Master End Project Nanobiology

The Master End Project (MEP) is usually conducted in the second year of the MSc. It will take approximately 30 weeks, and is conducted in a research group on the Nanobiology GreenList. The research project comprises 42 ECTS and includes writing a Master's thesis, presenting the work and defending it orally.

During your MEP, you work as a member of a research group and collaborate with other students, PhD students, postdocs, technicians and group leaders. You will be working on a specific research topic of your choice, doing experiments, simulations, or theoretical work, and generating new ideas for further research. You are expected to implement the knowledge from the Bachelor and Master phase and apply that knowledge to the research subject. If the research project is outside the Nanobiology programme GreenList, you need to have both an internal (GreenList) and external supervisor. Projects outside the GreenList must be approved by the Board of Examiners prior to beginning.

The research project is concluded by submission and defense of the MSc thesis. The thesis will take the form of a full-length research article, suitable for publication in an international journal. In contrast to a regular article manuscript, the MSc thesis will include a more elaborate introduction, describing the scientific background of the study, and the methods section will be expanded to include a complete and detailed description of all methods that have been applied. The MSc thesis should demonstrate the ability of the student to organize and present results and knowledge in a form required for publication of a scientific article.

The defense of the thesis will take about 30 minutes, and will be preceded by a public presentation (of also roughly 30 minutes) on the aim, results and conclusions of the thesis work.A research project can be followed with a supervisor on the Nanobiology GreenList that can be found on the Brightspace page of the Thesis office Applied Science. With approval from the Board of Examiners, students may apply to do a project outside the Nanobiology programme.

When planning research projects, students must do either their MEP or their Broadening Research Project internal to the Nanobiology programme, they can do both. Please see the programme page for Broadening Research Projects to see which allowed projects are considered internal and other rules about the projects.

The assessment committee will consist of at least three members. At least two members belong to academic staff (tenured or tenure track) not limited to TU Delft, Erasmus MC, nor Leiden University or members for the occasion appointed by the Board of Examiners (art 5.2)3. The third member can be a member of academic staff or a researcher with a PhD employed at TU Delft or Erasmus MC (for Nanobiology). Together they satisfy the criteria a to d. Committee members that do not meet the criteria, including PhD students, can be added as fourth or fifth member of the committee.

a. One of the members is the responsible thesis supervisor and must be on the Nanobiology GreenList. In case of two supervisors both are members of the assessment committee.

b. One of the members belongs to the teaching staff of the Nanobiology programme (bachelor or master), as identified on the Nanobiology GreenList.

c. One of the members is a full professor or an associate professor with ius promovendi;

d. One of the members of academic staff belongs to a TU Delft or Erasmus MC research group or research entity independent of the responsible thesis supervisor.

If the composition of the assessment committee does not meet the regulations mentioned, the proposed assessment committee must be submitted to Board of Examiners via MyCase at least four weeks prior to the defense.

Daily supervisors (PhD students, technicians) can be added to the committee, be involved in the defense, and be invited to give their opinion on the performance of the student (and their suggestion for a grade) but (unless explicitly appointed by the Board of Examiners as a member of the committee) have no formal vote on the grade.

During the research project the students will be judged on:

• Performance in regular tasks

• Active participation in the project and research group

• Taking initiative

• Communication within the research group

• Oral presentation and defense

• Written report

The committee will use the MEP grading rubric from the faculty of Applied Sciences to determine the final grade. See the TNW Thesis Brightspace page for the full rubric.