Three international evaluation committees favourably judged the FWF Doctoral Colleges „Geographic Information Science“ (led by Thomas Blaschke), „Imaging the Mind“ (led by Manuel Schabus) and „Immunity in Cancer and Allergy“ (led by Josef Thalhamer), and endowed them with a total of 6.3 million €.
A continuation of the hitherto very successful contribution to research and teaching is thus ensured. In their own faculties, each of the colleges acts as a role model for a PhD education that is quality-oriented and of the highest standard.
A rigorous, standardised selection process, and international advertising, guarantees the selection of excellent students and a well-balanced mix of national and international students. The PhD students work on exciting dissertation projects in internationally renowned research groups as part of faculties that are equipped with state of the art technical equipment. The colleges cover the students’ travel cost to, e.g. present their work at international conferences and workshops, or time spent researching at partner institutes around the world. Those PhD students working on work-intensive projects in partner laboratories are even funded for a fourth year by the FWF, who also cover material costs, as well as travel and accommodation expenses.
Another important aspect of the Doctoral Colleges is instructing the students in the so-called “soft skills”, or “transferable skills”. In the natural sciences, these primarily include the writing of scientific publications and research proposals, and developing skills and confidence when holding presentations. The colleges therefore offer their students courses in „scientific writing“ and „planning/writing of project proposals“, which they extend to regular faculty students free of charge. During symposiums with international speakers, organized by the colleges, the students are required to present and defend their dissertation projects in front of experts in their field. Students of the faculty are also invited to attend these symposiums.
Every two years, the colleges organise a “Career Day” at the University, which is attended by experts in the fields of doctoral studies and science management, as well as speakers from the major science funds such as FWF and Fulbright, not to mention alumni students of the University of Salzburg who are now Professors or CEOs of companies, and PostDocs who report on their experiences.
Aside from being role models, the colleges also contribute to the constant improvement of the quality of the doctoral education at the University of Salzburg natural sciences department.