Table of Contents

Funding

The typical duration of the PhD program is three years. During this time, students are funded by DKFZ stipends or third-party fellowships. These salaries are competitive by national standards. All graduate students at the DKFZ are enrolled at the Helmholtz International Graduate School for Cancer Research, regardless of how they are funded.

Supervision

Group leaders and department heads supervise students. A Thesis Advisory Committee (TAC) – personal to each student - provides further support. This consists of their supervisor and at least two other senior scientists, one of whom should be external to the DKFZ. The purpose of the TAC meetings is to monitor the student’s progress, offer feedback on research already conducted and discuss any other issues, which might be relevant to the student’s work. TAC meetings take place once a year, where the student is expected to prepare a short written report and give a presentation of their work.

Course Program

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Participation in the following activities are required, however there remains a lot of flexibility to allow each student to tailor their education to meet their own needs and interests.

Progress in Cancer Research Lecture Series
Often it’s easy to get so involved in your own research project you lose sight of the big picture. This lecture series, which takes place once a week during semester time, is designed to give every student an overview of the current state of cancer research.

Active participation in Seminar Series
An important part of PhD training, is learning to explain your research to other scientists. Therefore, students are required to present their work regularly in larger division seminars.

PhD Retreat
Organised for PhD students, by PhD students this is a great chance to take a step back from the lab bench and find out what your colleagues are working on.

International Conference
Every student must also participate (with either a poster or talk) in an international conference. Students often have the opportunity to travel to conferences abroad, but with so many scientific institutes in and around Heidelberg, you’ll also find excellent international conferences taking place locally.

Scientific and Soft-Skills Courses
While working at the bench will form the main part of your PhD, it is important that you gain the additional skills required to complete your PhD. Students are therefore required to collect credit points by attending scientific and soft-skills courses, such as “confocal microscopy” ,“scientific writing” or “how to present in English”. Many such courses are organized by the DKFZ, but students are also encouraged attend externally-organised courses.

DKFZ PhD Poster Session
Every year there is a large PhD poster presentation, organized in the same style as a scientific conference, where students have the chance to present their work and get feedback from other students and scientists, in addition to finding out what other students at the DKFZ are working on.

There are many possibilities to take part in other activities or courses, including summer schools, student-led activities, English or German language classes, teaching responsibilities… the list goes on…

Degree

Once you have finished your PhD you are granted your degree by the university with which you initially registered. The degree you are awarded depends on your area of research and university faculty you registered with. This is, of course, dependent on having attended the necessary courses, the completion of your project and a successful defense.