IDCORE's research engineers are normally working remotely from their academic supervisors and are receiving day-to-day supervision from their industrial supervisor (who should be an employee of their project sponsor). As a direct consequence the needs of our research engineers are different from those of a traditional PhD student.  Furthermore, the cultures, systems and approaches used by the Universities of Edinburgh, Exeter and Strathclyde to supervise PhD students are all different.

Although, IDCORE has all ways had a common, team based, approach to the supervision of our research engineers, it was realised that some supervisors were becoming involved for the first time and that others had not kept up with current best practice.  In early 2024, a workshop was convened by Dr Helen Smith to look at best practice for research engineer supervision.  The results of this workshop (which included supervisors from the three partners, and some current students and IDCORE alumni) were used to develop a best practice guide and to update our supervisor training materials.

This page contains the training material and a short quiz.  We expect all supervisors to watch the training videos and complete the quiz.  The training will take about one hour.  You should note that quiz scores are recorded by Microsoft FORMS and will be reviewed by the IDCORE Directorate.

Module 1: Structure of the Research Phase

A brief, 5-minute, introduction to the structure of the research phase of IDCORE.

Module 2: IDCORE project supervision

A review (20 minutes) of the arrangements for IDCORE project supervision and the duties of supervisors. This video also includes a brief discussion on how supervision meetings should be conducted and on the expectations on both research engineers and their supervisors.

Module 3: Writing up, Journals and Conferences.

A 20-minute video providing guidance on best practice for helping to develop the technical skills of IDCORE research engineers and which lays out IDCORE's expectations for research engineers writing journal papers and attending National and International Scientific and Engineering conferences.

Further Guidance

More information about the supervision of IDCORE research engineers can be found in the best practice guide.  This summarises the findings from the supervision workshop. You are encouraged to read it and download a copy for reference.  The formal processes for the supervision of research students follow the University of Edinburgh's rules which are described in the Approved Code of Practice for the Supervision of Research Students.

The powerpoint slides used in the above presentations can also be downloaded as a pdf. 

The best practice guide also contains a supervision agreement which we would like completed and signed by all supervisors at the start of the research project.

Supervisor Quiz

Now you have completed the training please take the supervison quiz.  This quiz should take you less than five minutes to complete. There is a maximum mark of 14.  The quiz will ask you for your name and the name of the organisation you work for, this information is used for compliance monitoring by the IDCORE Administrator and Directorate.

Take the Quiz (opens in a new window)