Dear all,
My current supervisor and I do not get along at all. She is a clear invalidator type of person and I feel less and less confident about my work. She never gives advice, always blames me or makes me feel insecure. She only gives me deadlines, but no input or help. I have come to the conclusion that I should change supervisors for my own mental health.. but how?

I have managed to get several grants for my work and collected CT scans using these grants. The positive thing, is that these scans are portable... e.g. easy to take with me when I leave. However, I do not know how it works with the rights to this material, since my supervisor as well as the University were mentioned in this grant proposal.

Also, I bought with my grant a laptop and a software license using University discount (which basically makes it University property). I am paid via an official contract with a separate research institution, but I am registered as a PhD student with the local University.

I would like to leave the University, leave my contract, and find another supervisor at another university. But can I then take my laptop, software and scans with me? I paid for this all with money that I got via grants on my name. But of course during the last two years I have been paid by the research institute, and was "supervised" by my professor. Do they have legal ownership of my research materials?

Help please!

All best,
Yannah

Hi Yannah,

The answer will vary from university to university and on the conditions of the grants etc - your situation seems quite complex as it sounds like you are an employee of a separate institute altogether so it isn't clear to me whether the grants, CT scans, computer etc are linked to your employer or your PhD institution. A useful starting point though would be to look on both websites for their guidelines on intellectual property and see if that clarifies anything. Other things to read - your conditions of employment / contract and the small print regarding the grants you had - both might answer some questions. I suspect that as you are an employee you might well not have the intellectual property rights to the material, but your situation does sound complex. It might be something that you need to approach your institutions' research offices with as a hypothetical question. i think you'll get away with the computer but the research material might be a whole different matter.