Doctoral researcher onboarding
Doctoral Studies
- Doctoral students at Aalto University may be fully or part time employed by the university or conduct their studies with personal grants. Rights and benefits differ depending on your funding and employment status. Doctoral Education Services supports all doctoral students with study matters, while HR Services assists with employment-related and visitor matters.
- Doctoral students who are not employed by Aalto University can be granted a visitor status to enable access to necessary facilities, such as offices, materials, and tools.
- All new doctoral students are invited to onboarding days organized by Doctoral Education Services. In addition, HR provides orientation on employment-related topics for those in an employment relationship.
- If you have started in a doctoral researcher position before receiving your official doctoral study right, please apply for the study right as soon as possible.
Orientation
- Doctoral education services arrange orientation days for all new doctoral students. HR provides orientation to employment related issues.
- Check out doctoral education hub – everything there is to know about doctoral education at Aalto University
- Join also the common one-hour Newcomer event for new Aalto University employees arranged four times a year
Newcomer Welcome Event online - Workday
Safety
- If you are working in laboratory conditions, please make sure to complete safety training.
- Please make sure to take the initial health check with occupational health care. This is especially important if your work may expose you to hazardous substances or conditions.
Working hours
- As a hired doctoral researcher you work in total working hours. This means your working hours annually are 1615 hours. Working hours need to be recorded in Halli system monthly. More information from financial services.
- The target time for full-time doctoral studies is 4 years. Working contract as a doctoral researcher is usually planned to follow the same maximum time. In practice this means that doctoral researchers should aim to begin their pre-examination after 3,5 years of studies.
Travelling and working abroad
- When going on a work trip, make sure to follow Aalto travel guidelines and you can contact Aalto travel services for further information.
- Get familiar also with guidelines on working remotely abroad (max 14 days) and international assignments (more than 30 days work trip)
Research and innovation services
- Find your public researcher profile on the Research Portal, update it and add publications through ACRIS (instructions linked below)
- Familiarise yourself with best practices and services regarding open science, responsible conduct of research, commercialisation and IPR, and the use of AI in research. If you have made an invention or would like to commercialize your invention, please submit an invention disclosure.
- Take part in the training provided by Research Services
Library services
Aalto University's library, also called Harald Herlin Learningcenter, provides good access to databases with search tools. There are also nice spaces to work, have meetings or just enjoy coffee with colleagues!
Networking and socialization
Expand you professional and social network! This will make a huge impact to your career and wellbeing. Ask people for coffee or lunch and participate Aalto events. Aallonhuiput is the student association for doctoral students. Join them!
Infrastructures for research and teaching
Aalto University has world class level infrastructure available. Check if what you need already exists and make your reservation.
IT services for research
In basic IT issues you can contact IT servicedesk but in research related IT issues, please contact the Aalto Scientific Computing (Science-IT). Link to scientific computing here: Welcome, researchers! — Aalto Scientific Computing (ASC)
Find research and researchers at Aalto
More onboarding topics
Here link to basic onboarding guide for all new employees of Aalto on general topics. Also an extensive onboarding checklist is available.
More information
HR services will help you with any employment related questions.