ADS Newsletter January 2026

Your monthly update from the Antwerp Doctoral School on events, workshops and valuable resources to support your doctoral journey.

Happy new year!

Cheers to a year of achieving goals, overcoming obstacles, and celebrating your hard work. Here's to a prosperous 2026 in your PhD journey!

The ADS team looks forward to welcoming you to the next ADS Doctoral Day on 19 March 2026, hosted both on-campus and online. Invitations and registration details will follow by the end of this month.

Don’t forget: registration for ADS courses in the second semester opens on Tuesday 6 January at 9 a.m. For any questions, feel free to reach out to adscourses@uantwerp.be.

Annual progress report

doctoral study programme

As of 1 January, the module in ePhD (SisA) is open for submitting your annual progress report for the doctoral study programme (DSP). You have to submit your report before 1 May (except for the Faculty of Law, the Faculty of Business & Economics, and the Institute of Development Policy). Start preparing your progress report in good time, but only submit it once it is complete. The progress reports for the doctoral study programme will be evaluated by the peer review commissions in May and June 2026. Find more information on the annual DSP progress report here.

NEW: All PhD researchers have access to Pintra

All PhD researchers, whether they are UAntwerp staff or not, have now access to Pintra – the internal site of UAntwerp – through their UAntwerp student account. Pintra provides a wide range of useful information, including details about trainings organised by RIVA, Health and Safety at Work, the Environmental Office, … as well as information about psychosocial well-being and much more!

AI Information Centre

AI tools such as ChatGPT, Copilot or Midjourney are increasingly appearing in our daily work. They help us work more efficiently, without replacing the human touch.
AI opens up new possibilities but also raises questions: what is allowed, what is possible, and what is not?

That’s why UAntwerp created a subsite on Pintra: the AI Info Centre brings together all information about the use of AI at UAntwerp — guidelines, policy documents, practical tips, and examples.

New VLIR guidelines on research security

Collaboration is essential for excellent research. The Flemish universities strive for an open approach to research, in a context of academic freedom. However, collaboration comes with potential research security risks.

The new VLIR Guidelines for Researchers on Research Security, Dual Use and Misuse of Research help researchers be aware of risks through questions and case studies, while also providing the necessary procedures and examples of mitigating measures.

New in the ADS training offer!

The Company+ programme: for early-career researchers eager to develop entrepreneurial competences in an annual programme. You can still register for the information session on 16 January at Campus Middelheim.
Storytelling for researchers: 1-day workshop for those who want to learn how to use storytelling techniques to make their research more relatable and impactful when giving a talk, writing a text or pitching their ideas!
Excel basics: for those who find Excel challenging and are looking to confidently master the fundamentals.

Registration for the courses open on 6 January 2026, via SisA.

Upcoming StatUa courses

Basic principles of statistics (2, 3, 4 and 5 March 2026)
Multiple linear regression and ANOVA (16 and 17 March 2026)

Give your language skills a boost!

Discover the Dutch, French, English, German, Italian and Spanish Linguapolis language courses starting in January and February! University of Antwerp PhD researchers receive a discount.

Prefer learning a language online at your own pace? Purchase an Altissia licence!

More information

Workshop: Starting with Citizen Science

This workshop supports researchers who want to start with citizen science in developing their initial project idea. Participants will receive step-by-step guidance in brainstorming, planning, and selecting suitable methods and target audiences. There is room to exchange ideas and gain inspiration from other practitioners. The session is led by experts from Scivil, the Flemish knowledge center for Citizen Science.

📅 19 February 2026
⏰ 10 a.m. - 4.30 p.m.
📍Provinciehuis Leuven

More information

Webinar: Working efficiently during your PhD

Are you looking for advice on how to achieve more in the 24 hours a day you have? Rather than add to the long lists of tips available in books or websites, this two-hour lecture, given by Jean-Luc Doumont, proposes a simple but solid framework to help you decide what is worth doing and what is not. It then discusses how to manage your time and your physical or virtual space to actually get things done.

📅 18 February 2026
⏰ 2 - 4 p.m. + Q&A
📍Online

More information

Lunch seminar: Women’s health: the impact of hormones in the workplace

Hormones shape energy, focus, and emotions—yet we rarely talk about them at work.

Join biologist Anneke Valk for an eye-opening session on how life stages like the menstrual cycle, pregnancy, and menopause impact the workplace—and how understanding them can unlock vitality, teamwork, and wellbeing in relation to the workspace.

📅 10 February 2026
⏰ 12 - 1.30 p.m.
📍City Campus – S.R.219, Rodestraat 14, Antwerp or via live stream

Mentoring programme "Empowering women in the European scientific community"

The mentoring programme is looking for candidates, both mentees and mentors, for a mentoring path once a year, starting at the end of January 2026.

Are you in at least the third year of your PhD and do you want to increase career satisfaction and discuss questions that matter to you? Do you have more than 10 years of experience and want to build up confidence, transmit and give back to the profession?
Apply now and you will learn new things about yourself and expand your network.

More information

Nature Masterclasses

Boost your academic writing skills by taking the course Writing a research paper (2nd edition). Immerse yourself into powerful narrative tools and principles of academic writing and apply them to your next manuscript.
Looking for online training opportunities to learn at your own pace? Check out the course offer of Nature Masterclasses to which UAntwerp researchers have free access.

Calendar

Contact

Catherine Bayart | Jana Cuyvers

Prinsstraat 13, 2000 Antwerpen

www.uantwerpen.be/adse

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