Working Groups
Our working groups (WGs) will be at the center of the work of the German Postdoc Network. We want to invite postdocs (and interested supporters) to actively participate in the network, connect with peers from your community, improve your skills, shape the GPN and enhance your CV. We imagine the work in the WGs to be mid- to long-term, as larger projects such as an annual conference or a postdoc survey are to be planned and realized within these groups. We invite you to bring your own ideas and work self-organized and with a high degree of freedom on those topics. However, we provide all infrastructure and take care of background tasks so that you can work result-oriented and without excessive time effort.
In the following, we introduce five groups that we want to start, and our current vision of the scope of work.
Sign up for one of the working groups if you want to actively participate in the GPN and get in contact with us, if you have further ideas or skills that you would like to contribute!
This group works closely with the coordination office and supports the strategic development of the German Postdoc Network. We want to build the network bottom-up and want to hear your ideas and input regarding structure, content, and appearance of the GPN. We also need to build up all the infrastructure in the background and welcome creative and/or technical skilled people in this working group to set up and fill our webpage, newsletter, and LinkedIn account with input.
Use this working group to influence key decisions and directions of the GPN and ensure that the provided content addresses postdoc needs. Enhance your strategic thinking and leadership skills and boost your CV.
Right now, we are looking for Postdocs with interest to work especially on the following topics:
Strategic development of the GPN
- Develop with us concepts for the advisory board, working groups, regional groups, and elected postdoc representation.
- Contribute to our webpage by writing articles on topics you are passionate about or help implement content with WordPress.
- Design and execution of workshops and TownHall meetings on topics that matters most to you, giving a platform to share your ideas and passions with a wider audience, while we handle the organizational details.
- Enjoy writing a newsletter, create content for LinkedIn or select and design promotional material? Support us in enhancing the visibility of the GPN.
One of the three key objectives of the GPN is engaging with policymakers and institutions, ensuring that postdoc needs and concerns are heard and addressed. The basis of successful advocacy is knowledge about the system, legal frameworks, and the decisions makers, building a base of credibility and gain influence through established relations and visible actions. The goal of this working group is to understand the complex system in which postdocs operate and develop skills and strategies to advocate successfully ensuring that postdoc voices are heard.
This working group gives opportunity to develop and train your advocacy skills and opens doors to facilitate dialogue between postdocs and decision-makers.
We are looking for people that either already have a broad understanding of the system, legal frameworks, and experience in advocacy or strong interest in bringing change on a political level and voicing needs, concerns and interests of postdocs.
Even though there are some surveys conducted among postdocs at specific research institutions, there is no general survey among all postdocs in Germany capturing motivation for starting a postdoc, working conditions, quality of supervision, knowledge about legal frameworks, range of trainings and career-development measures or career goals. Most knowledge about the postdoctoral situation is anecdotal, rendering advocacy based on convincing data challenging. We would like to conduct a postdoc survey among postdocs from all research institutions in Germany. This working group should study existing material, decide on main topics and goals and prepare, conduct and evaluate the GPN postdoc survey.
We are very open to combining our goal of conducting a postdoc survey with research about the situation of early-career-researchers in Germany. Please contact us, if you are conducting research fitting our survey plans.
We are looking for people experienced with conducting and evaluating surveys and studies, driven by interested to ascertain the situation of postdocs on a larger scale in Germany. We further invite people with technical or IT skills to help us implement and carry out the survey.
Our network has initial funding for the next three years through the Volkswagen foundation. Advocating to improving the situation for postdocs, informing researchers in their early-career-phase and building a strong postdoc community are all topics that go beyond a three-year time horizon. In this working group we want to explore options to consolidate the network afterwards. This will include discussion about which legal form the GPN should adopt and exploration and consideration of various financial sources.
We are looking for people with experience in allocating finances and know-how about different legal entities such as foundations or non-profit organizations as well as contacts to potential investors. We welcome creative ideas and as much as critical questioning and challenging of our plans, to ensure that we find a stable and long-term solution.
A vivid community benefits from knowing and meeting each other personally instead of just digitally. Therefore, we want to plan a Germany-wide Postdoc conference next year. We want to invite Postdocs from all institutions and topics to come together, discuss about shared challenges, showcase your science and inspire collaboration, meet potential future employers and expand your professional network.
This working group designs and organizes the first annual postdoc conference. Use the opportunity to improve your organizational and project management skills, gain leadership experience, learn to raise funds and find sponsors and enhance your CV.
