University of Zagreb

School of Medicine

PhD Day (Dan doktorata) started in 2012 and became a traditional annual event of PhD students at the School of Medicine University of Zagreb. The idea was to gather students, their mentors and distinguished guests form scientific community to help our students to improve their scientific work.

PhD Day is a one-day symposium which consists of presentations of ongoing research of PhD students in a form of published abstracts, poster and selected oral presentations. It is mandatory for all the 2nd-year and 3rd-year students of the PhD programmes Biomedicine and Health Sciences as well as Neuroscience to participate in the PhD day and present their PhD thesis projects and preliminary results.

PhD Day is an opportunity for PhD students and their mentors to exchange ideas among themselves, to present their data to their teachers and experts and get either positive or negative feedback about their scientific work.

It also includes lectures from renowned scientists, which serves as a motivation for PhD students to finish their studies and to continue their research throughout their carriers, because science is an inseparable part of medicine. For the first time in 2013, selected abstracts were presented in oral form, which aroused great interest of participants. Last year, selected students presented their research through lectures and afterwards in informal communication shared their experiences and research work.

PhD Day serves as an opportunity to present research to colleagues and to encourage co-operation and interaction between scientists and yield even greater progress in their work. PhD Day is a public display of research activities and an opportunity of assessment of research work of PhD students and their mentors. For some PhD students this is maybe the first chance to give a talk and present their research in front of an audience.

An important part of PhD Days is also a motivation for mentors, because PhD Day also reflects activity of the mentors, which is crucial for research of PhD candidates. Therefore, we encourage participation of not only students, but also their mentors.

PhD Day is a day which celebrates science, research, co-operation and scientific friendship, gathering of PhD students, mentors and distinguished internationally recognized scientists as well as a great chance to share experiences and ideas in research and science.

PhD Day has been held for the thirteenth time at the School of Medicine, this year online, with the closing date of May 24, 2024. It was attended by second- and third-year doctoral students of all doctoral programs at the School of Medicine, Biomedicine and Health Sciences in Croatian, Neuroscience and Biomedicine and Health Sciences in English.

A total of 157 doctoral students participated; 138 from Biomedicine and Health Sciences in Croatian, 17 from Neuroscience and 2 from Biomedicine and Health Sciences in English who presented their scientific research as part of their doctoral thesis in the form of a structured summary and poster presentation.

A total of 78 doctoral students presented their preliminary research results, 25 from basic medical sciences, 45 from clinical medical sciences and 8 from public health and healthcare.

79 doctoral candidates presented their doctoral thesis proposals, 15 from basic medical sciences, 615 from clinical medical sciences and 3 from public health and healthcare.