[!WARNING] AI-based tools can make mistakes: double check results and use them with caution.

The EC2U PhD Agreements Tool helps draft cotutelle PhD agreements by comparing agreement text against institutional policy documents and identifying potential compliance issues. It runs as a Confluence macro: agreements are authored and stored directly within a Confluence workspace.

The system is not intended to fully automate processes requiring professional expertise. Think of it as a junior assistant: delegate to speed up work, but keep control over decisions.

All documents are safely stored within the Confluence platform. Data is shared only with certified external cloud systems for the duration strictly necessary to complete processing and is never disclosed to third parties.

[!IMPORTANT] To further enhance privacy, share personally identifiable information only when strictly necessary: draft with placeholders and add personal details only when finalising locally.

Agreements

Open Agreement Catalogue

1. Navigate to the catalogue from the workspace main page

Create New Agreement

1. Open the agreement catalogue

   

2. Click on the Create New Agreement button

   

3. Enter agreement title

4. Enter agreement metadata

   • Status - Delete immaterial tags or use the /status command to enter new colour-coded values
   • Area - Enter name of the reference faculty/department
   • Host/Partner - Enter the name of host/partner institutions
   • Contact - Use @Mention to link the profile of the principal editor for the agreement

5. Replace the placeholder with the initial agreement text

   [!IMPORTANT] Be careful not to remove the EC2U PhD Agreements Tool macro or to alter the overall document structure in other ways. Removing or overwriting the macro or altering the document structure would prevent the agent from working.

6. All Confluence editing tools may be used to structure and format the agreement text

7. When done, click on the Update button to publish the new agreement

Open Agreement

1. Open the agreement catalogue

   

2. Identify the relevant agreement

   • Use the search field to filter on the agreement name
   • Click on the catalogue field names in the table header to alter sorting

3. Click on the relevant agreement name to open it

Update Agreement

1. Open the relevant agreement

   

2. Click on the Edit button to enter editing mode

   

3. Edit agreement metadata or the agreement text

4. All Confluence collaborative features are available in editing mode

5. When done, click on the Update button to save and publish changes

   • The Close button will save changes as a draft version without publishing them

Delete Agreement

1. Open the relevant agreement

   

2. Click on the More actions button in the top-right corner

3. Click on the Archive and Delete button in the dropdown menu and select an action

   • Archive would move the document to an archival area without permanently deleting it

   • Delete would immediately move the document to the trash

     

4. Click either on the Delete or Archive button to confirm the operation

Policies

Policies are institutional or regulatory documents that define requirements, guidelines, and standards governing PhD agreements. These PDF documents are attached to agreements and serve as reference materials during the analysis process, helping identify potential issues and ensuring compliance with institutional norms. Policies can originate from both institutions involved in the agreement and may apply at different levels: national, institutional, or area-specific (for instance, department or faculty).

Attach Policies to Agreement

1. Open the target agreement

   

2. Click on the Attachment disclosure label to open the attachment catalogue

3. Upload PDF policy documents by clicking on the browse for files button or by dragging them to the attachment drop area

[!NOTE] Only PDF policy documents will be considered in the agreement analysis process.

For best results rename the policy documents in order to provide a clear human-readable label: the policy file name will be used to reference its content in AI-identified issues.

The system will automatically translate to English policies written in a local language.

Detach Policy from Agreement

1. Open the target agreement

   

2. Click on the Attachment disclosure label to open the attachment catalogue

3. Click on the target attachment disclosure label to open the attachment detail panel

4. Click on the Delete button

   

5. Click on the OK button to confirm the operation

Browse Policies

1. Open the target agreement

   

2. Click on the Policies tab to show the policy browser; the main area displays the translated content of the selected policy. The sidebar shows a table of contents below the policy list, allowing quick navigation within the document

3. Click on a policy title in the sidebar to inspect its English translation

[!WARNING] On first access, the system will spend some minutes extracting the plain text from the original PDF document and translating it to English: stand by until the process completes; results will be cached for quicker subsequent access.

Refresh Policy Content

1. Browse policies and select the target policy

   

2. Click on the Refresh Content button in the toolbar

   

3. Click on the Refresh Content button to confirm the operation; the policy content will be re-extracted from the source PDF attachment, replacing the current cached version.

Download Policy

1. Open the target agreement

   

2. Click on the Attachment disclosure label to open the attachment catalogue

3. Click on the policy filename to download the original PDF document

Issues

Issues are specific problems, inconsistencies, or points of concern identified when the agreement text is evaluated against attached policy documents. They help users track, classify, and resolve all matters that may affect the completeness or compliance of the PhD agreement.

Issues are structured with the following properties:

Analyse Agreement

1. Open the target agreement

   

2. Click on the Issues tab to show the issue catalogue

3. Click on the Analyse button to start the compliance analysis

[!WARNING] The system will spend some minutes evaluating the agreement text against each attached policy document: stand by until the process completes; results will be cached for quicker subsequent access.

Inspect Issues

1. Open the target agreement

   

2. Click on the Issues tab to show the issue catalogue

3. Use the sidebar controls to search and filter issues:

   • Title - Type in the text field to search issues by title keywords
   • Severity - Select one or more severity levels to filter the catalogue

   • State - Select one or more states to filter the catalogue

     

4. Click on the sort toggle next to each field label to cycle through ascending and descending sort order

   

5. Click on the x button next to individual filter chips to clear them separately

6. Click on the Clear All button at the bottom of the sidebar to remove all filters

7. The issue count at the bottom of the sidebar shows the number of matching issues out of the total.

Inspect References

1. Inspect issues and scroll to the relevant issue

   

   

2. Click on the chevron toggle next to the issue title to expand or collapse the reference excerpts

References are displayed in a two-column table comparing agreement text excerpts with relevant policy citations. Inline reference markers in the issue description can also be clicked to view individual source details in a popup.

Classify Issue

1. Inspect issues and scroll to the relevant issue

   

2. Click on the severity selector in the issue header and choose the relevant severity classification to override the value automatically assigned by the system on creation

Transition Issue

1. Inspect issues and scroll to the relevant issue

   

2. Click on the state selector in the issue header and choose the relevant state classification to override the value automatically assigned by the system on creation

Annotate Issue

1. Inspect issues and scroll to the relevant issue

   

2. Click on the Annotate button in the issue header to enter annotation mode

   

3. Enter or edit issue annotations

   [!TIP] Structured annotations may be entered using the basic Markdown format.

4. Click on the Save button to save updated annotations

   • Click on the Cancel button to discard changes

[!IMPORTANT] The system will take into account annotations when updating agreement analysis.

Update Analysis

Agreement analysis may be refreshed at any time, especially after the agreement text is modified; the system will take into account existing issues and focus only on changes.

This action is intended to refresh issues after incremental updates to the agreement text or attached policy documents: existing issues and user annotations are taken into account in the process, in order to avoid duplications or regressions. After major updates extensively altering either the structure or the content of the agreement text or the attached policies you may want to clear the issues and analyse the text from scratch.

1. Inspect issues

   

2. Click on the Update Analysis button in the toolbar

Clear Issues

Clearing the issues drops the compliance analysis history of the page: the system will recompute results from scratch on the next analysis.

1. Inspect issues

   

2. Click on the Clear Issues button in the toolbar

   

3. Click on the Clear Issues button to confirm the operation

Dashboard

The dashboard view provides a dynamic issue matrix, suitable for status overview and process management:

• Columns represent issue state values: Pending, Active, Blocked, Resolved
• Rows represent issue severity values: ★★★ (High), ★★☆ (Medium), ★☆☆ (Low)
• Cells contain issues with the corresponding severity/state values

Inspect Issue Matrix

1. Open the target agreement

   

2. Click on the Dashboard tab to show the issue matrix

3. Click on column/row toggle buttons to collapse or expand related content

Inspect Issue Details

1. Click on an issue title to open its detail popup

2. Interact with the issue using the same tools described in the context of the issue catalogue

3. Click anywhere outside the popup to close it

[!TIP] Updates to the issue severity or state will dynamically reposition it within the matrix.