In order to support female scientists in their career, different research associations have joined together at the TU Berlin and agreed to offer joint measures. This not only promotes networking of female researchers from various disciplines, but also increases the efficiency of career enhancement. The associations are supported by the gender controlling and the research department.

All researchers working in the listed research groups can participate in the offered workshops. If your research group is not yet involved in the project, please contact us.

Successful communication in oral presentations is essential in academia. Talks, panel discussions, and poster presentations shape how colleagues and the public perceive you and your research. How you present your research and yourself can “make or break” the success of a grant application, a job opportunity, or a collaboration down the line. In this seminar, we teach and help you practice authentic presentation techniques that work. Above and beyond, we will discuss ideas and rules for successful networking strategies.

The workshop will take place in German.

Verpackung gesucht! Erfolgreich präsentieren auf Konferenzen und in anderen wissenschaftlichen Kontexten

01.03.2019, 09:00 - 17:00 Uhr

Forschungsergebnisse leben von erfolgreicher Kommunikation und so sind Formate wie Konferenz- und Bewerbungsvorträge oder auch Posterbeiträge die Visitenkarte einer jeden Forschenden. Dabei will die eigene Forschung nicht nur gut gemacht, sondern auch gut präsentiert und vermarktet sein. Die spannendste Fragestellung und die aufregendsten Erkenntnisse können ein Publikum zum Gähnen bringen, wenn die Präsentation misslingt. In diesem Seminar zeigen und erproben wir Techniken und Strategien, wie man sich und die eigene Arbeit authentisch und auch über konventionelle Methoden hinaus in Vorträgen, Postern und Fachgesprächen präsentiert. Zusätzlich werden Spezifika wissenschaftlicher Konferenzen sowie Ideen und Regeln für erfolgreiche Netzwerkgestaltung erarbeitet.

Dozentin: Dr. Dieta Kuchenbrandt (www.schainundkuchenbrandt.com)

Der Workshop ist bereits ausgebucht.

Researchers are increasingly faced with expectations to raise third-party funds if they want to pursue a successful research career. Yet, applying for third-party funds is not an end in itself and could even be detrimental to research careers, if disconnected from own scientific or life plans or scientific goals. This workshop, thus, aims to clarify which kinds of funding opportunities are suitable for the participants’ respective purposes. In addition, it offers insights into the objectives and practices of research funding institutions and peer review procedures. Individual short coaching sessions during the second day will help the participants to pave their way towards successful applications in view of their needs and ambitions.

The workshop includes:

1) Individual self-positioning and look ahead: Analysis of current status and (career) goals

2) The research system in Germany and Europe

3) Typology of research funding and career development schemes

(Selection of programmes is based on the participants’ CVs which need to be provided

collectively 14 days prior the workshop. Confidential treatment will be guaranteed.)

4) Basics of grant applications & peer review perspectives

5) Practical guidance: successful project proposals and the review process

6) On the second day: Short individual coaching sessions

Target Group: female postdocs

Date: 29 May (workshop from 9 am to 5.30 pm) & 30 May (individual coaching sessions)

Coach: Dr. Martina van de Sand

Development as a successful researcher involves more than building research profiles and skills. Broader professional development is becoming increasingly significant for researchers. Communication and interpersonal skills are progressively a key factor for a successful career development. In particular, the ability to convey your ideas in different contexts and for different target groups can be crucial for your researcher’s career. Scientific demands are often completely different to other organisational topics. The participants will get support to recognize the specific patterns of communication and behavior in organizations and to develop tools to handle them.

Target Group: female doctoral candidates and postdocs, up to 12 participants

Date: 5 & 6 December 2017, 9am-4pm

Coach: Deborah Ruggieri

People derive different benefit and recognition from their performance in committees and boards at the university. Some might even generally feel uncomfortable and hesitate to act confidently and convincing. The aim of the workshop is to understand structures and dynamics of committees and to learn more about this aspect of professional work and self-presentation. It aims to provide strategies to enforce one’s own interests and opinions.

Content:

• tasks, importance and structure of committees
• place and enforce goals
• strategies of committee work
• sovereign negotiation
• argue convincingly
• recognizing dynamics and dealing with them

Target group: female professors, PIs & advanced postdocs, up to 15 participants

Date: 9 November 2017, 9am-5pm

Coach: Matthias Schwarzkopf 

Every scientist who decides to stay permanently in academia, sooner or later faces what is supposed to be career’s hardest challenge: Applying for full professorship. The workshop aims to give you insights in the application procedure – a procedure that is highly formalized but often lacks transparency and differs in many aspects from other application formats in academia. In this seminar, we deal with your written application as well as topic-related and strategic advise for your selection interview, application presentation and demonstration lecture. We focus on different aspects of the appointment procedures, such as typical and critical questions during the selection interview, potential snares during the demonstration lecture or ambivalent interests among the members of the audition committee. Moreover, we work on how to present yourself and your academic profile successfully and how to emphasize your particular expertise.

Target Group: female Postdocs, up to 12 places available

Date: 18 & 19 October 2017, 9am-5pm

Coach: Dieta Kuchenbrandt

The presentation of the own research - also for a non-expert audience - is an important factor e.g. in selection processes for most fellowships or positions. This workshop is designed for young female academics who want to prepare for future career steps. In the course of the day, all participants will give their presentation in front of their fellows. Each presentation will be followed by a discussion slot and an intense guided feedback based on a 12-Parameter Model which was designed for evaluating academic presentations. The workshop also includes a training module with a focus on challenging questions and comments during academic discissions (difficult content, comprehension problems, emotionally difficult situations).

Preparation: All participants should bring a 5-7 minute presentation (including slides) about their current area of research.

Target Group: preferably female postdocs (or advanced doctoral candidates) who already have a good level of experience in presenting their research; up to 10 participants

Date: 5 September 2017, 9am-5pm 

Coach: Sylvia Löhken

Connecting with persons from both inside and outside the academic context is important. Contacts facilitate joint projects and more than often fuel career options. However, even self-confident persons often feel insecure when having to connect to strangers and to stay in touch after a conference. It may also prove stressful to approach high-ranking professionals due to status issues.

This workshop is designed to help participants improve their contact skills. They develop personal strategies to build and maintain professional contacts – and to feel safer and more comfortable in the process. Participants will learn

• to look into and beyond "status games",
• to derive and develop individual networking strategies,
• to start, develop and end conversations with different communication partners and different challenges
• to overcome specific hurdles to approach decision makers
• to participate in academic discussions during workshop sessions and build argument structures

Target group: female doctoral candidates and postdocs, up to 12 places available

Date: 4 September 2017, 9am-5pm

Trainer: Sylvia Löhken

Researchers who choose to work in universities are often very passionate about their work, and at the same time face temporary work contracts and uncertain career perspectives. The workshop aims at providing female researchers with tools to gain more clarity about their options and present situation, and to make educated, more strategic decisions under conditions of uncertainty and risk.
In this one-day workshop you will apply the following tools to your choices:

• Sphere of influence, Complicated vs Complex
• Rational and intuitive planning, Definition of and dealing with “failure”
• Risk aversion and risk appetite
• Critical factor analysis (e.g. own priorities and values)
• Scenario planning for a spectrum of scenarios
• Probabilities
• Decision matrix
• Self-coaching tools, e.g. “catastrophe question” and Mini SWOT analysis
• Experiences / questions / peer coaching groups

Target group: female doctoral candidates an postocs, up to 12 participants

Date: 4th July 2017, 9am-5pm

Coach: Matthew Speyer

In the reality of a modern university taking leadership is sometimes required by people who don’t hold a formal leadership position. This is especially true for postdoc and postgraduate positions. This introductory workshop is about the challenges and skills of aligning a team’s actions to produce results. Using the approach of “Generative Leadership”, we look at how to have the right conversations to clarify context, explore possibilities and gain commitment for actions that lead a project to success. In this one-day workshop participants will focus on

• working between your leaders and your team
• wstablishing a common understanding and context for teamwork
• getting to clear commitments
• giving and receiving feedback
• dealing with the breakdowns and conflicts that will inevitably occur

Target Group: preferably female postdocs or advanced doctoral candidates

Date: 26th June 2017, 9am-5pm

Coach: Matthew Speyer

Negotiation is increasingly part of professional life including scientific areas. Professional negotiation skills are more and more essential for a forthcoming in a scientific career. There exist different types of negotiation and partners. In order to negotiate appropriately you have to be able to identify different aspects of negotiation and how to handle them Through this training we offer an introduction to negotiation and furthermore in the Harvard Method which helps substantially to experiment with different techniques of communication. This training is up to discuss those questions. The participants are being invited to extend their negotiation skills in respect of their professional development. This training will improve their negotiation tactics in order to convince their partners by different techniques in conversation.

Target Group: female doctoral studients and postdocs, up to 12 participants

Date: 13 June 2017, 9am-4pm

Coach: Deborah Ruggieri