Procedure for requesting co-supervision

In accordance with article 10.3 of Chapter III of the Regulations for Managing Official Doctoral Studies at the UPV/EHU, a thesis may be co-supervised by more than one PhD holder, when so required for academic reasons or due to the interdisciplinary nature of the topic, or in the case of programmes with an element of national or international collaboration. These people may or may not belong to the doctoral programme. The Academic Commission must give prior authorisation for any co-supervision. This authorisation may be withdrawn later on if, in the opinion of the Academic Commission, the co-supervision does not benefit the development of the thesis.

Co-supervisors must meet the same requirements regarding research experience as the supervisors, although the Academic Commission may authorise the co-supervision of a thesis by PhD holders who do not comply with the accredited research experience requirement established in article 10.1. In accordance with article 10.1 of Chapter III of the Regulations for Managing Official Doctoral Studies at the UPV/EHU, accredited research experience is understood to mean having had at least one research activity period recognised by the National Assessment Committee for Research Activities (CNEAI), or, in the event of not being able to accredit this activity by this means, having equivalent research merits.

Students whose first enrolment on the doctoral programme was before the academic year 2023/24 may have a maximum of 2 supervisors. Students who commenced their doctoral students after the academic year 2023/24 may have a maximum of 3 supervisors.

All new co-supervisors must send their co-supervision requests to the Doctoral Programme's Academic Commission by email to the doctoral programme's email address, attaching the following documents:

• Standardised and duly completed "Co-supervision Request" form.
• Copy of the PhD qualification, in the case of new co-supervisors who are not members of the UPV/EHU teaching staff, whose PhD qualification has not been obtained at the UPV/EHU and who have not provided said certificate previously for any other co-supervision. There is no need to provide a copy of the university teaching qualification where the position entails having a PhD qualification.
• If the Academic Committee of the Doctoral Program requires it, in the case of new co-supervisors who are not members of the UPV/EHU teaching staff and who have not provided said certificate previously within the framework of other co-supervision agreements:
  • Six-year research period certificate
  • Should the person be unable to provide a six-year research period certificate*, 5 relevant contributions, for which the corresponding templates may be used. For each contribution, applicants must submit the corresponding quality indexes in accordance with the specific criteria approved by the Resolution issued by the National Assessment Committee for Research Activities (CNEAI) for each scientific field, and which are in effect at the time of the assessment.

*Grounds:
(a) the academic or professional position does not enable six-year research periods to be requested;
the academic or professional position enables six-year research periods to be requested, but:
(b) the resolution corresponding to the request for a six-year research period is still pending;
(c) there has not been any open call to request six-year research periods since they took the academic job.

In the event that, once the request has been reviewed, the Doctoral Programme's Academic Commission authorises the co-supervision, it must send the following documents to the programme's administrative officer:

• Standardised and duly completed "Agreement reached by the Academic Commission approving the Joint Supervision of a Doctoral Thesis" form.
• The commitment document signed by all the parties involved.