On November 12, 2024, the kick-off event of the dialog forum “Diversity creates knowledge: Every voice counts” took place at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in Berlin. Maren Weissig, Equal Opportunities Officer, took part on our behalf. The opening dialog and the subsequent workshops brought together experts from research, political decision-makers, managers… Dialog forum „Diversity“ in the BMBF – kick-off event weiterlesen

The „Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz“ (WissZeitVG) regulates how doctoral candidates, post-docs and other academic staff may be employed. An amendment to the law has been in the works for two years. We, the Federal Association of Doctoral Candidates, have repeatedly voiced our criticism of the problematic WissZeitVG and have been trying to bring the position of doctoral candidates… WissZeitVG – Experts criticize draft law weiterlesen

– Nobel Prizes – The nobel prices are out with a high focus on computational analysis of protein and RNA structures. The Nobel Prize in Physic went to John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton for discoveries which used tools from physics to work on machine learning helping to build artificial neural networks. The Nobel Prize in… Newsletter October 2024 weiterlesen

Last year, we founded this federal association and dedicated ourselves to promoting science in Germany by supporting its most valuable resource: researchers. Our focus is particularly on doctoral students at public research institutions. Our initial projects include fundraising, building a network, and participating in the reform of the WissZeitVG. Our new working group Strategy will… Our Strategies – a new working group! weiterlesen

16.04.2024 – This May the „Freie Universität Berlin“ is going to elect a doctoral council for a first time. This is a great development. In this context our very own Benita Schmitz (second spokesperson) was invited by campus.leben to discuss together with Markus Edler, the managing director of the Dahlem Research School of the “Freien… Interview campus.leben about the new doctoral council at FU Berlin weiterlesen

12.02.2024 – February 11th was designated as the „International Day of Women and Girls in Science“ by UNESCO on December 22th 2015. Worldwide, still only one in three people in science is a woman (see UNESCO Science Report, 2021). This means that women are still significantly underrepresented in science – and this is often particularly… International Day of Women and Girls in Science weiterlesen

Doctoral councils all over Germany met in Berlin at September 26th to found the German association of doctoral researchers („Bundesverband Promovierende e.V.“). The executive board around the two speakers Timo Eckstein (FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg) and Benita Schmitz (Halle/Wittenberg) expressed the aim to fight for better working conditions for researchers in Germany. The newly formed association arises… PhDs of the Germany stand united! weiterlesen

Thanks to the contribution of our members, we were able to secure funds for hosting our own website, where you can find our official stances on relevant doctoral issues, our reports and documentation, as well as relevant news. This is also a channel where you can contact us, so let us know what do you… New website! weiterlesen

On June 28th 2023, the German network of doctoral researchers reached out to the BMBF (Federal Ministry of Education and Research) and took up position concerning the changes in the WissZeitVG. The coalition of 31 doctoral representations demands a minimal contract length of six years, must-rulings instead of should-rulings, a compensation of the maximal contract… Position to the planned changes in the WissZeitVg weiterlesen