Career development

Associate Professor Programme

VID offers a structured qualification programme for associate professors at VID. There is an annual admission with the following structure:

• Annual announcement before the summer holiday for admission for the coming school year.
• Three gatherings during the school year (October, January, May). The gatherings take place across academic units.
• The purpose is to make participants aware of the competence, experience and documentation required to apply for promotion to associate professor and how to work purposefully to achieve such competence. Strategic choices related to development work, research and development projects are emphasised.
• During the gatherings, the participants develop three relevant documents that support the promotion application itself: academic CV, profile document and pedagogical portfolio. A timetable is also drawn up.
• The first gathering deals with current legislation and guidelines. The second and third gatherings function as presentation seminars.
• The person responsible for the programme makes an assessment of the participants' profile after completing the qualification programme, the progress report is shared with their immediate supervisor and the pro-dean for research.
• The participants are then followed up in their own academic unit and offered a mentor, if relevant. Read more about the mentoring scheme below.

Professor Programme

VID offers a structured professor programme for VID's associate professors. There is an annual admission with the following structure:

• Annual announcement before the summer holiday for admission for the coming school year.
• Three gatherings during the school year (October, January, May). The gatherings take place across academic units.
• The purpose is to make participants aware of the competence, experience and documentation required to apply for promotion to professor and how to work purposefully to achieve such competence. Strategic choices related to development work, research and development projects and publications are emphasised.
• During the gatherings, the participants develop three relevant documents that support the promotion application itself: academic CV, profile document and pedagogical portfolio. A timetable is also drawn up.
• Those responsible for the programme make an assessment of the participants' profile after the gatherings, the progress report is shared with their immediate supervisor and the pro-dean for research.
• The participants are then followed up in their own academic unit and offered a mentor, if relevant. Read more about the mentoring scheme below.

Professor Track

VID offers a structured professor track for associate professors and research professor II. There is an annual admission with the following structure:

• Annual announcement before the summer holidays for admission in the coming school year.
• Three gatherings during the school year. The gatherings take place across academic units and aim to make participants aware of the competence, experience and documentation required to apply for promotion to professor and research professor I, respectively.
• During the gatherings, the participants develop three relevant documents that support the promotion application itself: academic CV, profile document and pedagogical portfolio. A timetable is also created.
• The first gathering deals with current legislation and guidelines. The second and third gatherings function as presentation seminars.
• The second and third gatherings are reserved for employees who defended their dissertation at least four years ago and, as such, have gained some experience that can be used in the aforementioned documents.
• Those responsible for the track make an assessment of the participants' profile after completing the qualification track, the progress report is shared with their immediate supervisor and the associate dean for research.
• The participants are then followed up at their own academic unit and offered a mentor, if relevant. See more information about the mentoring scheme below.

The Academy for Early Career Researchers is an annual career development program for those at the beginning of their research career and is reserved for employees who defended their dissertation within the last 4 years.

It is primarily aimed at employees who have ambitions to further develop their research career through:

• development of a research environment via external funding
• research group leadership
• other types of research management

During the program, career development and career assessment in academia, external funding of research, research management, and diversity and gender balance in research are thematized.

There will be four gatherings during the school year, two digital and two physical, in addition to individual mentoring. Work related to each theme is expected between each gathering. This work consists of developing a career plan and developing an innovative research idea that can later be developed into preferably an RCN application (for example, a call for research projects for early career researchers).

An annual announcement is published before the summer holidays for admission to the coming school year.

The mentoring offer is reserved for candidates who have completed all sessions in the relevant competence course and who have worked with the aforementioned texts. VID has two different mentoring schemes.

Application Mentor

An application mentor can be given to candidates who need a mentor for a short period to focus on the promotion application itself. The standard allocation is 5 hours. The hours are used for meetings and reading through relevant documents. To qualify for an application mentor, the progress report must identify few or no deficiencies after completing the course.

Development Mentor

A development mentor is suitable for candidates who need a longer mentoring relationship to build relevant experience, competence and documentation within academia such as publishing, supervision and pedagogical development work. The standard allocation is 10 hours per year for a maximum of 3 years.

Guidelines for mentoring can be found here.

EURAXESS | Researchers in motion

EURAXESS is a pan-European initiative by the European Commission that supports the mobility and career development of researchers by providing free personalized services, job and funding opportunities, and information on relocation and daily life in different countries.  Whether you're seeking advice on career development, looking for tools to enhance your skills, or need concrete assistance with relocating for your next big opportunity, EURAXESS support with information and signposting. EURAXESS is a comprehensive career and innovation hub for information and assistance where you can find jobs, hosting and funding opportunities, as well as support and guidance. 

CAREER DEVELOPMENT

The Career Development section contains resources, training material and practical tools to support career development for researchers

Researchers will be able to plan their next steps in their career, assess their skills, learn about working opportunities beyond academia and read policy recommendations.

VID shall be characterised by extensive, ambitious and documented research and development activities that contribute to strategic knowledge development related to VID's academic and educational areas, and the fields of practice for which the university college provides education.

Applicable guidelines and process for application for and allocation of R&D time:

• Guidelines for allocation of R&D time
• Guidelines for development work as part of the R&D activity
• Table of who must apply for R&D time
• Application form (Nettskjema)

NOR-CAM

UHR has developed a flexible and comprehensive framework for assessment in academic career paths, NOR-CAM. The career assessment matrix outlines the range of different skills and competencies within academic careers and is intended to be a toolbox for the assessment process. You can find the NOR-CAM matrix and more information on UHR's website.

VID-CAM

VID has developed an institutional version of the career assessment matrix. It is based on NOR-CAM and institutional characteristics are included here: VID-CAM (PDF).

Here you will find references to regulations, national and local guidelines regarding promotion applications. (Only available in Norwegian).

• Regulations for the University and College Act (Lovdata)
• UHR’s guidelines for the assessment of promotion applications (in Norwegian): Opprykksordninger - Universitets- og høgskolerådet 
• VIDs guidelines, qualification requirements and promotion processes (in Norwegian): VID vitenskapelige høgskole:: Personalhåndbok :: Rekruttering og mottak

VID offers training for PhD supervisors as part of its quality assurance efforts to ensure the best possible learning environment for both PhD students and PhD supervisors. Good supervision supports the PhD candidates' completion, the quality of the project, and well-being/mental health. It is therefore important that PhD supervisors at VID have the opportunity to develop the relevant expertise to maintain a high standard of supervision.

E-learning course for PhD supervisors

This course is mandatory for all principal supervisors in the PhD programs at VID. Co-supervisors are also encouraged to complete the course.

The e-learning program provides an introduction to various parts of the PhD program, its scope, and requirements. Participants are guided through necessary documents and guidelines, important milestones in the PhD process, what is expected of you as a supervisor, and more. The course is available in Canvas.

Gathering-based course for supervisors in the PhD programs

As part of VID's training program for PhD supervision, PhD supervisors can apply to participate in a three-day course held in the autumn semester each year. An announcement is published before the Christmas holiday with an application deadline of April 1.

The course will be physical at one of VID's campuses (Oslo, Bergen, Stavanger) for two days in the period August/September, in addition to a digital day in the period October/November. Between the gatherings, participants will conduct colleague observation and be observed by a colleague in a supervisory situation and submit a reflection on their own learning development.

PhD Supervisor Forum

Each PhD program holds a PhD supervisor forum for supervisors throughout the academic year. The forum is a meeting place for exchanging experiences, discussion, and competence-building measures.