The PhD day is an annual event taking place in January as a joint venture between the PhD Association and the Graduate School of Health, Aarhus University. The day seeks to bring PhD students together to meet with each other and network across the broad diversity of scientific fields within health sciences that are represented at the faculty.
Furthermore, the day features a keynote lecture by an international profile together with a theme of current importance for researchers in general. In addition, the Fogh-Nielsen prize competition will be held.
The day is devoted to you and your research. As a PhD student you will either present your own research to your peers as well as to more experienced researchers, or act as chairs during the presentations. This is an opportunity to strengthen your dissemination skills through valuable experience in communicating your research.
All participants (PhD students, research year students, research honours programme students, supervisors and other academic staff, etc.) are invited to a party in the evening to conclude the PhD Day.
Stay updated on the next PhD day!
When it is made public, you will find practical information and documents such as the invitation, the (preliminary) programme, the abstract book (draft or final) etc. on this site.
We look forward to seeing you at the next PhD Day on 25 January 2019!
The Theme: PhD Day 2019 “Excel, explain, excite” See the video here
The theme: PhD Day 2019 "Excel, explain, excite"
The evening DINNER PARTY
PhD Day dinner party at Centralværkstedet, Værkmestergade 9, 8000 Aarhus C.
The evening will start on Friday 25 January at 6:30 pm and finish at 02:00 am.
A three course meal will be served, and there will be free drinks (soft drinks, beer and wine) until 22:00, and followed by awarding prestigious prizes and a festive speech.
After dinner there will be dance, and music from a DJ.
The price for all this is only 195,00 kr.
Please register before 18 January 2019 Link for register to the PhD Day Dinner party:
PhD Day is a mandatory part of the PhD programme at Health. It is expected that all PhD students participate in PhD Day at least twice during the enrolment period. Absence due to e.g. maternity/paternity leave, sick leave, illness, or studying abroad is of course allowed.
Once you have submitted your abstract, you are automatically signed up for participation in the PhD Day.
PhD Day is a mandatory part of the PhD programme at Health, and will not grant ECTS (as of 1 January 2019).
All supervisors are invited to participate in the PhD Day, and to contribute as chair for an oral, a poster or a flash talk session.
All PhD students at Health should submit an abstract describing either the results obtained or (for those who have only just started) describing the project. The abstracts will be presented in the abstract book (available in January).
You submit your abstract via the abstract system. To login please use the same access credentials as for the Course Calendar. Find submission deadline in the right sidebar ("Important dates").
The maximum number of characters for abstracts is 1,700 (including spaces).
When submitting the abstract you are asked to:
You must write the name of your main supervisor, as well as specify which graduate programme (GP) you are enrolled in (GP: Biomedicine, GP: ClinFO (Clinical Medicine, Odontology and Forensic Medicine) or GP: Public Health.
Even if you have not had any new results within the last year, you are still expected to participate in the PhD Day and to submit an abstract. Do not reuse an old abstract – rephrase it and give it a new title.
Your abstract will be included in the PhD Day abstract book, which will be available each year in January. Once the abstract book is available, you can find your role (poster presentation, oral presentation or chairman) by searching for your name. When available, you can find the abstract book in the right sidebar.
The Consul Johannes Fogh-Nielsen’s and Mrs Ella Fogh-Nielsen’s Legacy will award DKK 100,000 for the continuation of excellent research efforts by PhD students enrolled at Health, Aarhus University.
The grant is awarded for research purposes and is intended to support projects implementing new studies based on published research results achieved during the PhD studies.
The following conditions must be met in order for the application to be considered:
Submit your application to graduateschoolhealth@au.dk – deadline to be found in the call when available (see right sidebar).
Three candidates are selected on the basis of the applications, and they are to present their project in a ten-minute lecture (in English) on PhD Day followed by five minutes for questions.
The Fogh-Nielsen presentation excludes that the candidates participate in the PhD Day with a regular poster/oral presentations or as a chairman.
An appraisal of the presentation and the subsequent discussion will be included in the overall assessment. The grant is expected to be divided into three parts and will be awarded on the basis of the final assessment, which will be announced during the PhD Day evening party.
The board consists of:
Lawyer Jon Johnsen
Vice dean, Health, AU Lise Wogensen Bach
Professor, Chairman of the Board Søren K. Moestrup
The board selects the three finalists for the prize competition among the applications from PhD students.
The assessment committee consists of three senior researchers from Health, Aarhus University and it is appointed by the board for this single event. The 2019 assessment committee consists of:
Associate professor Lene Baad-Hansen Department of Odontology and Oral Health
Associate professor Jacob Fog Bentzon Department of Clinical Medicine
Professor Vera Ehrenstein Department of Clinical Medicine
The assessment committee evaluates the three finalists and recommends the winner of the prize competition and the sharing of the Fogh Nielsen research grant sum to the board. The board makes the final decision according to the fund rules of Consul Johannes Fogh-Nielsen’s and Mrs. Ella Fogh-Nielsen’s Legacy.
The competition is chaired by the chairman of the board. A representative of the PhD association acts as co-chair but does not participate in the assessment and final decision.
This year, we introduce the concept of flash talks to the PhD Day. Research Year students, Research Honours Programme students and First year PhD students can apply to present their project in the form of a flash talk. Approximately 80 of the submitted abstracts will be chosen for a flash talk, while the remaining abstracts will be chosen for a poster presentation similar to that offered to Second year PhD students. You will receive a notification from the Organizing Committee or the PhD administration regarding whether your abstract has been chosen for flash talk or poster approximately three weeks after the abstract submission deadline.
We will prioritize those abstracts which seem most suitable for the flash talk format. Honours Programme students, Research Year students and PhD students have equal chances of their abstract being selected for a flash talk.
Instructions for those selected to give a flash talk
The flash talk should be in English and should take no more than 2½ minutes. This time limit will be strictly enforced by the chairmen. The presentation should be understandable to non-specialists and it is recommended that you limit your presentation to a maximum of four slides. Besides, an initial slide with your name and affiliation and the title of your presentation is allowed (not included in the maximum of four slides).
Please convert your slides to .pdf format (“horizontal”) and send them to the Organizing Committee hmel@au.dk no later than (4 January 2019) three weeks before the PhD Day. ONLY .pdf format will be accepted!
If you choose to present your Flash talk without slides - we ask you to send us a slide with the title, your name and number.
(In the subject field of the mail, please write: "PhD Day 2019_ Flash talk_"your full name")
Prize for best presentation
The session chairmen will select the best flash talk which is rewarded with a prize.
The assessment criteria will be as follows:
· Is your talk comprehensible to people outside your research area?
· Are your slides easy to read and comprehend, and do they support your talk?
· Are your aims and hypotheses clear?
· Can you convey the importance and perspectives of your research to the audience?
Each year around 300-400 posters are presented. The posters are divided into groups and each group has two chairmen.
The poster presenter is asked to give a four minutes oral presentation in English followed by two minutes for discussion. The chairmen will select the best poster, which will be rewarded with a prize. Session winners from previous years can be found in the section “PhD Day archive”.
The chairmen will be asked to make their selection on the basis of the following points:
The poster should contain the background for the project, the aim of the project, the methods used, the results that have been obtained and the conclusions.
The content of the poster should be understandable without requiring an oral explanation. Avoid large tables of data. Your poster should encourage discussion, not merely present complex methods and results.
A poster presentation should include a) the background and purpose for the study, b) the main findings, and c) a round off with a conclusion, if possible, and future perspectives. All posters must be presented in English.
Posters can be printed free of charge by SUN-TRYK, the printing facility at Health.
E-mail your poster to ja@sun-tryk.au.dk as an attached file. File-format must be PDF (all fonts embedded) or Powerpoint. Find submission deadline for poster printing in the right sidebar ("Important dates").
Please make sure to meet the following requirements regarding your poster:
Posters should be hung up between 16:30 and 19:00 on the day before or on the day of the event
between 7:30 and 8:00.
A selection of the submitted abstracts is chosen for oral presentation. If your abstract is chosen, you will receive a notification from the Organizing Committee or the PhD administration.
The selection of abstracts for oral presentations on PhD Day will be based on the following:
There are 10 minutes for the presentation in English followed by five minutes for questions. The presentation should correspond to a presentation given at a conference.
The presentation should be understandable to non-specialists and it is recommended that you limit your presentation to a maximum of ten slides.
The presentation should be created in PowerPoints for PC. Please bring your presentation on a USB key and make sure to check that everything works.
Session chairmen will select the best presentation which is rewarded with a prize. The chairmen will take into account how far your project has come. In addition, the following aspects are taken into consideration:
Session winners from previous years can be found in the section "PhD Day archive".
Two senior chairmen and one co-chair (3rd year PhD student) will be assigned to each of the oral sessions. Selected third-year PhD students present their work followed by questions from the chairmen and other listeners. After the session the chairmen select the PhD student who presented the best lecture. He/she will receive an award at the end of the day.
Find your instructions as chairman/co-chair of an oral session (PDF)
One senior chairman and two co-chairs (3rd year PhD students) will be assigned to each of the poster sessions. The PhD/research year / honours programme students will present their work followed by questions from the chairmen and other listeners. After the session the chairmen select the student who presented the best entries. He/she will then receive a poster award at the end of the day.
Find your instructions as chairman/co-chair of a poster session (PDF)
One senior chairman and two co-chairs (3rd year PhD students) will be assigned to each of the flash talk sessions. The PhD/research year/ research/ honours programme students will present their work followed by questions from the chairmen and other listeners. After the session the chairmen select the student who presented the best entries. He/she will then receive a poster award at the end of the day.
Find your instructions as chairman/co-chairman of a flash talk session (PDF)
Is your PhD supervisor someone who you find especially inspiring and committed? Is your supervisor accessible, devoting sufficient time and effort to you and your project? Is he or she someone with whom you can discuss both your specific results and the overall course of your project – also if things are not going according to plan? Is your supervisor committed to your success as a researcher and as a person?
If so, you should consider nominating your supervisor to the
JCD Prize - the good PhD Supervisor
The award was founded by the PhD Association in 2012, in the name of Professor DMSc Jens Christian Djurhuus, in honour of his long-standing work with and for the PhD students at Aarhus University, Health.
Both main- and co-supervisors are eligible for nomination and nominees do not need to be employed by Aarhus University. Only nominations from current PhD students and PhD students who have obtained their degree in 2018 will be taken into consideration. Finally, we welcome applications made by groups who wish to jointly nominate their supervisor. We require names of all the nominating PhD students, and anonymous nominations will not be taken into consideration.
Let us know why your supervisor deserves the JCD Prize. If you wish to nominate your supervisor or co-supervisor, please write a short recommendation (max 2400 characters incl. spaces, in English) and send it to Helle Mellerup hmel@au.dk.
Find deadline for nomination in the right sidebar ("Important dates").
Afterwards an assessment committee consisting of representatives from the PhD Association (PhD students) and head of Graduate School Health will select a winner.
The JCD Prize winner will be named at the next PhD Day during the dinner party. In addition to the honour, the winner is awarded DKK 25,000.
Are you looking for information on previous PhD Days? See our PhD Day archive.
The session winners PhD Day 2019
The Abstract Book - PhD Day 2019
The Keynote Speakers for PhD Day 2019:
From Barry Stainthorp's lecture on 25/1 2019:
Here the PowerPoint slide
The evening Dinner Party
Please register before 18 January 2019 here:
PhD Day 2019 Dinner Party
