Curriculum

During the three-year graduate education, all doctoral candidates attend a flexible curriculum that complement their individual skills and experience:

These might include:

• Lectures in cooperation with the Master program for Molecular Biology and Evolution (MAMBE) at Kiel University allows you to catch up with some areas of evolutionary biology you are not that familiar with
• Scientific lectures and courses will help to increase your conceptual understanding of specific topics in evolutionary biology or to learn specific methods or techniques
• Transferable skills complement the academic curriculum improving employment opportunities and future career performance in or outside academia. Possible topics are presentation skills, grant writing, paper writing, teamwork, time management or job application. These soft skill courses are mostly coordinated by the Graduate Center of Kiel University but also by the IMPRS. Each student should visit several such courses.
• Lab exchanges are meant to offer you the option to get an insight into another project or a new technique of another IMPRS lab. They are organized on an individual basis between students who are interested in this. They should usually last one week.
• Starting in the second year of the thesis, you can apply for internal travel funds to visit one international conference per year under the condition of presenting a talk or a poster. Students in the first year can apply for funding to go to a workshop or course.
• The IMPRS students are invited to organize a small conference or workshop once per year. The aim of such an event is to invite international speakers to give lectures and coaching modules. You should participate at least once in an organization committee.
• Each year IMPRS students organize a retreat out of town for all faculty members, researchers and doctoral candidates. During two days, the students present their work in short talks and/or posters. An additional social program can be organized. Two guest speakers are invited to present their research and to serve as opponents for the students.

The thesis advisory committee discusses and agrees on the choice of courses. In total, at least 60 day equivalents will be collected until the program is successfully completed.

Participation in the IMPRS for Evolutionary Biology and the detailed personal curriculum will be individually certified by the IMPRS upon completion of the program.