Escaping daily research | networking – dialogue – impulses – motivation

The doctoral candidates of the BayWISS Joint Academic Partnerships Health as well as Economics and Business got together in exciting workshops and networking formats at the joint "Herbstakademie" (autumn academy), which was held from 6 - 8 November 2024 in the Exerzitienhaus St. Paulus (Stadtbergen). This retreat from their everyday research primarily focused on providing a secure setting for enhancing networking among the doctoral candidates, discussing research, setting new impulses as well as gaining new interdisciplinary knowledge.

The participants not only reflected on personal leadership skills and goals during a fireside chat with Wolfgang Leybold (Leybold Strategy Consultants) on "Wie werde ich eine gute Führungskraft?" (How to become a good executive), but were also provided the opportunity to further their knowledge in interdisciplinary key subjects in two simultaneous workshops. While part of the group tackled their personal style of writing and developed strategies for producing academic, comprehensible and original texts in the workshop "Wissenschaftliches Schreiben" (academic writing) held by Prof. Dr. Ruth Neubauer-Petzoldt, others dealt with their future careers following their doctorates. In the workshop "Marketing in eigener Sache" (marketing on one's own behalf) with Wolfgang Leybold the doctoral candidates were introduced to a different perspective of recruiting, developing tools for a confident and opportunity-oriented strategy for their presentation with potential employers as applicants holding a doctorate.

The participants furthermore attended an interactive project workshop, which was led by the doctoral representatives, in which they applied their peer group's available resources to a targeted and need-oriented development. The doctoral candidates exchanged their personal experience regarding their own doctoral projects and the already mastered as well as upcoming challenges involved. They jointly devised solution strategies in small groups, which were generated according to doctoral stage. 

Apart from these items on the agenda, the doctoral candidates also got together in paper tandems. Always two doctoral candidates swapped current papers or parts from their doctoral thesis before the start of the event. During the Herbstakademie, they gave each other helpful and targeted feedback to these texts.

"This 'time out' and the casual setting among the doctoral candidates, in which one was able to openly exchange one's experiences, was absolutely valuable for myself and my research. It was a good opportunity to escape one's daily routine for a while and for networking with people who are experiencing similar problems or challenges. It was also extremely interesting to hear what other people are working on. Synergies are created – both on an academic and personal level – which would have remained entirely unused without this event," one participant summarized.
And thus the Herbstakademie ended with lots of new impulses, insight and perspectives for the doctoral candidates and new motivation for their own doctoral projects.