Extra-curricular activities

JGU and its partners offer a variety of courses that support young researchers to further develop their transferable skill set. Those courses are meant as an additional qualification during the scientific qualification of young researchers.

Only courses in English are listed. Workshops in german can be found on the German MPA website.
Think before you write

Find out about the most important rule of communication (any communication).
Learn about how readers find and read your work, so that you can write better for your intended audience.
Get some interesting insights into cognitive psychology that are highly relevant for writing good scientific English.
Learn how to structure your writing for maximum effect.
Submit a short piece of writing, and benefit from group feedback and editorial input in real time.
Find out how editorial works, how to avoid common pitfalls (typical reasons for rejection), and how to react to rejection letters.
Understand the journal world better, and improve your ability to choose an appropriate journal in which to publish (and to avoid "predatory" journals!).

Datum 14. + 15.03.2023, 9am - 3pm
Veranstalter Institute of Molecular Biology (IMB)

Registration via MPA. Please note the registration deadline of the course (14 February 2023)

Scientific Publishing: Editor, Referee & Author Responsibilities

This event offers the opportunity to learn about important aspects of scientific publishing from the point of view of an editor. Important steps that have to be undertaken to submit a paper successfully will be pointed out, i.e. getting in contact with editors, finding out about citation style, deadlines, and review procedures. The audience will learn what aspects and mistakes can cause problems in the submission process and in the worst-case lead to rejection of a scientific paper.

Datum 03.04.2023, 9am - 12pm
Veranstalter The General Postgraduate Program

Further information and registration

Workshop "Scientific Writing"

This workshop supports doctoral candidates who want to approach their writing in a professional manner and make it more efficient and successful. You will adopt a process perspective on writing in English in order to deepen your understanding of the necessary tasks in each stage of writing: from narrowing down the topic and drafting an outline to the final revisions. You will learn about different strategies employed by professional writers and, at the same time, get to know your own way of writing better. You will try new strategies, techniques and resources for each stage of writing on your ongoing writing projects.

Datum 04. + 05.05.2023
Veranstalter TU Darmstadt

Further information and registration

Workshop "Scientific Writing" - Online Training

This workshop supports doctoral candidates who want to approach their writing in a professional manner and make it more efficient and successful. You will adopt a process perspective on writing in English in order to deepen your understanding of the necessary tasks in each stage of writing: from narrowing down the topic and drafting an outline to the final revisions. You will learn about different strategies employed by professional writers and, at the same time, get to know your own way of writing better. You will try new strategies, techniques and resources for each stage of writing on your ongoing writing projects.

Datum 04. + 05.09.2023 and 12. + 13.09.2023
Veranstalter TU Darmstadt

Further information and registration

[Online Coaching]: Individual career coaching for postdocs

What is next after your doctorate or postdoc phase? In the post-doctoral phase, there is often the challenge of making more fundamental career decisions, developing and implementing an individual strategy for your own career. In fact, as an academic, you have excellent opportunities to pursue a career path that suits you.

JGU's Human Resources Development would like to support you in developing and realising your own career strategy with an individual coaching offer. If you decide to take advantage of this offer, you will have the opportunity to focus and work on your individual counselling needs in up to 5 coaching sessions with an external career coach.

Datum Individual appointments
Veranstalter Human Resources Development

Further information and registration

Proposal writing for postdocs

As early-career researchers venture towards scientific independence, proposal writing becomes an ever more important activity. In this workshop, Dr. Andreas Trabesinger will present context, tools and perspectives related to writing up scientific ideas, based on his experience as a scientific consultant, science writer and a former editor at Nature Physics. The practical parts will focus specifically on MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships and ERC Starting Grants.
The amout of participants is limited to 15.

Datum 24.04.2023, 9 - 12 am and 1.30 - 4pm
Veranstalter MPA

To register and for further information, please get in touch with Steffi Wortmann until the 14th April.

CV tailoring for doctoral students

For most scientists it is easier to present their research than to write about their achievements. In this workshop, Dr. Andreas Trabesinger will present context, tools and perspectives related to 'tailoring' CVs, based on his experience as a writing consultant, science writer and a former editor at Nature Physics. Participants will hear how to transparently describe their scientific achievements, how to deal with 'unusual' career paths and about different 'performance metrics' and their caveats.

Datum 25.04.2023, 10 - 12 am
Veranstalter MPA

To register and for further information, please get in touch with Steffi Wortmann until the 14th April.

Online Workshop "Research, inventions, going to market, founding a startup – an interactive introduction"

Scientific research, inventions and doctorates – it all comes with a lot of work, diligence and know-how. What opportunities are there beyond publication? There might be more products or services hidden in your research than you think. How can you market them and what are the first steps you need to take to check whether your idea has a chance on the market? How can you protect your idea? How can HIGHEST, the Innovation and Start-up Center of the Technical University of Darmstadt, help you with patent protection and start-up consulting?

Datum 03.05.2023
Veranstalter TU Darmstadt

Further information and registration

The International Study and Language College ISSK offers German courses every semester. More information: https://issk-en.uni-mainz.de/foreign-languages/registration-for-the-foreign-language-courses/
Master of Time - Time Management and Learning
Time management and productive self-organisation are the basis for academic success. In this workshop you will learn how to define your goals, set the right priorities and make time where you thought there is none. The coordinators of the MPA, Dr. Victoria Durant and Freya Luberg, want to show you how you can improve your time management from scratch and organise your studies so that you have to study less and get better grades at the same time. You will first learn the basics of time management and the most important productivity techniques for students and then focus specifically on physics. The workshop is aimed at the needs of Bachelor's and Master's students. There will be another Time Management Workshop especially aimed at PhD students in summer.

Datum 02.05.2023, 10:15 am - 2:45 pm
Veranstalter MPA

To register and for further information, please get in touch with the MPA-Office.

Workshop "Communication and Conflict Management for Scientists"

In this workshop you will train how to effectively communicate with colleagues and supervisors as well as how to prevent and manage conflicts.

Datum 12. + 13.06.2023
Veranstalter TU Darmstadt

Further information and registration

Science-Slam-Workshop
Would you like to present your research on stage at a science slam? Then register now for the Science Slam Workshop on July 28th and 29th at JGU. Learn from two experienced science slam coaches how to present your topic in front of a large audience. The workshop covers storytelling, audience interaction, media handling, stage training and the use of body and language, it will be led by two coaches of the "Science and stories" agency.
The language of instruction will be English.
The maximum number of participants is 12. The participants of the workshop will be ready to prepare a "slam" for an evening event at the MPA Summer school. Since the number of participants is limited, we will give priority to those that will also attend the Summer school.

Datum 28. + 29.07.2023, 10 am - 5 pm
Veranstalter MPA

To register and for further information, please get in touch with the MPA-Office.