Universität Leipzig: Promoting Early Career Researchers

The application period for the 2021 Pre-Doc Award has begun. The programme is designed to help prospective doctoral researchers and postdocs at Leipzig University to form tandems to support each other. For a period of twelve months, postdocs can learn how to supervise graduates and pass on their experience in practice. A tandem’s focus may lie on securing funding for the doctorate, for example from external funding bodies, but also on identifying research topics.

Tandem partners Dr Alejandro Armas-Díaz and pre-doc Dennis Hof at the Pre-Doc Award kick-off event in October 2020. Photo: Christian Hüller

One of the 19 tandems funded under the 2020 Pre-Doc Award consisted of Dennis Hof and Dr Alejandro Armas-Díaz from the Institute for Geography. Their interview in our German magazine is available here.

About the Pre-Doc Award
Applications for the Pre-Doc Award 2021 close on 20 June. It was first awarded in 2017, when 15 tandems received funding. A jury consisting of members of the Research Commission decides which tandem applications to accept. The Pre-Doc Award 2021 is expected to fund twelve to 15 tandems.

In its current form, the Pre-Doc Award is unique to Leipzig University. In the four rounds so far, a total of 68 tandems from almost all of the University’s faculties have been funded. More than half of the tandems who participated in the programme up to 2020 managed to secure funding for their doctoral project.

Created by: Ulf Walther