soton.ac.uk

 

Queen Mary 

r.miles@qmul.ac.uk   (Rob Miles PGR administrator in the School of Physics)

 

Open University

The postgrad tutor Dave Rothery david.rothery@open.ac.uk

and PGR admin  STEM-SPS-PhD@open.ac.uk

 

This will ensure processes are put in place with regard to their registration status and their stipend/salary arrangements. This also ensures appropriate insurance measures and intellectual property issues are clarified.

 

VISA Stipulations

It may be that the terms of your VISA (should you be an international student etc) will also outline stipulations around working / taking up a placement/hours allowed to work. Again contact the above grad school/ PGR support to discuss .

 

Resources for Travel

Scholarship students are eligible for various resources for travel, conferences etc.

• Research Training Support Grant (including conferences and UK fieldwork) RTSG. This is allocated at a rate £1230 p.a. for each student. £600 p.a. is pre-allocated to the DISCnet training fees.
• Overseas fieldwork: a budget for fieldwork is allocated to each institution. This is currently calculated at a nominal rate of £2,230 p.a. per student. However, the distribution is the responsibility the host university. STFC has quite a broad definition as "Overseas fieldwork is short term trips taken outside of the UK for observing, collaboration and workshops relevant to the student’s PhD training."  (See #32 in the STFC frequently asked questions)

STFC students are also eligible for:

• Long Term Attachment. This is for travel on trips for more than 120 days. (see STFC guidelines). Applications are made by institution during the first year of the student's registration by the end of March. For DISCnet Scholarship students, the award is made to Southampton for subsequent re-allocation.

 

Student Representation

There is (or will be) a student representative for each cohort of students. The student representative provides feedback reports for the senior management team and may attend SMT meetings.

 

Access to HPC at different sites

There is an expectation that DISCnet students can access HPC facilities at any of the DISCnet university sites.

 

Publication, press and acknowledging DISCnet support

We hope and expect that DISCnet students will be productive in their research resulting in academic publications and press attention.  The following acknowledgement text  should be included in any publications.

 

"This work was supported by the Science and Technology Facilities Council [grant number ST/P006760/1] through the DISCnet Centre for Doctoral Training". 

 

We also ask that you add a separate affiliation to your name, in addition to your standard Univeristy one, along the lines of:

 

"DISCnet Centre for Doctoral Training, [Your university], [your city], [your postcode], United Kingdom"

eg

DISCnet Centre for Doctoral Training, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom

 

If you are considering any press release or similar for your work you need to inform the Director so that we can ensure that the policy in the consortium agreement is followed.

 

 

Key Contacts

Role	Name	Responsibility	Email Address
Director	Seb Oliver	Liaison with Students and Advisory Board, Strategy, anything not covered below	S.Oliver@Sussex.ac.uk
Deputy Director	Seb Hoenig	Budget holder	s.hoenig@soton.ac.uk
Director of Recruitment Committee	Stephen Serjeant	Recruitment and registration of new students. Progression of students	stephen.serjeant@open.ac.uk
Director of Placement and Partnership Committee	Seb Oliver	Definition of placement projects with partners. Advertising to students. Processes to validate placements.	S.Oliver@Sussex.ac.uk
Director of Training Committee	Eram Rizvi	Development, delivery and monitoring of training courses	e.rizvi@qmul.ac.uk
Member of Management Team	Andrew Lundgren	Overall responsibility for public WWW page,	andrew.lundgren@port.ac.uk
DISCnet Placement Manager	Michelle Limbert	Organisational aspects of DISCnet as a whole, in particular the placement scheme.	M.Limbert@soton.ac,uk
DISCnet Administrator	Ceris French	Administrative aspects of DISCnet as a whole	C.French@soton.ac.uk
GRADnet Representative	Stefano Moretti	Liaison with Students on DISCnet vs GRADnet matters	S.Moretti@soton.ac.uk
SEPnet Employer Engagement Coordinator	Veronica Benson	Careers and employer engagement for SEPnet	v.benson@surrey.ac.uk
Chair of Advisory Board	Tom Babbedge	Chairing advisory board and informal advice to DISCnet Senior Management as required	tsb@greshamllc.com
Innovation Partnership Fellow	Peter Hurley	Developing links with partner organisations. Providing guidance to students on innovation and entrepreneurship	P.D.Hurley@Sussex.ac.uk
Innovation Partnership Fellow	Gill Prosser	Developing links with partner organisations. Providing guidance to students on innovation and entrepreneurship	gill.prosser@port.ac.uk
Manager, Student Opportunities	Robert Wilson	Developing links with partner organisations. Providing guidance to students on innovation and entrepreneurship	robert.wilson@open.ac.uk
2017 Entry Student Rep.	Reese Wilkinson	Representing students to Senior Management Team, collating student feedback in reports, attendance of Senior Management Team meetings and Advisory Board meetings as able.	rw264@sussex.ac.uk
2018 Entry Student Rep.	Joe Davies	Representing students to Senior Management Team, collating student feedback in reports, attendance of Senior Management Team meetings and Advisory Board meetings as able.	j.m.m.davies@qmul.ac.uk
2019 Entry Student Rep.	TBD
University of Sussex Administrative Contact	Rebecca Foster, Amanda Britt	First point of contact would be Rebecca Foster (generic email address listed here would reach her).  Questions about finances or placement arrangements might be referred up, but she is the starting point.	mpsresearchsupport@sussex.ac.uk
University of Southampton Student Administrative Contact	Janette Osborne, Lottie Scholefield	Using the generic email address will ensure your query reaches the right person.	feps-gradschool@soton.ac.uk
University of Portsmouth Student Administrative Contact	Georgia Heath, Holly Purslow		icg-admin@port.ac.uk
Queen Mary, University of London	Robert Miles		r.miles@qmul.ac.uk

 

 

Communication

We can communicate with you through various routes and you can communicate with each other through these too.

 

• DISCnet public WWW site: discnet.org.uk
• LinkedIn Group: Group 
• Slack Team discnet.slack.com
• Students have organised an informal WhatsApp group
• Twitter twitter.com/discnet1 @discnet1 (occasional posts by Seb O., looking for volunteers to make this more active)
• Facebook page (exists, but more-or-less zero activity, looking for volunteers to make this more active)
• EventBrite http://discnet.eventbrite.com (different EB accounts have been used, but this should be the one to follow).
• We also have a Microsoft Teams channel set up 

 

Mailing lists

We hold a number of mailing lists for different groups of people and for different purposes.  Please ensure that you are signed up for the correct ones.

Name of list	Who is on this	Type of list	Address	Sign-up, archives etc.
DISCnet-SMT	Senior Management Team (Seb Oliver, Seb Hoenig, Stephen Serjeant, Eram Rizvi, Andy Lundgren)		discnet-smt@sussex.ac.uk	discnet-smt
DISCnet-Supervisors	OBSOLETE			discnet-supervisors
DISCnet-Students	OBSOLETE		discnet-students@sussex.ac.uk	discnet-students
DISCnet-AB	OBSOLETE		discnet-ab@sussex.ac.uk	discnet-ab
DISCnet	All students			SignUp

 

DISCnet Calendar

The DISCnet Calendar is intended to include all DISCnet relevant events.  It is a google calendar and so you can "subscribe" to in through various ways.  The google calendar ID is

p24qkd6tl0klk8t1v6ulagqu80@group.calendar.google.com.  The public address in iCal format is https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/p24qkd6tl0klk8t1v6ulagqu80%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics

 

 

 

 

(There is also a "management" calendar which includes management telecons and is less relevant to students and supervisors if you want access to that it

the google calendar id is qtto8v1sq1sc3qpdvndp9hapos@group.calendar.google.com or ical format https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/qtto8v1sq1sc3qpdvndp9hapos%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics)

 

 

Frequently Asked Questions

We will maintain a list of frequently asked questions here.