Learning outcomes

The research initiation is divided in two learning activities.

Learning activity 1 (19 credits)

The student will initiate a research project of his/her choice, which will be connected to an existing research project from the lab. The student will be tutored on a daily basis by a PhD student or a postdoctoral researcher. In parallel, the student will undergo a literature search on a topic related to his/her research project.

Learning activity 2 (3 credits)

The student will take part to a summer school which will be organized in a hybrid mode (virtual session before and after the summer school + on-site activities at UNamur)

Goals

The aims of the research initiation are to learn the basics of lab work and to develop the ability to plan, to achieve and to analyze experiments. The student is expected to reach a certain level autonomy by the end of the research initiation.

 

Content

Learning activity 1:

The student will:

- actively participate to the design of a Research project (state of the art, organization, creativity);

- actively participate to the acquisition of rigorous and pertinent data (technical setup, care, organization); - analyse, compare and interpret (graphical data representation, search for adequate analytical methods, statistical testing, critical analysis, references to scientific literature)

- write a complete report on his/her Research (with respect for the scientific writing guidelines);

- present his/her work publically in a limited period of time;

- actively take part to the scientific activities within a Research team/unit. This includes the participation to seminars given by invited speakers and to conferences that your supervisor would recommend to attend.

Learning activity 2:

The student will take part to a summer school, which will be organized during the first week of July at UNamur in the framework of a European network aiming at stimulating student exchange between universities involved in molecular microbiology research. The summer school will mix lectures by local and invited speakers with practical and visits. The students will have thus the opportunity to meet other international students and to learn from other cultures as well. The on site activities will be preceded and followed by virtual activities aiming at preparing the summer school and analyse the data and evaluate the students, respectively.

 

Teaching methods

- lab work

- scientific lectures

- practicals

- group work

Assessment method

The research initiation grade will result from the evaluation of the learning activity 1 (85%) and the learning activity 2 (15%).

Learning activity 1

The evaluation will take place at the end of the June assessment period 

The students are requested to upload on Webcampus a pdf manuscript in English. The writing will fulfil the following requirements: Calibri font 11-12, line spacing 1.15, figures in the text, numbered referencing.

  •  If the student is doing the Research Initiation, abroad or in Namur, on the same topic than the one he will work on during the Master thesis, then the manuscript will consist in a 1-year project that describes what would be done during the Master thesis based on the results obtained during the Research initiation project. This project should include (i) a title and an abstract of maximum 250 words on the 1st page; (ii) a state of the art, the goal(s) of the research and the research project together with the results from research initiation as preliminary data described on maximum 4 pages; (iii) figures and tables with legends can be added on maximum 2 additional pages. The references are not counted in the pages limit.
  •  If the student is doing the Research Initiation, abroad or in Namur, on a different topic than the one he will work on during the Master thesis, then the manuscript will consist in a scientific report describing the work done in the lab, of maximum 10,000 words (~25 pages). The manuscript must include (i) an abstract(max 250 words); (ii) a short introduction (max 4,000 words/~10 pages) giving the context of the study; (iii)the aim of the work, the main results and a discussion (max 6,000 words/~15 pages). The material and methods is not counted in the words/pages limit and but must be included.


The manuscript must be approved by the supervisor before being uploaded on Webcampus. While writing the manuscript, the students must be aware that plagiarism will be sanctioned. Plagiarism is the action « to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own, to use (another's production) without crediting the source, to commit literary theft and to present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source » (Merriam-Webster online dictionary). The supervisor can help his/her student if there is any doubt about this.


The manuscript is evaluated by the jury members (see below) and the average of the grades provided by the jury members accounts for 35% of the Research initiation grade.


Each student presents in 10 minutes a poster emphasizing the Research context, the aim of the project (highlighting the biological question), the strategy, the results and the perspectives. It should be noted that the students will be graded on their ability to analyse and to discuss the data (even if most of the experiments performed during the Research initiation were dedicated to tools design and constructs) more than on the amount of data gathered during the second semester. The poster together with an abstract (max 250 words) summarizing your work will be uploaded on Webcampus 48 hours before the presentation. The poster presentation will be followed by a 20 minutes Q/A session by the jury members. The average of the grades provided by the jury members for the poster presentation accounts for 35% of the Research initiation grade.


Each supervisor grades (30% of the Research initiation grade) his/her student by considering the lab work, the discussions, the motivation and the evolution of the student throughout the Research initiation.


Learning activity 2

The evaluation will take place by Teams a few days after the end of the summer school and will consist in presenting by group a research project related to the topics that will be addressed during the summer school. The presentation will be followed by a Q/A session.

Language of instruction

English
Training Study programme Block Credits Mandatory
Master in Molecular Microbiology, Research focus Standard 0 22
Master in Molecular Microbiology, Research focus Standard 1 22