Less than one year ago, we invited all doctoral researchers working at Leibniz Institutes to take part in our second Leibniz PhD Survey. This online survey was developed by the Leibniz PhD Network and its N² partner networks: the Max Planck PhDnet, Helmholtz Juniors and IPP Mainz. More than 900 doctoral researchers working at nearly 90 different Leibniz institutes accepted our invitation. Since end of last year, we were busy preparing data, checking data quality, analyzing responses, drawing conclusions and working on the final report. Our survey report is finally ready, published and can be accessed here.

The report tells us a lot about the status quo of doctoral researchers, their aspirations, and the challenges they face in their daily work as well as in their career planning. It also tells us a lot about positive or negative developments in the last two years when comparing results with the 2017 Leibniz PhD Survey. A higher share of respondents holds working contracts compared to the last PhD survey, while less respondents hold a stipend. Still, 1 out of 10 respondents is financed by a stipend, and those doctoral researchers face several economic disadvantages described in the report.