Graduate Programme

ISAS wants to help up-and-coming scientists to start a successful career and to enable them to exploit every option for their intended profession.

The institute's graduate programmes include structured training for doctoral candidates and further training courses for doctoral graduates and young scientists. Initial and further training programmes at ISAS are mostly organised as block events, so that the actual scientific qualification is interrupted as little as possible. Right from day one, we encourage our employees to publish their own work, enable participation in international science conferences and sponsor international guest stays and exchange programmes.

The aim of structured doctoral education is to introduce doctoral candidates to interdisciplinary collaboration in the sense of the institute's research concept; namely to interlink the concepts of life sciences and material sciences in order to develop new types of analytical platforms. The programme therefore focuses on teaching basic knowledge of the range and potential uses of analytical methods, of data evaluation and on an extensive exchange of knowledge between scientists from various specialist disciplines. The programme is complemented by soft skills seminars, which include presentation techniques, scientific English, scientific writing and patent law.

An extensive range of advanced training courses is open to scientists to obtain further qualifications, even after they graduate. These include seminars to introduce the German and European research funding schemes, project management or even intercultural collaboration.

An important aspect for us is to encourage researchers to take up independent research work at the earliest possible stage. The early independence programme offers an opportunity to implement project ideas independently just a short time after obtaining a doctoral degree. Additionally, we help in the search for suitable outside funding. Promising young scientists intending to pursue a career in science can enhance their profile by heading their own research group. Such young managers go through a mandatory training programme, which teaches management skills and provides an opportunity for discussion and to receive feedback even from outside the organisational structure of the institute.

ISAS works together with the Zentrum für Wissenschaftsmanagement e.V. and with other Leibniz institutes to run further training programmes at this career stage. These include the Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung GmbH and the Leibniz-Zentrum für Marine Tropenökologie GmbH.