Regulations on Promotion Councils and Pomotion process at RTU

1. Abbreviations and terms used in the Regulations:
1.1. LR – Republic of Latvia;
1.2. RTU – Riga Technical University;
1.3. LZP – Latvian Council of Science;
1.4. VZKK – State Scientific Qualification Commission;
1.5. DSP – Doctoral Study Programme;
1.6. Regulations No. 1000 – Regulations of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Latvia No. 1000 of 27 December 2005 «On Delegation of Powers to Confer the Doctoral Degree (Promotion) to Higher Educational Establishments»;
1.7. Regulations No. 1001 – Regulations of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Latvia No. 1001 of 27 December 2005 «Procedure and Criteria of Conferring the Doctoral Degree (Promotion)»;
1.8. Council – the Promotion Council;
1.9. Promotion – defence of a scientific work as a result of which the Doctoral degree is conferred;
1.10. Candidate – a promotion work author who candidates for the Doctoral degree;
1.11. Scientific advisor of the Doctoral Thesis  – a professor, an associate professor, an assistant professor and/or the leading researcher, who is approved in accordance with the procedure determined at RTU and who agrees to supervise the promotion work development;
1.12. Work Consultant is a representative of the RTU academic staff or a partner institution, who is approved in accordance with the procedure determined at RTU and who agrees to consult a Doctoral student on the promotion work development and conformity with the industry requirements;
1.13. Partner Institution – a scientific institution (a university, a higher educational establishment, a scientific institute, a university or state agency – a scientific institute) or another institution (an archive, a library, a company, a state agency, a state institution), which is not a structural unit of RTU and which can provide a material and technical or information base for the promotion work development.
2. The Regulations determine the procedure of establishment and operation of the Councils, as well as the procedure of conferring the Doctoral degree at RTU.
3. Promotion at RTU takes place in conformity with the laws of the Republic of Latvia «Laws on Institutions of Higher Educations», «Law on Scientific Activity», the Regulations No. 1001, by observing the RTU Constitution principles and the requirements of other valid legal enactments.
4. The promotion at RTU is allowed for the fields of science which are accredited for Doctoral study programmes in accordance with the delegated powers by the Regulations of the Cabinet of Ministers No. 1000. 
5. All activities related to the promotion at RTU take place within the framework of the study semesters of the academic year. 

6. The industry requirements for a promotion work are determined at the corresponding DSP. Depending on the programme, the promotion work criteria can be comprehensively described in the Promotion Council Regulations.
7. The scientific advisors  of promotion work may be professors, associate professors and assistant professors of the corresponding industry, as well as leading researchers of scientific institutions, who comply with the qualification requirements of the LZP expert.
8. The promotion work may be developed at partner institutions. In this case, by observing the planned work volume at a partner institution and at the offer of the Council, a representative of the academic staff of the partner institution may be approved as the scientific advisor, if his qualification complies with the requirements of Clause 7 hereof; simultaneously approving a representative of the academic staff of RTU, who also complies with the requirements of Clause 7, as the work consultant or scientific advisor.
9. A resolution and an excerpt from the meeting proceedings of the structural unit, which are required for submitting the promotion work in accordance with the Regulations No. 1001, are prepared by RTU or the partner institution’s department, laboratory, division or another academic or scientific structural unit, where the promotion work is developed or which recommends it for defence.

10. The Promotion Council in the field must consist of minimum five experts, who have the expert power of the Latvian Council of Science in the given branch of science, of which the two have it in the particular sub-discipline as the promotion work to be defended. To form the Promotion Council, Councils of the corresponding faculties or institutes or other institutions nominate the branch experts as candidates, whose conformity to the expert requirements is evaluated by LZP and recommended for approval by the RTU Senate. A candidate for such expert may be a scientist with the Doctoral degree received in Latvia or an approved (equalised) PhD degree, who conducts scientific activities in one of the research projects or programmes financed in Latvia or abroad.
11. Pursuant to the RTU Senate resolution on establishment of the Promotion Council, RTU Rector issues an order on the start of operation of the corresponding Promotion Council, as well as appointment of the Chairperson and Secretary of the Council. The RTU Promotion Council Chairperson can be only a member of the corresponding Promotion Council who works at RTU. The Promotion Council Secretary can be a person who is not this Council’s member. The term of office of the Council must not exceed six years. The Council operates in accordance with the Regulations approved by RTU.
12. The Regulations of the Council provide information on:
12.1. the list of the Council members and its term of office;
12.2. the branch and sub-disciplines for the promotion operations of the Council;
12.3. relation to the accredited DSP;
12.4. requirements to the defence of the accepted promotion works;
12.5. the procedure of calling and announcing meetings;
12.6. the procedure of taking decisions;
12.7. the procedure of technical support of the Council’s operation;
12.8. when required, other provisions.
13. The required changes in the Council and reviewers for the inter-disciplinary promotion are approved with the RTU order, following the Council’s proposal. The RTU draft order is prepared by the Chairperson of the Council.
14. The work of the RTU academic staff in the Council is included in their workload in conformity with the RTU approved workload standards of the academic staff.
15. The Council members, who are not the members of RTU academic staff, as well as the members of RTU staff, are paid for the performed work in the Council in addition to the planned workload in accordance with the procedure determined at RTU. Reviewers are paid for their work in accordance with the procedure determined at RTU – both experts from other institutions and RTU employees, not including it in the planned academic workload.
16. Operational expenses of the RTU Promotion Councils for the promotion work organising are paid from the RTU Science Development Fund in conformity with the approved cost estimate.
17. A promotion work may be submitted by:
17.1. a candidate who has completed an accredited RTU DSP;
17.2. a candidate who has completed an accredited DSP of another higher educational establishment;
17.3. a person, whose academic work beyond the accredited DSP is equated to the DSP requirements.
18. Documents for promotion or equation of the academic work must be submitted in accordance with the requirements of the Regulations No. 1001.
18.1. candidates, who comply with the requirements of Clauses 17.1 or 17.2, must submit their documents required for the promotion to the corresponding Promotion Council of RTU.
18.2. a candidate must submit the following documents to the Council:
18.2.1. an application with a visa of the corresponding promotion work scientific advisor or consultant;
18.2.2. the promotion work;
18.2.3. a summary of the promotion work in Latvian;
18.2.4. a notice on the programme fulfilment in the corresponding field and sub-discipline;
18.2.5. Curriculum Vitae;
18.2.6. a list of scientific publications reflecting the promotion work results and their copies;
18.2.7. an excerpt from the meeting proceedings of the structural unit of the higher educational establishment or another scientific institution, where the promotion work is developed, with confirmation of its scientific novelty and personal contribution of the candidate.
18.3. candidates, who comply with the requirements of Clause 17.3, must additionally submit a request to equate their academic activities, receiving a notice about it.
19. The RTU Promotion Council evaluates formal compliance of the documents submitted by a candidate with the promotion procedure within five weekdays and informs the candidate about further processing of the documents or their deficiencies, when such are found. If the candidate does not intend or cannot eliminate the discovered deficiencies, s/he shall receive the submitted documents within a month following the receipt of such refusal.  

20. When the Council acknowledges that the promotion work is in compliance with the criteria stipulated by the Regulations No. 1001 and the scientific competence of the Council, it within a month:
20.1. takes a decision on acceptance of the promotion work for promotion;
20.2. appoints three reviewers for the promotion work;
20.3. determines in which foreign language (-es) an abstract must be prepared;
20.4. determines the time of the promotion meeting;
20.5. requests from the candidate the number of copies of the promotion work required for further promotion process and the number of copies of the summary and their electronic versions;
20.6. approves the work volume to be published on the internet;
20.7. informs the candidate about the promotion process.
21. The candidate must confirm in writing his/her agreement to the Council composition, the appointed reviewers, the number of copies to be submitted, electronic versions for submitting, the publication volume on the internet, as well as the promotion expenses and the procedure of their coverage. If the candidate has substantiated objections to the Council composition or reviewers, the higher educational establishment can change the Council composition or assign the Council to invite other reviewers for the promotion work within a month. If the candidate has objections to the repeatedly formed Council or the invited reviewers, s/he can recall his/her application for the promotion work defence.
22. When the candidate’s approval stipulated by Clause 21 is received, the Council, if required, prepares proposals for the RTU order on appointing inter-disciplinary reviewers and forwards the candidate’s promotion work, summary and documents to VZKK for receiving a statement. If the candidate raises objections to the promotion process organisation when the work is already sent to VZKK, the Council informs VZKK on the objections within three weekdays and requires suspending consideration of the work until the time of settling the claims or cancellation of the promotion work. The time required for coordination of opinions of the candidate and the Council is not included in the promotion work evaluation period. In the course of such coordination, the determined date of the promotion may be changed.
23. The Council forwards a copy of the promotion work, the translation of the summary and their electronic versions to the promotion work reviewers.
24. If the Council acknowledges that the promotion work is not in compliance with the criteria stipulated by the Regulations No. 1001 or the scientific competence of the Council, it provides a substantiated resolution to the candidates on refusal to continue promotion work evaluation.
25. If within the term stipulated by the Regulations No. 1001 no objections are received from VZKK regarding the promotion work or, if prior to the term stipulated by the Regulations No. 1001 VZKK provides its positive evaluation in writing, the Council publishes an announcement on the work defence in newspapers “Latvijas Vēstnesis” and “Zinātnes Vēstnesis” minimum two weeks in advance to the promotion work defence.
26. One copy of the promotion work must be submitted to the RTU library two weeks in advance to the promotion work defence. Following the defence, two copies of the work must be submitted to the National Library of Latvia and one copy to the RTU Doctoral Studies Department.
27. If the promotion work is a monograph or an aggregate of publications, only its summary is published electronically.

28. The Council meeting which takes a decision about promotion is open, except for the cases when it contains classified information for the purpose of the «Law on Official Secrets» or a commercial secret. All interested parties may participate in the meeting, ask questions to the candidate and reviewers, as well as express their views on the promotion work.
29. If the promotion work contains classified information for the purpose of the «Law on Official Secrets», only those persons may participate in the Council and the promotion process, who are allowed access to the classified information in accordance with the procedure stipulated by the law. If the promotion work contains commercial secrets which are specifically referred to by the candidate, members of the Council and the reviewers, as well as other persons whose presence is required for the promotion process, confirm their obligation not to disclose the secret by putting their signatures on the meeting minutes.
30. Only reviewers with the voting rights participate in the Council meeting, where the promotion takes place. The Council meeting is authorised to take decisions, when the Chairperson or his/her deputy participates in it, minimum a half of the Council experts with the voting rights (including the Chairperson or his deputy) and minimum two reviewers.
31. The Council takes a decision on conferring the degree or refusal to confer it with the simple majority of votes, by voting openly.
32. For counting the votes, the Council uses bulletins of the approved form. To count the votes, the Council establishes a commission from its members, consisting of minimum two persons. The task of the votes counting commission is to distribute the voting bulletins, ensure their undisturbed completion and collection, guaranteeing the voting anonymity, as well as to ensure the objective counting of votes.
33. Valid bulletins for voting are considered to be the ones where the voter’s attitude to the degree conferring to the candidate is unequivocally provided and the word «to confer» or «not to confer» is deleted as necessary. Bulletins, where none of the words «to confer» or «not to confer» is deleted, or where both words are deleted, or which completion accuracy cause doubts on the choice of the Council member, will be considered invalid. When counting the votes, they are included in the total number of the bulletins, but are not added to the positive evaluations. The votes counting commission states the opinion of the Council on conferring the Doctoral degree to the candidate in the minutes of the meeting. The Council states the promotion result by approving the votes counting proceedings with an open voting.
34. The voting results are entered in the promotion meeting minutes. The Promotion Council Secretary submits the minutes, together with the votes counting proceedings, bulletins and the promotion work reviews, in accordance with the procedure determined at RTU, to be stored in the RTU Archive.
35. Members of the Council and the votes counting commission are authorised to submit and request to attach to the promotion meeting minutes their own special opinions on the content or organisational issues of the promotion.
36. Within a month from the resolution taken, as stipulated by Clause 31 thereof, RTU or VZKK is entitled to require in writing from the Council any documents related to the specific promotion and to contest the Council’s resolution, when a discrepancy for the degree conferring to the existing requirements is established in the promotion work or the promotion procedure is not observed.
37. If the complaint is considered to be substantiated and this resolution is not contested, the Council informs VZKK and the candidate about the event and further action of RTU. If the complaint pertains to formal organisational issues of the promotion process, a repeated meeting of the Council is arranged within two months. Costs associated with the meeting are fully covered by the RTU structural unit where the corresponding Council operates. If the complaint pertains to scientific compliance issues of the promotion work or its fulfilment, DP returns the promotion work to the candidate, retaining one copy of it. The candidate may make corrections in the work which contains scientifically insufficiently substantiated or erroneous results and repeatedly submit the work for promotion not earlier than in a year. Works where scientific ethics violations or plagiarism are established are not accepted for repeated consideration.
38. If the Council resolution stipulated by Clause 31 thereof is not contested, the RTU diploma is issued to the candidate, not earlier than in six weeks and not later than in six months after the resolution, in accordance with the procedure determined by the Cabinet of Ministers. 

39. All resolutions taken by RTU, the Council or VZKK and the de facto activities during the promotion process may be contested in the Latvian Council of Science within a month.

40. These Regulations take effect on 30 October 2007. The promotion processes started before this date will be completed in accordance with the procedure as they are started, when the scientific quality of the promotion work and its evaluation criteria are in compliance with the requirements of the Regulations No. 1001 and these Regulations.