PhD Representatives

Here your elected representatives present you a collection of the most vital information about being a PhD students at the FMP.

Our main objective is to improve our working conditions at the FMP. Apart from representing the doctoral researchers’ opinion in board meetings/general assemblies, we organize extracurricular events to foster the sense of community across campus and help new students to orient themselves.

Overview about our activities

• Representation in board meetings/general assemblies. We serve as the communication channel between FMP directors/administration and the doctoral researchers.
   
• Foster the exchange between doctoral researchers of our institute. Every first Thursday of the month we host a PhD Coffee Hour during which we update everyone on current affairs and events in an informal atmosphere.
   
• Offering chances for networking and further career development. Together with the Graduate School we organize the FMP Winter School, a bi-yearly networking event (e.g. panel discussion about careers outside of academia, lab tours, etc.) and Marthe-Vogt seminars (with meet & greet sessions with the invited speakers).
   
• Organizing community-building events across campus. Together with our neighbor institute, the MDC, we organize joint events like the PhD Retreat, Beer Hours and the PhD Ice cream stand during the summer, which profits directly help sponsor further PhD-related events.
   
• Coordination of initiatives with other PhD networks. We also are the communication channel between our institute and the Leibniz PhD Network and the N2 network (for non-university doctoral researchers). They lay the ground work for Leibniz- wide improvements for doctoral researchers by conducting surveys and establishing agreements, which we adjust to our needs and implement at the FMP. (see Supervision Agreement & Welcome Package
   
• Contact person for any issues. If there’s any problem either personal or scientific, we can offer you help and can establish contact to resources (e.g. Mental Health, nursing of relatives or sickness, supervision, contract issues, etc.).
   
• Please never hesitate to contact us – we will try to do everything in our power to aid. You can always contact us at phdrep@fmp-berlin.de or meet us in person.

Leibniz PhD survey report 2019

We are thrilled to announce that the 2019 Leibniz PhD survey report has been published! Last year 937 of you from 88 institutes took part in answering the questionnaire. Thanks for that!!!
This data set enabled the working group Survey to write an extensive survey report covering the topics working contracts, supervision, satisfaction, career perspectives, the situations of internationals and families. For the first time, we have data on the topics of mental health and power abuse, as well. Based on this report the Leibniz PhD Network suggests improvements for the doctoral research phase and discusses the results in the various bodies of the Leibniz Association.
Read the full report with an executive summary in the beginning here and our blog post here.
We thank the working Group Survey for their outstanding work! If you have questions or would like to join the dynamic team of the Survey working group don’t hesitate to get in touch with the working group leaders Stefanie Do (BIPS, dostef@leibniz-bips.de) and Jan-Lucas Schanze (GESIS, jan-lucas.schanze@gesis.org).