general assembly

General Assembly 2021

Once a year, all elected PhD representatives of the 96 Leibniz Institutes and Research Museums meet for two days of networking, exchange of best practices and discussions on current and future challenges of doctoral researchers in Germany. This General Assembly is of crucial importance for the Leibniz PhD Network, since it also contains a discussion of the Standing Rules and the election of a new Steering Committee.

Due to the current worldwide crisis, we decided that the Leibniz PhD Network the General Assembly will be held online. It will take place on 23rd and 24th of September. The Assembly will be held over Zoom : the first day of the General Assembly 2021 will be open for all doctoral researchers of the Leibniz Association. We invite all members of the Leibniz PhD Network and our associated networks. Dr. Thomas Kleinsorge from the Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors (IfADo) will give a keynote about “Work-life balance: societal, cross-sectional, and longitudinal perspectives ”. There would also be an interesting workshop “Keeping your work life-balance while working on your PhD” delivered by Heli Korhonen from “Scienza”. On the second day, September 24 (10:00-2:00 pm), the representatives of the institutes elect two new spokespersons, a treasurer and one section spokesperson for each section.

If you would like to run for one of the positions, please do not hesitate to let us know in advance as well (you do not need to be a representative at your institute to be elected spokesperson, treasurer or section spokesperson). This is a very exciting opportunity in which you can learn a lot about the inner workings of academia, get to know many active researchers from all over Germany and practice some leadership skills!

If you are interested in getting elected, but you are not a representative at your institute at the time of the General Assembly, we will set up an extra access to the program of Day 2 for you. For any questions and enquiries we can be reached at spokesperson@leibniz-phd.net.

The 2019 General Assembly – Deadline Extended

The 2019 General Assembly (GA) is getting closer and there are some spots left, so we extended the deadline for registration until the 14th of August. The GA is the main assembly of doctoral researchers representatives from all Leibniz institutes.

Of note, if a representative can not join it is desired and requested that a replacement is send. This person does not have to be an elected representative and is eligible to vote on or candidate as a member of the Steering Group.

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2nd Annual Assembly of the Leibniz Postdoc Network

We are very happy to share a guest contribution by our Leibniz Postdoc colleagues who recently held their second assembly after their foundation a year ago. The Leibniz Postdoc Network and Leibniz PhD Network are in the process of deepening their relationship, identifying common topics and supporting each other. Mary-Ann Blätke, Glòria Martrus, and Gitta Heinz – all members of the Postdocs Network’s newly elected steering committee 2018/19 (pictured above) –  let you know how they experienced the event and see the cooperation with the Leibniz PhD Network.

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This was the 3rd General Assembly of the Leibniz PhD Network

Extensive social interaction, interdisciplinary exchange and continuous discussions among 82 doctoral researcher representatives and working group members from 63 out of 93 institutes and museums made this event a vibrant experience. Many thanks to all attendees.

The 3rd General Assembly took place in Jena hosted by the Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology (IPHT) and Leibniz Institute on Aging – Fritz Lipmann Institute FLI from 26th to 28th September, just right after the second birthday of the Network. As to expect from the sheer number activities in the last year starting from the survey on the situation of doctoral researchers in the Leibniz Association, the release of this very blog, the finalization of a first draft for a generic PhD agreement, the intensification of political work through N2, the network of networks, and the organisation of the first Conference of Interdisciplinarity of the Leibniz PhD Network (and the author doubts that this list is complete), the rooms which hosted a networking forum in which all these topics were presented and discussed on small tables were fully filled with people and voices, content and discussion.

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Leibniz PhD Network’s 2018 – A look into the past, a glimpse of the future

With one week to go until our General Assembly 2018 in Jena, we would like to take a minute to look back on our last successful PhD Network meeting.

This year, we introduced a new format called the “Zukunftsworkshop” in which active as well as newly recruited members of the working groups and the steering group gathered at the Leibniz Head Office in Berlin on April 24th and 25th. After having last met in person at the General Assembly in September 2017, getting together half a year later was a huge morale boost for everyone. During these two very productive days, we looked back on the goals we had set on the General Assembly 2017 to see what we had achieved and where more work remained to be done.

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