Annual and other scientific events

The 2-day meeting will take place every year halfway between Erlangen and Regensburg with progress reports of all RTG students including oral and poster presentaions plus talks by two invited external “rising star” investigators and the Mercator fellow, who work in the research areas of the RTG and serve as role models for a successful career in science. Ideally, all members of the advisory board will participate in the annual retreat. Participation is mandatory for all RTG doctoral candidates and project leaders.

This 2 1/2-day event is organized by the RTG doctoral candidates towards the end of the 2^nd year of training and will then take place every second year. Both national and international scientists with an excellent scientific record in research areas relevant for the RTG will be invited. The meeting will be advertised on national and international level and is open to external researchers for registration.

Based on existing collaborations of the PIs, all doctoral candidates in natural sciences will be strongly encouraged to spend up to 3 months in a foreign laboratory to learn specific methods and techniques required for their project and/or to carry out experiments that are of direct relevance to their thesis. This lab exchange will not only make them familiar with foreign research cultures but also raise their enthusiasm for a postdoctoral training abroad after finishing their doctoral thesis work. Several internationally well-known researchers have already expressed their pleasure to participate in the RTG 2740 program and their willingness to host one or several doctoral candidates.

In addition to this international exchange program all RTG doctoral candidates will always have the opportunity to work in one of the participating RTG labs as part of ongoing or newly started collaborations and joint experiments.