Research News
Focus on Doctorate
The ninth Helmholtz Juniors meeting took place in January at the Institute of Biomaterial Science of the Helmholtz Zentrum Geesthacht and at the Helmholtz Office in Berlin. The presence of 33 doctoral candidate representatives from 16 centres, 16 courses of study and 12 countries provided for an interdisciplinary and diverse meeting basis. The newly elected spokespersons for 2013 are Doaa Megahed (Max Delbrück Center) and Jacques Ehret; Michael Laxy (both Helmholtz Zentrum München) is the German-language contact person.
The Helmholtz Juniors aim to support doctoral candidates within the Helmholtz Association to create the best possible conditions for scientific work and a tailored education. Measures include the Helmholtz Networking Day: the most recent one was attended by 120 doctoral candidates from 16 centres, who took the opportunity of benefiting from workshops, application trainings, lectures, a job market and a panel discussion with Prof. Jürgen Mlynek.
Another important Helmholtz Juniors instrument is the doctoral candidate survey, which now was conducted for the third time and serves as a basis for discussion and suggestions for improvement. On average, more than 40 per cent of doctoral candidates at the centres participated in the survey; a quarter of these are foreign nationals. The survey revealed that the foreign doctoral candidates are well integrated. Most centres offer a well-structured doctoral course within a graduate school, a service used by many doctoral candidates to high satisfaction. Financial security by way of salary for a part-time position or more is given, based on a very diverse range of payment models. Although the number of parents studying towards a doctorate is below the German average, excellent support is available. The details of the survey results are now subject to discussion.
