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The Doctorate in Landscape and Environment lasts for three years and is achieved by obtaining a total of 180 educational credits, which equates to 60 ECTS (European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System) per year. One ECTS corresponds to 25 hours (for courses and seminars, 12.5 hours of frontal teaching and 12.5 hours of study and research contribution by the doctoral student are calculated). To this end, the Doctorate in Landscape and Environment offers a training program structured into four types of educational activities:
A. Courses of advanced institutional character
B. Seminar or laboratory-type activities
C. Activities related to research
D. Educational and research activities autonomously chosen by the doctoral student and approved by the Board of Teachers
The theoretical, methodological, and experimental training activities, both disciplinary and interdisciplinary, involve the participation of doctoral students in cultural events, conferences, congresses, seminars, and international design workshops in Italy and abroad, fostering interaction with public bodies and institutions. The objective, as envisaged by the National Research Program 2021-2027, is the coordination between research objectives and those of public policy programming tools at various levels, in relation to the contexts in which research is situated and acquires innovative meanings.
In particular, the various training activities aim to establish new correlations between fundamental and applied research, promoting and supporting interdisciplinary dialogue, with respect to common research grounds, starting from themes related to the Green New Deal, which will be central to national and international research strategies in the coming years. The work program is divided into 3 phases corresponding to the three years:
In the 1st year, doctoral students' research activities focus on deepening, through lectures and seminars, general knowledge of design, conservation, enhancement, and management of the environment and landscape. During the 1st year, the choice of the individual research topic is planned.
Training Activities:
A. Courses of advanced institutional character
For "Courses of advanced institutional character," it refers to:
• the provision of activities, also common among several doctorates, of disciplinary and interdisciplinary training and language and computer skills improvement, as well as, in the field of research management and knowledge of European and international research systems;
• the possibility of attending disciplinary courses offered in the educational offer of the faculties and universities belonging to the doctorate, subject to approval by the Board of Teachers.
B. Seminar or laboratory-type activities
For "Seminar or laboratory-type activities," it refers to seminars and workshops offered by the members of the Doctoral Board and by the Scientific Committee scheduled for the current year. Each seminar focuses on a theme capable of interconnecting general issues and specific locations and is divided into three phases: 1. instructive phase: interaction with scholars and experts from different disciplines, tasked with delimiting fields of meaning and action and disciplinary deepening also in an evolutionary key; 2. Project experimentation phase; 3. Phase of dissemination, disclosure, and innovative publicization of results also from a Third Mission, public engagement, and citizen science perspective.
C. Activities related to research
For "Activities related to research," it includes:
• cultural activities (round tables, conferences, symposiums, online journals, websites) offered within the Doctorate that doctoral students are required to participate in;
• research activities at Departmental Laboratories and facilities: credits can be awarded for conducting research activities within Laboratories or research groups within the Department or research facilities affiliated with the Doctorate, functional to the construction and scientific growth of the doctoral student;
• teaching activities: credits can be awarded for collaborating in Teaching at Courses or Didactic Laboratories taught by Teachers of the Doctorate or of the Department of Architecture and Design within the Study Courses of the Faculty of Architecture of the Sapienza University of Rome, whose contents are relevant to the character and purposes of the Doctorate. According to the University Doctoral Regulations, the Boards may grant doctoral students the possibility of carrying out integrative didactic activities in Degree Courses, not in contrast with research training, establishing the methods of implementation. This activity may include exercises, seminars, and tutoring for a maximum total of 50 hours per year and must not include participation in degree examination boards or the replacement of official teachers.
• Participation in competitions, projects, experiments: credits may be awarded for participating in national and international landscape design competitions and documented participation in innovative landscape projects. The number of credits will be determined according to the parameters set by the Doctorate Coordinator and submitted to the approval of the Board of Teachers, taking into account the role played within the competition, the recognitions obtained by the project, the type of competition (open, by invitation, national, international, on one or more phases, etc.).
• Activities carried out at other research facilities during study periods abroad
D. Educational and research activities autonomously chosen by the doctoral student and approved by the Board of Teachers
For "Educational and research activities autonomously chosen by the doctoral student," it includes all cultural or publicistic activities related to their Doctoral Thesis in which the doctoral student intends to participate. The activities must be agreed upon with the Doctorate Coordinator in collaboration with the Supervisor and discussed in Council. In particular:
• participation in conferences and congresses useful for the thesis: For simple participation in conferences, a maximum of 0.5 credits per conference can be awarded, and in any case, not more than a total of 6 ECTS for this item. The allocation of these credits will be determined by the Doctorate Coordinator and submitted to the approval of the Board of Teachers, considering the venue or institution where the conference takes place, its scientific relevance, and its relevance to the doctoral program's scientific sector.
• presentation of posters at conferences or speaker at congresses, national and international conferences: credits can be awarded for each presentation or poster at a conference according to established parameters, taking into account primarily the scientific relevance of the conference (e.g., local, national, or international conference, whether the conference has a refereeing process for presentation and/or poster proposals, etc.).
publications as author or co-author: credits can be awarded for each article or essay published, according to criteria such as the placement of the publication and its scientific relevance (e.g.: single or co-authored contribution, and in the latter case with the recognizability of the contribution; in international or national journals; in Class A journals or not; in journals classified as scientific or not by ANVUR; in refereed or non-refereed journals; in proceedings of a local, national, or international conference; essay by a signatory in a volume belonging to a series or not, with or without a scientific committee, published by a prestigious and nationally or internationally recognized publishing house, or none of the two levels; the same for the editor of a book or monograph; the same for the author of a book or monograph, etc.), and in any case in relation to the detailed framework of parameters commonly adopted by the scientific community on the occasion of publication evaluation.
The activities of scientific production of essays, articles, and proceedings are constantly tutored within the board according to the criteria and evaluation parameters of the national scientific community.
The 60 credits of the First year can be obtained as follows:
A
• Up to 10 credits for attending an institutional university course related to a discipline central to the candidate's research, agreed with the Supervisor attested by the Teacher or for disciplinary and interdisciplinary training and language and computer skills improvement.
B
• Minimum 22 credits for training (Seminars and workshops);
c
• Maximum 12 credits for internship within Department research facilities;
• Maximum 2 credits for didactic internship within Courses and Laboratories;
• Maximum 4 credits for participation in competitions;
• Maximum 2 credits for cultural activities (1 conference of 2.5 hours = 0.1 ECTS);
• Maximum 8 credits for activities abroad
• Maximum 2 credits for participation in external conferences related to the thesis;
• Maximum 2 credits for publications;
• Maximum 12 credits for thesis elaboration
The training plan has been organized and developed also in relation to the presence of 2 doctoral positions with scholarship tied to a specific theme for the 39th cycle (a.y. 2023/24), funded by the PNRR and in particular: DM118 P.A. "interpretative and project references for the implementation of the public policy agenda aimed at climate adaptation and ecological transition with particular attention to biodiversity and urban afforestation" and DM118 HERITAGE "protection and enhancement of landscape heritage: evolutions and transformations of historic landscapes and contemporary challenges for sustainable tourism". The planned activities guarantee full compliance of the doctoral path with the trajectories defined in the PNNR in coherence with the educational objectives of the Doctorate in Landscape and Environment and allow doctoral students to carry out, as envisaged by the calls, study and research periods in companies, public administrations, or research centers and study and research periods abroad.
Some activities assume a cross-disciplinary nature among the doctorates that make up the Doctoral School in Architecture Sciences: Architecture Theories and Design; Architecture and construction of the city; Architecture, landscape, and environment. These activities are planned by the coordinators, among whom a director is appointed, who directs and promotes interdisciplinary scientific development in shared activities that are part of the educational offer of each doctorate. Within the school, doctoral students recognize themselves in a broader community useful for favoring methodological and argumentative exchange and optimizing some research training initiatives.
• The school therefore represents a space for sharing and connection between the specific training paths of the three doctorates focused on research and in-depth study of methodologies related to the broader field of architecture, which, declined in the three different doctorates, is able to provide indications on basic research and fuel a synthetic type of culture.
Method of choosing the subject of the thesis
The doctoral thesis consists of an elaboration of original research capable of advancing knowledge on relevant themes and issues within the disciplinary scientific debate and community, with reference to both the PNR (National Research Program 2021-2027) and the PNNR and the Next Generation EU (NGEU) with the aim of promoting greater alignment and more effective coordination of research policies at the European, national, and regional levels and strengthening the presence and competitiveness of Italian researchers in the European Research Area and on the global stage.
The thesis may also be written in a foreign language agreed upon by the Board.
The training activities of the Doctorate, during the first year, are aimed at allowing the doctoral student to consciously select the thematic scope of their thesis.
By May of the first year of the course, each doctoral student will be assigned tutors by the Board of Teachers who will supervise the research activity and the development of the thesis.
The tutors consist of 3 or 4 members of the Board from different disciplines, who ensure and promote an interdisciplinary approach to research.
It is the responsibility of the Doctorate Coordinator to convene a collegial meeting with all the teachers aimed at presenting the research topics that the doctoral students will want to develop for their Doctoral Thesis. In light of the proposal presented by the doctoral student, the Board discusses the choice of the theme, and the tutors are confirmed and integrated.
By July, in agreement with their tutors, each doctoral student must develop the research project by defining objectives, state of the art, articulation of activities, and expected results. The research project is submitted to the approval of the Board of Teachers.
Admission to the second year
Throughout the year, the activities of doctoral students are monitored by the coordinator and members of the board through weekly meetings dedicated to specific cycles or activities. Periodically, doctoral candidates are required to provide critical notes on the activities carried out, which are structured into: Courses of advanced institutional character; Activities related to research; Educational and research activities autonomously chosen by the doctoral student and approved by the Board of Teachers; and on the interconnections with individual research activities.
By October 31 of each year, the Board evaluates the activities of doctoral students to allow their admission to the following year based on an evaluation process carried out by a specific committee composed of some members of the Board to whom doctoral students submit a concise report of the activities carried out, critical reports, and research products. Admission to the next academic year is subject to the acquisition of the required credits (with a maximum waiver of 10% less), which will be assigned by the Doctorate Coordinator, with approval from the Board of Teachers, based on the report presented by each doctoral student explaining the activities developed for each of the four aforementioned categories. The statements made in the report by each doctoral student must be supported and substantiated by documentation. Any outstanding credits (maximum 6 ECTS) must be recovered during the second year (otherwise exclusion from the Doctorate will follow). Doctoral students must enroll in the following year by November 30 of each year.
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