Offering effective support to young scientists already at an early career stage is a crucial commitment of the TRR 186 consortium. It is important to enable young scientists to realize their full potential. As part of the TRR186 research consortium, we implemented a variety of measures to achieve this goal. This involved young scientists at all levels including Junior Group Leaders, Postdoctoral Fellows, PhD students and Master students of the life science study programs in Heidelberg and Berlin. Specific measures were implemented to support the young TRR186 researchers from each of these groups to help develop them into independent scientists with the potential to pursue their own careers in academia as principal investigators:
- Establishment of a PhD student/Postdoc board that organizes all activities and communicates with the SFB/TRR 186 steering committee
- Annual spring meetings organized by the PhD students and Postdocs of TRR 186 (no participations of TRR 186 PIs; External guest speakers invited by TRR 186 PhD students and Postdocs)
- Exchange of Master students, PhD students and Postdocs for project-related collaborations between Heidelberg and Berlin
- Thesis advisory commitees to support PhD students with PIs from both Heidelberg and Berlin
- Lecture series with external guest speakers addressing career development in academic environments
In addition, our research network is embedded into institutional programs such as graduate schools that provide structured programs for PhD students.