These individual coaching sessions are aimed at early-career scientists from BIH, Charité, and MDC (PhD, Postdoc, MD) who would like to reflect on their scientific career paths and/or receive feedback on an application exposé.
Content and objectives
Particularly at transitional moments in their careers, scientists often need to reflect on their individual position and skills as they weigh up different career and funding options. This applies above all to the transition period between qualification phases, or after having attained eligibility for a leadership position in science. The acquisition of third-party funding is also becoming increasingly important within the German and European science system – both for scientific institutions and their survival, as well as for personal career development. However, such third-party funding is often obtained without systematic strategic planning and without taking into account the potential and career goals of the participating researchers.
Objectives
This coaching service aims to support participating scientists in their career decisions by providing an outside perspective. It also seeks to advise them on a third-party funding strategy and, if applicable, provide them with feedback on an application exposé. The goal here is not to provide an assessment of the subject and content matter, but to offer targeted feedback on the structure, development, and formal aspects of the research exposé from a generalist evaluator’s perspective.
Important elements of the coaching sessions include:
- Developing short and medium-term career goals and a long-term career plan
- Using these goals to determine an appropriate funding profile
- Providing résumé feedback
- Reviewing research proposals from an evaluator’s perspective (if applicable)
Methods
The program is made up of individual coaching sessions held in the office of the Berlin Institute of Health. You are free to determine your own schedule. Please provide your résumé in preparation for your first coaching session. You can also draft questions and concerns in advance and submit, if applicable, a research project exposé of maximum two pages in length. To ensure your coach has adequate time to prepare, all documents must be submitted at least 14 days prior to your first session.
We offer six 45-minute sessions per coaching day.
The coach
Dr. Beate Scholz is the managing director of Scholz CTC GmbH, where she works with various international universities, research institutions, and scientific organizations as a strategy consultant, moderator, instructor, and coach. She also has twelve years of experience at the German Research Foundation (DFG), where she worked until summer 2009. Beate Scholz played a key role in developing the Graduate Schools program as part of the Excellence Initiative. She gained extensive operational and evaluation experience through managing the Research Training Groups program and European Young Investigator Award, and created an international strategy platform – the European Network for Research Careers – that promotes exchange and joint initiatives between international scientific organizations.