of Your Research DR. JULIAN KIRCHHERR UTRECHT UNIVERSITY Webinar | - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

WORKING DRAFT Last Modified 16.10.2018 10:49 W. Europe Standard Time Printed 23.09.2018 21:11 W. Europe Standard Time

The Lean PhD: Radically Improve the Efficiency, Quality and Impact

• f Your Research

UTRECHT UNIVERSITY Webinar | 19.10.2018

• DR. JULIAN KIRCHHERR

WORKING DRAFT Last Modified 10/15/2018 3:28 PM Central America Standard Time Printed 23.09.2018 21:11 W. Europe Standard Time

2

Welcome

Before we begin…

• Microphones are muted for sound quality
• Questions and comments are welcome!
• Please enter them in the Questions/Chat

area

• You will be sent a recording of the webinar

3

About me …

The starting point 21 months Since 01/2017

4

This webinar will introduce you to the lean PhD concept

Aims of the lean PhD Lean PhD concept is both about academic and societal impact

5

The PhD is a start-up …

Three similarities

▪ 60% of start-

ups go bust

▪ 50% of PhD

students drop out Parallel 3 Creating something novel from scratch 2 One-(wo)man-show Limited resources 1 The lean start-up concept has radically improved the survival rates of start-ups

6

Three core principles of lean start-ups …

These principles are also applicable to the PhD process Rapid prototyping How? 3 Minimum viable product (MVP) What? 2 Why? Principle Core question End-user orientation 1

7

There are three phases in the PhD process

Phases of a PhD Exiting phase C Execution phase B Launch phase A

8

The PhD can be launched just like a start-up …

Launching the PhD

A

Principle Application End-user orientation 1 The (early career) supervisor Minimum viable product (MVP) 2 The lean research proposal 3 Rapid prototyping Friends, family – and your (potential) supervisor!

Deep dive

9

This was my version 0 of a lean research proposal …

The lean research proposal Ideas related to environmental, social and economic challenges associated with hydropower could be detailed in proposal

FOR DISCUSSION

Overview – Initial research ideas on hydropower

Type of exploi- tation barrier Possible deep dive Details Methodological approach Environmental

▪

Environmental impact on hydropower project in Myanmar, citizen attitudes and modernization of hydropower in Europe initial ideas for further exploration

▪

Open for additional/alternative suggestions – overview only meant as starting point for discussion

SOURCE: Quoted journals & articles, World Bank; McKinsey; author’s analysis 1 E.g., project threatening one of the world's greatest biodiversity hot spots; 2 On testing approaches to overcome citizen skepticism towards hydropower - Regional focus of project to be decided upon beforehand; 3 Only in selected country/countries

Environmental impact of hydro- power project in Myanmar

▪

Controversial (currently suspended) Myitsone Hydroelectric Project (Myanmar) mainly assessed from economic/social perspective – Huge environmental implications though1

▪

Quantifying environmental costs of the project

▪

Tailor-made environmental impact assessment (EIA) accounting for Burmese context of severely limited data availability

▪

Methodological starting point EIA approaches in environmental impact assessment review (bit.ly/1hFx3BG) Citizen attitudes towards hydro- power

▪

Citizen protests key barriers to many dam projects

▪

Understanding root causes of citizen skepticism, developing possible response strategies

▪

Focus groups, semi-structured interviews, possibly experiments2

▪

Methodological example may be Fell & Chlu (2014, bit.ly/1mtYscK) Modernizing

▪

~70% of hydro capacity in Western Europe

• lder than 30 years (cf. back up) possibly

leading to hydropower degeneration

▪

Identifying root causes of modernization backlog, recommended response strategies, likelihood of implementing them3

▪

Semi-structured interviews with experts, data/document analysis

▪

Methodological example could be Rosenow (2012, bit.ly/Kx3nur) Social Economic

10

The PhD can be executed just like a start-up …

Executing the PhD

B

The Minimum Viable Paper (MVP) Rapid Conference Prototyping (RCP) … And your friends, family, your supervisors, more scholars and practitioners The A-journal Principle Application End-user orientation 1 Minimum viable product (MVP) 2 3 Rapid prototyping

11

The PhD can be exited just like a start-up …

Exiting the PhD

C

The Minimum Viable Dissertation (MVD) Aiming for revisions Examiners Principle Application End-user orientation 1 Minimum viable product (MVP) 2 3 Rapid prototyping

12

And now a little bit of advertising …

The Lean PhD Where to buy it … Recent press coverage … Hard copy: https://www.macmillanihe.com/page/detail/ The-Lean-PhD/?K=9781352002829 E-book: https://www.vitalsource.com/en- uk/products/the-lean-phd-julian-kirchherr- v9781352002836 The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/higher- education-network/2018/aug/09/a-phd- should-be-about-improving-society-not- chasing-academic-kudos Times Higher Education: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/feat ures/work-smarter-finish-faster-winning- strategies-completing-phd

13

Let's tak if you want to launch a lean PhD circle in your city!

Launching a lean PhD circle

http://www.theleanphd.com/ Search

Lean PhD Boot Camp

Please reach out to j.kirchherr@uu.nl

14

Thank you for listening

Find out more

www.macmillanihe.com 30% off The Lean PhD

and other titles in the Research Skills series Enter code: LEANWEBINAR30

Discount valid until 19th November 2018