Being a doctoral researcher

The advantages of being a doctoral researcher

• An attractive environment with a large variety of first-class tools, materials, computers, and instruments. You work in a team together with scientists and technical support staff.
• Support from a team of supervisors in your institute, at your university, and the Doctoral Committee, enabling you to achieve optimum research results within the given timeframe. You must coordinate the collaboration with all supervisors.
• A set of transferable skills courses will be mandatory as of 2019. You can also take part in various training programmes to develop your skills.
• The possibility of concentrating on your research project thanks to your Jülich contract with no teaching obligations.
• If you have a family: childcare facilities are available on campus.
• Support from the Career Center within a confidential framework, providing comprehensive support in all career-related issues. The Career Center conducts various measures for career development, advice, orientation, and networking for postdocs and doctoral researchers – particularly those in the final year of their degree.

The doctoral degree process

You can use the scientific results obtained within the framework of your contract with Forschungszentrum Jülich to write your doctoral thesis. All matters concerning the dissertation have to be discussed with the doctoral supervisor at your university. Your dissertation must satisfy specific formal criteria as laid out in the corresponding doctoral degree regulations (Promotionsordnung) of your university. You are advised to find out about all the requirements you must meet to obtain a doctoral degree at an early stage.

Cooperation with partners from science

Networking and socializing

The research community at Jülich is international and open-minded. More than 40 % of all doctoral researchers are early-career scientists from abroad. Forschungszentrum Jülich offers special orientation and advisory services to assist new PhD students. We support you in finding accommodation and completing the necessary paperwork at the beginning of your stay.

There are plenty of opportunities to network, exchange ideas, and socialize, whether it be through the International Club, sports club, or DocTeam, which represents the interests of all doctoral researchers.