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.

*Bump*

This sounds tricky - can anyone help DutchLabourer?

I believe the research belongs to the university and they can do what they want with it...

Can you check the documents you signed when you started?

There should also be another academic in your university who provides advice in these situations so you should consider contacting them.

I am sorry to hear you're having a hard time. Your issue is a tricky one as it depends a) on the national intellectual property laws 2) local IP arrangments (some universities will ask students to sign over their IP while others leave the IP to the students). With staff, things are likely to be different and the IP produced will probably belong to the university. Check with your research office, they will ahve a lot of knowldge in this.

Whether you are a student or staff, I don't think you could publish your work as an independent researcher, as the work was undertaken while you were registered at the university.

In saying all this, you should get a mention in any publications which contain your work. This is important as your PhD thesis should include "original research" so it is worth checking that nothing of yours is published without your knowledge. What place on the author list you get is a different matter.

Number of PhDs are built on previous research, some of it developed during doctoral research and unfortunately, I don't think there is anything you can do about this, especially as you are finishing your PhD and the new PhD will be seen as a continuation of that work. What I would say is that if you think there is misconduct, then your university should have someone dealing with research practice, ethics and misconduct. Hopefully, you will have a trail of evidence to show that it is your work.

I hope this is helpful. Keep at it and remember that the end of your PhD is in sight.
Cheers
Nathalie

This is a really sad case. Although there is probably nothing illegal happening here there is a serious loss of integrity. I really hope you will be able to finish your PhD, considering the hard work you have put into it. Something similar happened to me, although slightly different as I finished my PhD. I was asked to write a post-doc proposal to continue my research (much of which I have published). However, I found out while browsing the internet to find updates for my written proposal that the work has been given to a new PhD instead. A proposal had been written by my former supervisor and a new PhD student was advertised for. Nothing I could do as I had signed away intellectual property rights to the university.