Offers for all phases of the doctorate
From getting started to submitting the dissertation
Offers for a good start
Excellent trainings for doctoral researchers!
The partner institutions of Berlin University Alliance have teamed up to organize their Graduate Studies Support Program, a broad portfolio of trainings, retreats, conferences and other events. The program is open to doctoral researchers from all subjects, as long as they are affiliated to Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin, or Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin. It is free of charge.
Further information on the Graduate Studies Support Program
Breakout Session - Time Management: This online breakout session will provide common time management techniques. Participants will learn how to set priorities, plan a week and reflect individual habits and preferences. Further, the training will help to handle disturbances and how to deal with procrastination.
Doing a doctorate: yes or no? This interdisciplinary intensive workshop is aimed at master's students and graduates who would like to pursue a doctorate at an institution within the BUA network (HU, TU, FU Berlin & Charité) or who are currently in the decision-making phase. For technical reasons, only BUA members can currently register via the booking platform. All others should register by emailing hgs-workshops@hu-berlin.de. In this intensive workshop, you will reflect on questions such as “What do I want?”, “Do I really want to pursue a doctorate?” and “How can I tackle and persevere with this major project?”. The one-day seminar will help you clarify your personal attitude toward your dissertation project and make statements about its feasibility. You will thus develop a sound basis for deciding for or against a dissertation.
Introductory events for new PhD students: In cooperation with the faculties, the Center for Junior Scholars at Technische Universität Berlin organizes annual introductory events for new doctoral candidates (and postdocs). In addition to networking, formal questions about doctoral registration are answered and the most important contacts are introduced, from doctoral offices and faculty service centers to doctoral advisors and representatives on academic committees.
Kick Off Your Doctorate: As a face-to-face event for doctoral students starting their doctorate in Berlin, the Berlin University Alliance offers a two-day retreat. Accompanied by experienced trainers, a selection of key tools will be tested in exercises and opportunities will be identified to explore these in greater depth across institutions in further follow-up workshops. Group-building activities form the core of the event, making the kick-off a valuable networking event.
Presentation Skills: Engaging your listener in your talk for doctoral researchers in the social science and humanities: This is an activity-based workshop led by theatre professionals whose expertise is in helping the speaker effectively communicate the importance and relevance of the work and the core message in the talk. Repetition is a key aspect of the training so that participants can strenghten the narrative, the emotional tone, and the physicality of the talk in order to define and support the speaker's own dynamic style. The seminar provides participants the opportunity to perfect their public-speaking skills. Constructive feedback from the trainer and group members as well as videotaping give the speaker a healthy amount of input while perfecting public-speaking skills. Participants will be required to prepare a 3 to 5 minute pitch or overview of their work incorporating also the use of a slide. This will provide a basis for applying the practical aims of the workshop.
Scientific and Academic Argumentation: Critical Reasoning and Logic: Scientists and scholars have to give arguments all the time - in their publications as well as in conferences and lab meetings. Nevertheless, the bases for strong and correct arguments are not always fully clear to them. Logic provides extremely helpful tools for scientists and scholars to develop their arguments in a coherent, well-structured and convincing way. The seminar gives an introduction to the most important concepts of logic: premises and conclusions of arguments, validity and soundness of arguments, deductive vs. inductive reasoning, common types of inferences and fallacies. The idea of the workshop is to use the concepts as a toolbox which provides very useful techniques for every-day scientific work.The participants learn how to reconstruct arguments from scientific texts, how to give well-structured and logically valid arguments, and how to avoid misunderstandings. There are two main sets of exercises: one for written argumentation and one for oral argumentation.
Setting Sail for Mental Health – Strengthened and healthy through the doctoral thesis: Do you have the feeling of being constantly tense, sometimes unable to cope with problems and no longer experiencing any fun in your daily work? A doctorate means more than just writing the dissertation. The pressure to perform and the degree of personal responsibility are high. What can you do to experience the doctoral phase in a healthy, even joyful way? This module has a fine repertoire of creative methods from Positive Psychology and Happiness Research, MBSR (Mindful Based Stress Reduction) and Resilience Coaching. It enables you to better deal with doctoral-related stress, strengthens your psychological resilience and supports you in dealing appropriately with the various challenges in the doctoral phase and in maintaining your mental health.
The Dahlem Research School Podcast: Navigating the Doctorate: The Dahlem Research School podcast for prospective and current doctoral researchers was created to help support individuals who are considering a doctorate or who are already working on a doctorate. Across various seasons of the podcast, you’ll hear from former and current researchers talking about their experiences with the doctorate and in their transition to the job market after completing their doctorate as well as from various experts at the Freie Universität and beyond.
Freie Universität Berlin - Dahlem Research School: Dahlem Research School (DRS) is the central institution for young researchers at Freie Universität Berlin. It coordinates a broad range of doctoral programs, advises on all issues related to structured and individual doctoral studies, and offers an inspiring qualification program.
Humbolt-Universität zu Berlin - Humboldt Graduate School: The Humboldt Graduate School is the central institution for the strategic promotion of scientists and scholars in the early career phase at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.
Technische Universität Berlin - Center for Junior Scholars: The Center for Junior Scholars acts as a kind of pilot for all questions concerning young scientists from the doctoral and postdoc phases to junior professorships or junior research group leadership.
Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin - Doctoral College: The Doctoral College of Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin offers students and doctoral candidates of Charité an extensive and free range of student tutorials on basic skills of scientific work.
Offers for the middle phase of the doctorate
Agile Project Management: The compact course is intended to give a quick insight into the world of agile project management and to show its applications in scientific projects. A basic understanding of concepts, mindsets and practices of agile project management will be provided and practiced using the most widely deployed techniques. However, participants are also encouraged to bring in their own preferences and to question and vary the presented methods. All activities will be based on the participants' individual cases, which results in a concrete approach to use agile techniques for their own projects (e.g. the doctorate).
Easy to understand at a glance – Designing scientific posters with a clear purpose and creating effective visuals: Scientific posters are the ideal visual presentation medium at academic conferences. Designed to be clear and concise, they provide the foundation for presenting your research project in a way that engages your audience, sparks conversation, stimulates discussion, and helps you network. To get your target audience excited about your topic, you need a clear structure, a text format optimized for readability, and well-chosen graphics and visualizations. You should also carefully consider how to arrange the content on the A0 format in a clear and effective way. Basic design rules and foundational knowledge of layout techniques will help you present your topic in a visually organized and appealing way—so that it is noticed, heard, and understood.
Good Scientific Practice – Protecting Research Integrity: This course provides participants with research ethics knowledge, gives them space to reflect on their values and attitudes as researchers, and allows them to practice skills in dealing with conflictual situations in their research practice. Participants acquire knowledge about the rules of good scientific practice and train their competences to make responsible decisions in everyday research.
Make Contacts that Count: Networking and Personal Branding: Knowing how to develop and maintain an effective network is a key career strategy. To build a well-functioning network is a vital component in planning a science career. Many highly-qualified scientists have taken a route to build their career that has been arduous and lonely. This module explores less stressful methods of career development, by the strategic use of networking. Whether planning a career in the scientific or commercial world, awareness of the priorities and needs of funding bodies or potential employers or backers is a key to success. This seminar provides an overview of the structure of networking - the strengths and weaknesses of working in networks and allows for an opportunity to optimise your own networking activity and strategies for acquisition.
ODT Prompting and Literature Search: Prompting and Literature Search introduces PhD students to practical strategies for using large language models and AI-based search tools. Get hands-on experience through guided examples that help you craft prompts and integrate AI-enhanced search into your research workflow.
Self-care during your doctorate: In addition to academic demands, the time spent on a doctorate can also mentally be very challenging. Pressure to perform, high demands on your own structure and the one or other obstacle? In this workshop, we would like to talk about methods of self-care and strategies to not lose sight of yourself.
Offers for the final phase of the doctorate and for transition to postdoc
50/10: JustWrite! Just Write! is an open online writing group that offers regular focused writing sessions and helps participants develop writing routines. The group is self-organized by the participants and supported by the ZEWK.
Career Day: The Career Day is an annual event organized by the Berlin University Alliance. It is primarily designed for doctoral candidates in Berlin who are looking to expand their horizons and learn about the various career options available to them. It is an excellent opportunity for doctoral candidates in Berlin to explore future perspectives and meet exciting guests. The Career Day will provide an opportunity to meet and speak directly with professionals from various industries and sectors. Participants will be able to attend round table discussions and world cafés, as well as meet with professionals who can provide valuable insights and advice on their future prospects.
Clear and Compelling Scientific Texts: The practice-oriented workshop provides the know-how needed to write well-structured, convincing and easy-to-read scientific texts in the STEM research fields.
Optimize your writing productivity: The course teaches techniques that make it possible to write efficiently and with ease. Participants learn to dissolve writing blocks. They develop individual action plans to sustainably improve self-management and writing productivity.
Thesis Defense Training: The final major milestone of the doctoral program is the oral defense of the dissertation, which presents unique communication challenges. This workshop is designed for doctoral candidates who wish to prepare intensively for their defense. At the beginning of the seminar, the traditional procedure and significance of a defense will be presented, and questions typically asked during defenses will be compiled. Subsequently, various strategies for presenting a convincing argumentative and rhetorical case during the defense will be taught. All doctoral candidates will have the opportunity to simulate their defense during the seminar and receive detailed feedback.
Understanding Visual Communication: Based on the workshop-leader’s twelve years of experience as a graphic designer and his subsequent experience in training small printing companies to transform themselves into design consultancies, this workshop examines the principles of visual communication that will enable primarily verbal communicators to become more effective at expressing their ideas in a compelling visual format.
What's next? Are you nearing the end of your doctoral project and planning a career in academia? Maybe you already are a Postdoc and need further orientation on how to finance your future research? In this Open Door Talk, the team of Freie Universität’s research funding service will inform you about funding options for postdoctoral research projects.
They will introduce funding opportunities for the various disciplines from a postdoc perspective and present a short overview of interdisciplinary and discipline-specific programs and their requirements as well as tipps and information regarding proposal writing.
Writing Week 2026: Book an entire week to learn about Self-management for the scientific writing process, discuss about procrastination and just write – alone and in tandems! Use the opportunity to establish writing groups.