Early Career Researchers

Supporting early career researchers is one of our key priorities.

Doctoral Studies

In 2005, the IPN instituted procedures for the conduction and supervision of doctoral theses. Adherence to them involves a voluntary commitment by doctoral students and supervisors to work in a focused and structured manner toward the completion of doctoral dissertations within an appropriate timeframe.

The IPN launched its Graduate School in the fall of 2012. Its purpose is to provide structures for doctoral study at the Institute and offer emerging researchers the opportunity to focus their efforts on independent research. The IPN Graduate School curriculum covers a range of lectures, tutorials, seminars, and workshops, centering largely on quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection and statistical analysis procedures, but additionally including skills in conducting literature searches, developing research questions, scientific writing, and time management. Alongside events held during semesters, members attend an annual ten-day Winter School that brings experts from other research institutions to the IPN to help prepare the emerging researchers for academic careers.

The IPN runs a mentoring system for its doctoral researchers, assigning each one two mentors, in addition to their official supervisor, who provide them with support around and beyond the topic of their dissertation project.

Doctoral researchers at the IPN also have the opportunity to spend several months abroad with financial support from the Institute, to establish international collaborative networks and gain a sense, at an early stage in their careers, of how their work fits into the research landscape beyond Germany.

Postdoctoral Researchers

The IPN's support for early career researchers does not end once they have received their doctoral degrees. Emerging academics who have conducted outstanding doctoral work and wish to remain in academia can establish an independent research track record at the IPN. The Institute has defined guidelines for postdoctoral careers, whose aim is to propel postdocs toward a tenured position at a higher education institution. The IPN provides a diverse range of support to researchers launching their careers in academia. We can offer financial support for stays abroad for postdocs, as for doctoral researchers, and arrange opportunities for them to gain teaching experience. The success of the IPN’s policies for emerging researchers is evident in this cohort’s high rates of appointments to tenured academic posts.

The Institute seeks to promote gender equality in its staff development through opportunities, set up with funds from the Pact for Research and Innovation, for high-achieving female researchers to establish their own research group early on in their careers.

Early Academic Research Groups at the IPN