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The Complex Systems Research Project is part of the interdisciplinary Masters Profile Complex Systems. During the project, a student should conduct interdisciplinary research, where the focus is on the interdisciplinary aspects. Complex Systems research projects should be supervised by at least two supervisors from two different departments/faculties.

Below follow the formal guidelines and processes.

Topic

The subject of the project can be tailored to individual student wishes, but should focus on interdisciplinary aspects of complexity science. To safeguard the interdisciplinary perspective, the project will have to be supervised by two supervisors, one supervisor of your own master’s programme and one supervisor of another discipline. Please ask your master’s programme coordinator for advise on whom to contact.

Typically, the topic of the Complex Systems research project should not correspond to the topic of the master thesis. However, for the Theoretical Physics, Experimental Physics and Climate Physics Master programmes at Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ, it is permitted to combine the research project of the main programme with the Complex Systems research profile if it deals with a complex systems subject. In such case, the complex systems aspects must be separately assessed and a supervisor from a different department/faculty other than the department related to the student’s main master programme needs to be involved in assessing the complex systems aspects.

The topic of the complex systems research project needs to be approved by the coordinator of the profile as well as by the coordinator of the main master programme.

For inspiration on topics, a student can have a look at /en/research/centre-for-complex-systems-studies-ccss/research/interdisciplinary-research-projects.

Registration

To formally register for the Complex Systems Research Project, a student must have sought approval by their main master programme’s coordinator and:

• Enroll to the Complex Systems Research Project on Osiris with code .
• Seek approval by and register via email to the Complex Systems profile coordinator (coordinator.csp@uu.nl) by sending the following information:
  • Names of all supervisors/assessors;
  • Work title of the research project;
  • A short description of the research project (about 10 sentences).

Assessment

At the end of the Complex Systems research project, the supervisors are asked to fill in an . This form must be filled out by the project supervisor(s) and sent to the Complex System Master Profile coordinator at coordinator.csp@uu.nl, with an electronic copy of the Project Report. In case the topic of the Research Project and the Master Thesis are identical, the combined report needs to be sent.

The research project is assessed by the supervisors/assessors based on the learning goals below.

Learning Goals

At the end of this course, the student:

• Knows what a complex system is;
• Is able to develop models of complex systems and/or has a good overview of model-building for complex systems;
• Can be considered a knowledgeable person on the topic of the research project;
• Is able to clearly communicate a complex system problem to peers in writing;
• Has demonstrated potential to conduct independent research on a complex system problem.