Curriculum

During the graduate education, all doctoral researchers 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 doctoral researcher 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 doctoral researchers who are interested in this. They should usually last one week.
• Starting in the second year of the project, you can apply for internal travel funds to visit one international conference per year under the condition of presenting a talk or a poster. Doctoral researchers in the first year can apply for funding to go to a workshop or course.
• The IMPRS doctoral researchers 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 doctoral researchers organize a retreat out of town for all peers and IMPRS faculty members. During two days, the doctoral researchers attend workshops related to their doctoral studies, present their work with posters and connect with the IMPRS PIs and peers from other research groups. An additional social program can be organized. Two guest speakers are invited to present their research and to serve as opponents for the doctoral researchers.

The thesis advisory committee discusses and agrees on the choice of courses. In total, we aim for 60 day equivalents (IMPRS specific credits) 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.