Table of Contents
- One-to-one work dialogue
- Absence
- Travel application
- Your operating funds at ILOS
- Special travel funding
- Travel expense report
- Reimbursement of disbursements
- Text editing of dissertation written in a language other than Norwegian
- Requisition to the University Print Centre when submitting the thesis
- What happens when the scholarship period is over?
- Publishing support and other funds
One-to-one work dialogue
Once a year, PhD candidates are called in for a one-to-one work dialogue with the PhD leader. A work dialogue is a systematic review of all aspects of your work situation, and is an opportunity for you to discuss different aspects of this, such as the work environment in the department, cooperation with colleagues and the expectations you have, both with respect to the department and yourself.
Absence
All staff at the University of Oslo should be present at the workplace during working hours, unless professional or other reasons make it necessary to work elsewhere. Any such absences must be cleared with the Head of Department, and must conform with the general rules for absence.
If you are at home from the office because of illness, you must report sickness absence.
Please enter an automatic reply in your UiO e-mail if you have planned absence, such as longer foreign travel.
A medical certificate from your doctor is necessary if you want to apply for an extended scholarship period on the basis of long-term or frequent sick leave. Please contact the head of administration if you have any questions.
Travel application
Your place of work is UiO. Work travels must therefore be approved in advance by the Head of Department.
These are the two steps of a travel application:
1) Send a short e-mail to the Head of Department, cc-ing your main supervisor, where you describe destination, duration and the purpose of your travel, including relevance for your PhD project. Your main supervisor then confirms that s/he agrees with your travel plans.
2) Submit a travel application in the DFØ-portal.
The application should be sent and approved before you buy tickets etc.
Your operating funds at ILOS
As a PhD candidate, you are granted operating funds. If you were employed on 1.1.2017 or later, these amount to NOK 20,000 per year for three years, totalling NOK 60,000. If you were employed before 1.1.2017, they amount to NOK 25,000 per year for three years, totalling NOK 75,000.
As a PhD-candidate at ILOS, you may transfer unused operating funds to the next budget year, or use the funds allocated for next year, if you find that to be necessary. You must keep track of the amounts you spend yourself, but the financial officer may also provide you with updated figures during the scholarship period upon request.
The funds must be used on activities directly related to the work on you PhD-thesis, but may be used for a wide range of purposes, such as (this is not an exhaustive list) the purchase of books, of specific types of software, on participation at conferences, on partial funding of research stays, memberships etc.
If you are writing your thesis in a language other than Norwegian, and you wish to have it proof-read or edited, make sure to set aside operating funds for this purpose.
Special travel funding
During the scholarship period you may apply for special travel funding to accompany your main supervisor to a conference or a short research trip. All PhD candidates employed at ILOS have the opportunity to do this, but the funding can be granted once only. A brief application with a basic budget should be sent to the PhD leader at ILOS.
NB! Note that this arrangement has been discontinued for all PhD-candidates starting from 1 September 2023 onwards, and that it will be terminated for all PhD-candidates at ILOS on 31 December 2023.
In addition to special travel funding, you can apply to the Faculty of Humanities or the Norwegian Research Council for travel support for the purpose of doing research abroad. Your supervisor must write a letter of support for this, and it is also important that you ask the Head of Economy, Heidi Ekstrand, to approve of your budget well in advance of submitting the application.
Miscellaneous travel and activities must be covered by your own operating funds.
Travel expense report
Once you have been on a trip that is related to your research work, you must complete a travel claim form in the self-service portal for a refund of your expenses for transportation, board and lodging. The expenses claim is sent to the financial officer for final approval in the self-service portal.
You must always fill in the name and address of the overnight accommodation, otherwise it will be defined as a bedsit/barracks and board will be taxable. If you have had some meals covered by others during your trip, these should be deducted from your per diem allowance for travel abroad (breakfast 10%, lunch 40%, dinner 50%).
Travel advances are not normally paid. Therefore, in the case of a larger outlay, you should use a credit card. The Department will then endeavour to pay your expenses by the time the invoice arrives from the card company, * but this is on condition that you contact the financial officer in advance *.
Read more about travels as an employee at UiO in the right-hand menu and feel free to contact the financial officer with any questions you may have.
Reimbursement of disbursements
Try to avoid reimbursement. If, however, you need reimbursement of disbursements, you should register the reimbursement in the self-service portal. The reimbursement claim will then be sent to the financial officer for final approval in the self-service portal.
Text editing of dissertation written in a language other than Norwegian
You must use your own operating funds for proof-reading or text editing, and we recommend that you set aside operating funds for this. You may contact the PhD consultant at ILOS for recommendations of proof-readers in your language and discipline, but, ultimately the main responsibility for obtaining a proof-reader rests with you.
Contact the department for more information before entering into a binding agreement with the proof reader.
What happens when the scholarship period is over?
Completion Grant
If you submit your thesis at standard time or with a maximum delay of 6 months, you will probably qualify for a completion grant, i.e. an extension of your employment period. Read general information about the scheme here, and information about how the scheme is practiced at ILOS here. Upon receiving a completion grant, you will retain your regular rights as an employee.
Not Completion Grant
If your scholarship period ends before you have submitted your thesis, you must contact the Head of Administration at ILOS.
We cannot guarantee that you will be able to keep your office or pigeonhole, as the department leadership will need to assess your needs relative to available resources at the department. Please note that the IT rules at UiO state that all data relating to your username can be deleted 3 months after the termination of your employment. As long as you continue to hand in progress reports and work on your thesis, however, you will normally be allowed to retain access to UiO’s IT services, including your e-mail address.
Publishing support and other funds
UiO has several arrangements whereby funding for publication may be obtained. Read more on UiO’s website.
You can also apply for funding from Unifor, both as a PhD candidate and as a completion grant candidate.