Curriculum

The students will take part in 2 seminar series, the PhD-seminars and the Lecture series.
During the PhD-seminars each student will give two presentations per year: one on their own work, and a second where they will present hot publications of interest to the whole group.
Lecture series will focus on the main subject of the RTG and will be given by the PI's and by invited guest speakers. PhD students are encouraged to choose and invite scientists themselves and to host their invited speaker for the day.
A second type of lectures series is planned for the 4th semester, with a special focus on career orientation and development.

The students are encouraged to attend other seminars like the "Braunschweig Biological Lectures" or "HZI-colloqium" as well.

The PhD students will be able to achieve additional qualifications and form their individual profile by choosing from a large range of courses for individual needs. Therfor they can use the broad range of courses from the GradTUBS network.
However, "Good Scientific Practice" will be mandatory for the PhD students at the beginning of their training. And other courses like scientific publishing, personal presentation, communication skills and presentation of scientific data to non-scientific audiences will be exclusivly given for the PhD students of the RTG.
Each PhD student has to apply to at least 2 not mandatory courses during the three-year doctoral thesis.

In the middle of their education and at the end, PhD students will organize their own two-day-symposium. It is envisaged that about six PhD students will represent their own data and that six leading international scientists are invited to talk about actual problems and new insights.
We will organize a retreat once a year that will take place in Castle Warberg with a mandatory overnight stay. The function of the retreat is not only to discuss the scientific work in a relaxed atmosphere but also to interlink all participating persons and to establish direct personal contacts.
Every year we will organize a Summer School for the PhD's with changing topics. The participation is mendatory.

The PhD students are highly encouraged and financially supported by the RTG to spend time abroad (1-3 month) to advance the PhD students' own project by implementing new technologies and at the same time, to offer them the chance of collaborating with the host laboratory leading to joint publications and possibly future career options.
We highly recommend the participation in international congresses and symposia as early as possible.
Once during his/her education, each PhD student will spend one month working in a collaborating group of the RTG ("Lab-swap") or visit a recommended laboatory outside the RTG ("Visiting program"). Laboratories will be chosen on the basis of providing expertise not available in the RTG, and which is deemed necessary for the experimental progress of the graduate's project.
Additonally, Excursions will offer the possibility to visit laboratories outside the RTG, in particular industry, to get introduced to additional techniques and to meet industry representatives.