Search

The DFG are prepared to fund a variety of exchange scenarios with no age restrictions in place, providing funding to all scientists based in Germany and at various stages of their careers.

" I feel I am doing a good job, and I have enough money from grants to continue my work, but I still have to leave."

"By going to different labs," says Edvard Moser, "You learn different ways of thinking and you can create bridges between sub-disciplines and find something unexpected."

Given the opportunity, Jana Kadukova says she would definitely be keen to work abroad again. "In my opinion, everyone should try this once in their life," she says

Early-Stage Training fellowships offer Ph.D. researchers the opportunity to pursue specialised training for a period of 3 months to 3 years as part of their doctoral training.

"We are always on the lookout for people with project management skills." --Jochen Knolle

The interview process, she points out, goes both ways: They are interviewing you and you are interviewing them.

Moving from research to clinical work and back to research slows down career development.

This is an unusual position; I will have little bureaucracy and limited teaching.

"I think I have been lucky in the choice of topics to work on, topics which later turned out to be useful for developments in an apparently different direction."

Get out and meet fellow researchers, and never turn down an opportunity to give a talk.

The French bureaucracy was sometimes a challenge, but, these researchers say, the scientific environment largely made up for it.

"I found that I didn't need to follow current trends as much. I became a bit more trusting of my own judgments, a bit more trusting that my own curiosity would take me directions that other people might find interesting as well," says Jeremy Baumberg.

Go abroad for some time. That is how I got into a field that I could make a significant contribution to.

"You can look at the endpoint and think 'nice path,' … but it was hard." --Javier Palatnik

An excellent doctoral education should not be left to chance.

"I still need to worry about money," says Graham Smith. The difference now is that he does not have to bring in money because of profit targets but "because of my curiosity about how the universe works. That's a very different motivation."

To guard against the risks of unemployment, gaining expertise in technologies that have broad applications is extremely important.