Milestones in Early Career Support

These pages show the milestones reached at the University of Göttingen in supporting early career researchers. We are happy to receive your comments on these topics at any time.

Supporting Different Disciplines! Made-To-Measure Graduate Schools

The University has established four graduate schools conceived to meet the specific challenges and demands of single faculties in educating their doctoral students. These graduate schools span across the PhD programmes and graduate colleges of the faculties and are an effective way to create a new generation of excellent scientists. Graduate schools offer multiple possibilities for cross-discipline qualifications and networking.

Not on its own: Foundation of the working group "HR Development and Early Career Support"!

The "HR Development and Early Career Support" Working Group comprises representatives of the Presidential Board, the Senate, the Council of Deans, the faculty representatives, the administration, the academic staff and the equal opportunity officer. The aim of the Working Group is to consider the recommendations of the German Rectors' Conference (HRK) on the topic of the support of early career researchers in order to determine the action required at the University of Göttingen. This led to the paper "Career Paths in Science and Academia: Perspectives".

What the University wants next: the realisation of the paper "Career Paths in Science and Academia: Perspectives"

The position paper "Career Paths in Science and Academia: Perspectives" was drawn up by the "HR Development and Early Career Support" Working Group. Following the Senate`s statement on 10.06.2015, it was passed by resolution of the Presidential Board of Göttingen University, Foundation under Public Law, on 16.06.2015. Read more about what the University of Göttingen wants to achieve.

Setting Standards Together - Advancement of Early Career Research at Göttingen Campus

The support of early careers with a special focus on the excellent early career researchers is a task adopted by all university institutes as well as the partners of the Göttingen Campus. This is essential to attract young talent from Germany and abroad. Please see the common statement here.

One Campus - Establishment of the Göttingen Campus Postdoc Community

The need to get to know each other across the Campus, to communicate with peers from other disciplines and faculties is commonly felt. The demand has been met by establishing a campus-wide network for early career researchers: the "Göttingen Campus Postdoc Community"; registered yet?

Making the Most of Synergies - the HR Development Plans Are Coming Together

HR Development in charge of academics and the academics´ support staff have merged into one section: the Division HR Development. Both teams share common offices at Herzberger Landstraße 2. We will be happy to receive your questions and comments; please find our contact details here.

Making Offers Visible! - There Are So Many that Nobody Knows about<

Many opportunities and support structures were not well understood because they were simply not easy to find. There was no main page for doctoral students and early career researchers. HR Development and The Göttingen Campus are working together to collect essential pieces of information for postdocs in order to support their orientation. Use our pages and click here or on the website of the Göttingen Campus.

Identifying Career Paths - A University of Göttingen Scheme Is Available

Transparency and clarity were basics for this graphic, which outlines different career options.

On-going work – Open-ended positions

The University´s position paper expresses the aim to take on the most suitable scientists for permanent jobs. Since 2017, appointments in research, teaching and the infrastructure of research (eg science management) have been made with due consideration of the "Guideline for Establishment and Staffing of Operational Positions with Academic Requirements" (trial period until Sept. 2018). Vacancies will be filled according to an agreed fair and transparent procedure and result in open-ended employment. You can find the guideline in the Official Announcements (Amtlichen Mitteilungen), Ausgabe 52 (27.10.2017).

A Promising Future! - 20 Tenure Track Professorships for the Early Career Researchers

The University has been successful with the Tenure-Track-Programm ("Nachwuchspakt", which is a programme for the promotion of early career research) and is committed to providing 20 additional tenure track professorships in the course of the next few years.

Tailored Approaches: 12 Faculty-Specific Concepts on the Support of Early Career Researchers

The support of early career researchers is primarily a task for each faculty. In order to outline discipline-specific career paths, each faculty has developed its own paper specifying the University's career paths scheme, describing career stages and their duration as well as providing named contact persons at each faculty.

Round-Table Discussions - All together around the same Table

Opinions of early career researchers are important to us. The Göttingen Campus Office, the Academic Staff Development Section and the Graduate Schools host a series of round tables with and for doctoral students and postdocs in order to locate strengths and weaknesses of existing support programmes.