From October 26th to 27th 2017, the Kick-Off Meeting of the Leibniz PostDoc Network took place in in the Research Center Borstel – Leibniz Center for Medicine and Biosciences (FZB). Representatives of postdoctoral researchers of 45 out of 91 institutes joined the first meeting. The Leibniz PhD Network welcomes the initiative and also had the chance to be present at this foundational meeting.

The event was organized by the PostDoc Initiative Borstel, who prepared a very interesting program, including invited talks by the president of the Leibniz Association, Prof. Matthias Kleiner; and the spokesperson of the Leibniz Mentoring – Alumnae Network, Diana Modaressi-Tehrani. The aim of the Kick-Off Meeting was to build a network among the postdoctoral researchers within the Leibniz Association, to share experiences, and to create and discuss ideas.

During this event, the participants defined their denotation of ‘Postdoc’ and accordingly designated the target group of their network. Furthermore, they also discussed their needs and interests as postdoctoral researchers as well as the goals and missions to be pursued with the network. Last but not least, the first Steering Committee was elected. We congratulate the first spokespersons of the Leibniz Postdoc Network: Sabine Bartel from the FZB and Elena Martellato from the Museum für Naturkunde – Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science in Berlin.

The Leibniz PhD Network, represented by our spokesperson Katarzyna Stoltmann, received a warm welcome in Borstel during this meeting. We were invited to share the experiences we have had with the creation and development of our network. Fruitful discussions arose as a result of this colloquy, most of them linked to setting up an intranet, an internal communication strategy, and a survey on working conditions, as well as concerning the organization of events. We are looking forward to continuing the exchange on these and further topics with the Leibniz Postdoc Network!

Title picture: Participants of the kick-off meeting of the Leibniz Postdoc Network.