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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 please go to the DISCnet public website at: www.discnet.co.uk

 

Introduction About DISCnet Academic Regulations Financial Regulations Supervisor Responsibilities What DISCnet Provides DISCnet Studentship Modes Recruitment and Registration Student Stipend and Institutional Fees STFC Registration Data Intensive Training Programme Health and Welfare Mental Health Support External Placements Resources for Travel Student Representation Access to HPC at different sites Publication, press and acknowledging DISCnet support Key Contacts

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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 3 universities in the south east of England (University of Sussex, Queen Mary University of London, and the Open University). We accept 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 and progression etc. of students are 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 or Manager.

 

University of Sussex

• Regulations and Policies for Research Degrees
• Sussex Researcher School 
• School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences

 

Queen Mary University of London

• Academic regulations and the PGR Code of Practice
• Doctoral College 
• School of Physical and Chemical Sciences 

 

The Open University

• The Graduate School Network including training and development and forms and regulations.
• School of Physical Sciences 

 

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 (S2DS bootcamp), The Alan Turing Institute events etc.
• Peer-to-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 £2000 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 the 2022/23 academic year and 2023/24 academic year. 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.	£1885 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; £550 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 and Registration

All students are recruited to their host institution. The DISCnet Senior Management Team will review applications to check that the student's PhD project and supervisory team are a suitable match for DISCnet. Students can apply for Registered or Affiliated status using the following form: DISCnet 2023-24 Application Form

 

Student Stipend and 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 PGR student administrator 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 Programme

Details of our core training programme, including learning objectives, course structure and prerequisites, can be found on our website: www.discnet.co.uk/training. Attendance at the "Core" courses is mandatory for Scholarship students. 

 

The 2023/24 programme will be outlined below as the details are finalised. The DISCnet manager will email all students the full details when they are confirmed, along with links to Eventbrite pages for each course, for students to book their place. All accommodation and meals (on training days) are included. Students will need to arrange their own travel to the training and claim these costs back from their RTSG budget using their host university expenses process. 

 

Year 1 - core modules:

 

Course	Brief Description	Format	Dates	Location
Introduction to Big Data	In-person 3-day course to explore how big data techniques can be used to solve massive scale data analysis problems.	Residential	29 April-1 May 2024	Old Thorns Hotel, Liphook
Statistics and Data Analysis	In-person 3-day course to acquire the skills needed for analysis of experimental data and model fitting.	Residential	14-16 May 2024	Sussex Innovation, East Croydon
High Performance Computing	In-person 3-day course to introduce high performance computing (HPC), high-throughput computing (HTC), parallel computing, and cloud computing.	Residential	TBC
Machine Learning	In-person 5-day course to introduce machine learning in a practical way. Students will be familiarised with the basic concepts and led towards using machine learning techniques in their own research.	Residential	TBC
Software Carpentry	Using Udemy, students progress through a DISCnet recommended pathway of courses via self-directed study in their own time and at their own pace.	Online

 

Careers

An important consideration in DISCnet is the student's future career. DISCnet places equal value on academic and non-academic career paths and recognise that students may move from one to another. Specific careers training will be provided as part of the DISCnet training in years 2-4.

 

Careers training is also provided through host institutions and in particular supported through the SEPnet employability advisors:

 

• University of Sussex: Emma Hallatt, Employability Advisor/SEPnet Employer Engagement
• Queen Mary University of London: Costis Papageorgakis, Academic Lead for Employability and Graduate Opportunities
• The Open University have a Careers and Employability Services  

 

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.

 

Science to Data Science (S2DS)

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 PhD and MSc students 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 onto the course.

 

Health and Welfare

We take the health and welfare of our DISCnet students very seriously. As a distributed organisation it can be hard for us to provide direct support. The host institutions have well structured systems in place to support student health and welfare. They can be contacted via the following links:

 

• University of Sussex - Student Hub: health and wellbeing
• Queen Mary University of London - Advice and Counselling Service
• The Open University - Help Centre

 

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

 

Mental Health Support

• University of Sussex - Sussex Researcher School: wellbeing

• Queen Mary University of London - mental health advice for students 
• The Open University - mental health, wellbeing and keeping safe

 

Additional resources:

• Mind - seeking help for a mental health problem
• Student Minds - find support  
• phds.me (US based) - Mental Health and Your PhD: Resources and 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 also apply to all other DISCnet activities: DISCnet-Code_of_conduct_meetings.pdf

 

External Placements

This section is currently under review and will be updated shortly (March 2024).

 

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

 

 

Guidelines for students undertaking a placement

 

Employer Registration Form (2023/24)

 

 

Requirements Upon Securing a Placement

When a student has successfully agreed a placement they should inform the DISCnet Manager, Susanne Bell, at s.c.bell@sussex.ac.uk.

 

They should then contact their PGR student administrator at their host university (details in the Key Contacts table below) as soon as possible and well before starting their placement. Students will need to submit an application for fieldwork/interruption of studies and ensure that their registration status, stipend/salary arrangements, insurance requirements and any intellectual property issues are clarified, agreed and in place before they start their placement.

 

Visa Stipulations

Students who have a visa (such as a Student Visa) may have stipulations or restrictions around working, permitted hours of work or taking up a placement. Students should contact their PGR student administrator to discuss this and check if they have any restrictions before submitting their application for fieldwork/interruption of studies. 

 

Resources for Travel

Scholarship students are eligible for various resources for travel and conferences etc.:

• Research Training Support Grant (RTSG) includes conferences and UK fieldwork. This is allocated at a rate of £1230 p.a. for each student. 
• Overseas fieldwork. This is currently calculated at a nominal rate of £1885 p.a. per student (an amount of £600 p.a. is pre-allocated to the Student Cohort and Development Fund). The distribution is the responsibility of 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."

 

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 institutions by the end of March of the student's first year of registration. 

 

Student Representation

A student representative will be appointed for each cohort of students. The student representative will need to be in regular communication with their cohort and collate any issues, feedback, ideas or questions from the cohort and report these to the senior management team on a regular basis. They may need to attend SMT meetings (online) on occasion. We will include the details of your student representative in this handbook. If you are interested in being a student representative for your cohort (or group of students at your institution) please contact the DISCnet Manager.

 

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/W006839/1] through the DISCnet Centre for Doctoral Training". 

 

We also ask that you add a separate affiliation to your name, in addition to your standard University 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 Sussex, Brighton, BN1 9RH, 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
Senior Management Team
Director	Seb Oliver	Budget holder, strategy, liaison with Advisory Board, anything not covered below.	s.oliver@Sussex.ac.uk
Deputy Director; Deputy Director Student Experience	Kate Shaw	Student experience, alumni engagement, mentorship scheme, induction planning, case studies.	kate.shaw@sussex.ac.uk
Director of Student Experience	Stephen Serjeant	Student experience, recruitment and registration of new students, progression of students.	stephen.serjeant@open.ac.uk
Director of Partnerships	Seb Oliver	Definition of placement projects with partners, advertising to students, oversight of process.	s.oliver@Sussex.ac.uk
Director of Training and Skills	Robin Laney	Development, delivery and monitoring of training courses.	r.laney@open.ac.uk
Deputy Director of Training and Skills	Eram Rizvi	Development, delivery and monitoring of training courses.	e.rizvi@qmul.ac.uk
Member of Senior Management Team	Andrew Lundgren		andrew.lundgren@port.ac.uk
DISCnet Manager	Susanne Bell	Operation and delivery of DISCnet, first point of contact.	s.c.bell@sussex.ac.uk
Chair of Advisory Board	Tom Babbedge	Chairing advisory board and informal advice to DISCnet Senior Management as required.	tsb@greshamllc.com
GRADnet Representative	Stefano Moretti	Liaison with Students on DISCnet vs GRADnet matters.	s.moretti@soton.ac.uk
Student Representatives
2022/23 entry		Representing students to Senior Management Team, collating student feedback in reports, attendance at Senior Management Team meetings and Advisory Board meetings as needed.
2023/24 entry		Representing students to Senior Management Team, collating student feedback in reports, attendance at Senior Management Team meetings and Advisory Board meetings as needed.
2024/25 entry	TBD
PGR administrative contacts at host institutions
University of Sussex	Sinead Rance	Assistant Research Manager (Postgraduate Researchers), School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences	mpsresearchsupport@sussex.ac.uk
The Open University		School of Physical Sciences	STEM-SPS-Admin@open.ac.uk
Queen Mary University of London	Robert Miles	PGR Programmes Officer, School of Physical and Chemical Sciences	r.miles@qmul.ac.uk

 

Communication

Our main method of communication with students and supervisors is via email from the DISCnet Manager (Susanne Bell at s.c.bell@sussex.ac.uk). We have a presence on some social media sites (listed below) where students can communicate with each other and with past alumni. Students may also choose to set up an informal WhatsApp group amongst themselves (please ensure all DISCnet students are included on this).

 

• DISCnet public website: www.discnet.co.uk
• LinkedIn group: DISCnet
• Slack channel: discnet.slack.com 
• Twitter twitter.com/discnet1 @discnet1 (occasional posts by Seb O., looking for volunteers to make this more active) 
• Eventbrite profile: DISCnet
• General DISCnet email address (mainly for use in mailouts to external partners, but is regularly monitored): discnet@sussex.ac.uk