Research plan

Doctoral students compile a research plan outlining the goals, type of work and the responsibilities they have. The research plan is submitted to the supervisor, and, if possible, to the co-supervisor(s). It must then be approved by the doctoral committee of the responsible department. The research plan is usually submitted within the first year after registration. A deadline extension can be requested, but this requires the approval of the doctoral committee. (Please use the appropriate form PDF, 59 kB).

Please note that you must send the approval form along with your research plan to the responsible departmental office. There is no given format for the research plan, but it must contain the following points:

• research tasks
• external determining factors, content-oriented framework, time-frame
• scope of research work
• other responsibilities.

Should a thesis be carried out outside the ETH domain it should be specified in the research plan.

Doctoral students requested to take qualifying exams can only submit their research plan once they have taken all the qualifying exams.

Research plan approval form (PDF, 59 kB)
Requesting deadline extension for research plan PDF, 57 kB)