PhD - a time to THINK!

This page contains links to help potential students explore the route to a PhD; and also help new recruits navigate the early stages of a PhD (just as useful for an Msc).
 PhD questionnaire:
  1. What is a PhD?
  2. Why do you want to do a PhD?
  3. Have you talked to people who have done/are doing a PhD? Particularly ones in the lab of your new potential supervisor.
  4. What skills do you think you need to do a PhD?
  5. What will success look like to you?

Some words of advice:
  1. Science is hard, and a PhD should challenge you (and that is what makes it worth it).
  2. Know what 'research' actually is. (Note: We don't know the answer, there is no perfect route to the answer and some failure is always involved (learn that that is ok too!)). 
  3. The same PhD project could be brilliant for one individual and the opposite for another - do your research before committing. 
  4. Maybe start with an MSc.
  5. Identify and tackle your weaknesses - do a SWOT analysis on yourself. Do you fear public speaking? Make a plan to get used to talking in front of others slowly over time. Do you fear statistics? Start with a Youtube tutorial and then buy a book or take a course. Structured PhD programmes aim to provide some core skills.
  6. Understand the context for your research - learn the importance of ethics, licencing, reporting, GDPR, lab notebook maintenance and IP protection.
  7. Many people do not pay close enough attention to health and safety until an issue arises. Don't let that happen - laboratory and animal work are high risk. Educate yourself and ask questions, don't assume it will be alright on the day. 
  8. There is no single PhD template - there are many ways to achieve success. No two supervisors will behave the same; and the same supervisor will not behave the same at the beginning of their career as towards the end. Expect creative friction! Try not to sweat the small stuff, and as someone once said, it is all small stuff!
  9. Think about the group you want to join - again there is no perfect answer but established groups versus start ups have their pros and cons (see link to small groups are more disruptive below).
  10. Look up 'At the Bench: A Laboratory Navigator', and possibly get your PI to buy it.

Core skills all PhD students need to develop:
  1. Science skills (obviously, but you knew that).
  2. Communication skills - includes speaking, presentation and writing.
  3. Attention to detail - from sample recording to organisation of research, planning and publication.
  4. Responsibility - your research has ethical and regulatory (the HPRA), legal (health and safety, patenting), and scientific (publication) ramifications so you need to understand your responsibilities. 
  5. Ancillary skills - experimental design, statistics, data visualisation and analysis.
  6. Critical thinking skills - there is a lot of data out there so you need good analytical skills.
  7. Resilience - you wouldn't embark on a marathon tomorrow without training physically so the time to mentally prepare for an intellectual journey is in advance of or in the early stages of your PhD by building your problem solving skill set. 
  8. Research integrity - Google it, and training is now available online. 
  9. Science and society - understand the role of the animal scientist in adopting NC3R principles (see website for videos on experimental design and useful model options - in vitro and in vivo) as well as accurate reporting to ensure scientific reproducibility.   
Useful UCD links:
Other online links:
Twenty things I wish Id known before starting a PhD
What is a PhD?
Are you curious??
A fear of failure??

One great part of science (once you get used to it) is that we all fail at some stage. That is how we learn. Some of the best scientific discoveries resulted from failure! That is not to say we should not try our best to succeed, or that failure is easy but it is a necessary part of our learning journey. Read the links below.