Doctoral programs at Fraunhofer IZI are not only an important component for the students’ own careers but also a driving force for superlative research at Fraunhofer. Therefore, we aim to provide our doctoral students with excellent equipment, an open-minded, varied and creative work environment and transparent framework conditions.
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The positions for doctoral students at Fraunhofer are designed so as to ensure that you are involved in ongoing projects from the outset, while also giving you enough time for your dissertation. We cooperate with the universities on a partnership basis – the dissertation program is implemented in accordance with the applicable regulations there. As doctoral students at our institute, you are part of a scientific department throughout your promotion project. This means that your scientific participation in innovative research projects constitutes the focus of your work with the topic of your dissertation and the research projects you are involved in complementing each other as well as possible.
At the very beginning of every dissertation project, while the students are developing a topic to work on, an experienced scientific supervisor at the institute is assigned to them. The supervisor will provide professional assistance throughout the entire dissertation phase. In addition to this subject-specific support, another experienced scientist will support you as a second independent adviser. This adviser will act as a mentor and assist you in case of difficulties and problems.
To ensure our high quality of training, we offer our doctoral students a modular course concept at Fraunhofer IZI. This promotes your subject-specific qualification and rounds it out with interdisciplinary competences. It gives you the opportunity to develop in scientific and subject-specific as well as interdisciplinary and transfer-related respects in line with the Fraunhofer qualification portfolio and to use suitable measures both “on the job” and “off the job” to this end. The qualification measures agreed with your superior are financed by the institute and are considered as working time.
The program for interdisciplinary courses for our doctoral students, e.g., includes presentation training, workshops on scientific writing and publishing, basic seminars on statistic and experiment design as well as English lessons.
Moreover, Fraunhofer IZI offers various other qualification options as needed, e.g. a graphics workshop or seminars on the patent systems, medical products, acquiring third-party funding and project management. In principle, networking within the scientific community is also supported.
Fraunhofer IZI holds its doctoral colloquium every 2 weeks in a format for scientific exchange on the dissertation projects and as an important presentation platform for our doctoral students. This format gives them an opportunity to regularly present the status of their project and to get feedback and input from their supervisors, mentors and the institute’s staff.
At the annual “PhD Day”, our doctoral students introduce the topics of their research on scientific posters and present them to a jury.
The summer party, the PhD lunch and regular meetings are additional fixed elements of the PhD program at Fraunhofer IZI.
Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology IZI