Hello, I need advice: for three years I was employed with a Phd scholarship, and things went seriously wrong with my supervisor from the second year on, he wanted me to write on topics that were not part of the contract for some reason, and there was a continuous arm-wrestling between what he decided should the angle be and my angle (the one that could actually satisfy the supervisor's requests as a final goal of the thesis). To cut it short, I really tried to make it work and keep the supervisor happy but it didn't happen, so after three years I had a large draft of material that was really messy and that only lately I have been able to organize into coherent papers. Last week I saw that the same supervisor opened another call for exactly my research project, and with "my" angle, and now I would like to know: am I allowed to publish my work in journals and conferences as an independent researcher, or is the work of those three years property of the university that financed me? And, what's worse, can they just use my material for the new PhD, is it legal? In case that happens, what can I do?
And finally: am I allowed by the law to use my material to finish my PhD in another university, or are those three years of work just lost?
Thank you very much for any suggestions.