Following the meeting of new entrants on January 12, 2024, we launched a survey among the participants to collect their feedback. 91 people responded (8 thesis directors, 83 doctoral students). 78% thought the day was ‘well’ or ‘very well’ organized and 76% that the explanations provided were ‘clear’ or ‘very clear’.

Regarding the seminar by Raphaël Levy (“Welcome to PhD Games and may the odds be ever in your favour”), about 70% of the participants found it interesting and enjoyable. Even though 41% state that it did not change their view on what a thesis is, 57% consider that it made them reflect on the place that scientific integrity should take in their research practice.

Regarding the seminar by Athanasia Sotiropoulos (“How the 3Rs rule can improve the quality of science and research practices”), we note that 58% of the participants will resort to animal experimentation. Here too, the participants mostly declared that the presentation was clear and provided important information. We note that 21% had never heard of the 3Rs rule. Nearly 25% of the participants indicate that it has changed their perception of how to conduct animal experiments. A large majority consider this seminar to be essential.

You have very largely endorsed (95%) the intervention of the doctoral student representatives and 7 participants have declared that they were interested in being candidates as doctoral student representatives at the ED level, 36 indicated that this could interest them.

We noted that some participants wished that this meeting would take place earlier. However, we would like to point out that registrations are open until the end of December and therefore an earlier organization in the year would lead to exclude doctoral students with a late registration. We have also taken note of your desire to have more practical information to fill in your portfolios and validate your training, as well as on the CSI, and to have a longer exchange time.

Thank you to all those who took the time to respond to this survey. Good luck with your thesis to all!