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Technical University of Munich
Doing a doctorate in Freising-Weihenstephan

During your Doctorate

While you are pursuing your doctorate at the TUM School of Life Sciences, the team at the Graduate Center of Life Sciences is there to help and advise you. We organise professional, scientific and interdisciplinary courses and seminars on site, which you can attend free of charge. Special financial support, such as the proofreading service or internationalisation funding, can be applied for. If required, we can advise you on the compulsory and optional elements of the TUM-GS qualification programme.

Here is an overview of the mandatory and optional elements of the TUM-GS qualification program and related offers and funding opportunities:

Mandatory qualification programme

During the initial phase of your doctoral project, the TUM-GS Kick-Off seminar provides information about academic work and the different supporting offers at TUM. During the event you have the possibility to meet other doctoral candidates from diffrent specializations. By doing so, you may get new ideas and perspectives and expand your personal network. The offered seminars are designed to develope your personal skills.

Participation in the TUM-GS Kick-off seminar is compulsory. Dates and registration can be found on the DocGS portal.

From 2025 - New concept for the "Good Scientific Practice" course

Doctoral candidates at the Graduate Center of Life Sciences with a doctoral candidacy list entry from February 1, 2022 have to complete a course on “Good Scientific Practice”.

From 2025, the previous three-day course can no longer be offered. The mandatory qualification element can now be fulfilled as follows:

  1. Basic course on Good Scientific Practice (5.5 hours, courses in German and English) 
    + 2 doctoral courses of the TUM Library by choice (face-to-face, e-course, webinar)
    Compact Course Literature Research for Your Dissertation 
    Predatory Journals and Conferences 
    Research Data Management Basics 
    Data Steward Training 
    Cite It Right 
    Routes to Publishing 
    Visibility and Research Impact
     
  2. Attendance of an external course on Good Scientific Practice with a minimum duration of eight hours. 

Dates and registration can be also found on the DocGS portal.

German Language: 20.01.2025, 07.05.2025, 15.10.2025 (online)
English Language: 12.02.2025, 23.06.2025, 27.11.2025 (online)

More information:

In addition, the TUM Graduate School and the University Library offer further courses on this topic.

Another element of the doctoral project at the TUM is the active participation of doctoral candidates in the academic environment of the TUM.

These can for example be achived through:

  • attendance at the TUM or a public academic research institution recognized by the graduate center, or
  • teaching at the TUM (e.g. lectures, exercises, involvement in supervising internships and thesis work), or
  • participating in a research group at the TUM.

External doctoral candidates have to proof the active participation at TUM by a self-evaluation report to their supervisors and the Graduate Center of Life Sciences.

Form: Active Participation in the Academic Environment of the TUM

There are many possibilities of subject-specific and subject-related courses to supplement and deepen your independent academic work. For example, you can attend internal chair and interchair events, conferences, method seminars, lectures as well as summer and winter schools. Beside a wide range of offers at the Campus, the Graduate Center of Life Sciences provides subject-specific courses about different topics, too.
Dates and registration can be found on the DocGS portal.

At the end of your doctoral program you have to prove your participation in 6 semester hours (credits = SWS) in subject-specific and subject-related events. That means 63 hours in total during your whole doctorate.
To prove your participation please upload the appropriate confirmation in your DocGS account. Only the pure teaching time is credited.

If you have no confirmation for an event, your supervisor can confirm your participation.
Therefore use this document:

Form: Subject-specific Qualification

The compulsory points about the TAC-Meetings and the Feedback Session differ, depending on the date of your registration in the Doctoral Candidacy List of the TUM School of Life Sciences.

Doctoral candidates who have been registered in the Doctoral Candidacy List:
Until December 31st, 2019, you only need a mandatory feedback interview and the following forms:
Further information can be found in the Wiki of the Graduate Center of Life Sciences.
Form: Feedback Session
Form: Interim Report


As of January 01st, 2020, you will need at least two meetings of your Thesis Advisory Committee (TAC meeting).
Further information can be found in the Wiki of the Graduate Center of Life Sciences.
Form: Meeting Report for Thesis Advisory Committee
Form: Feedback - TAC Meeting 2

When choosing the Second Examiner or the Mentor respectively for the TAC, it is important that the chosen persons have a certain independence. In addition, it is necessary to make sure the Second Examiner meets the requirements of the School Council for examination committees.

Please upload these forms only after the 2nd TAC meeting in DocGS.

The discussion of the quality of your research within the international scientific community is an essential part of scientific working. Generally this happens by at least one accepted publication in a peer-reviewed international journal, or as a contribution (talk or poster) at an international conference with peer-review process based on an accepted substantial and peer-reviewable abstract.

The discussion of your doctoral project in the international scientific community has to be done minimum one time during your doctorate.

Form: Publicaton/Discussion in the Scientific Community

Doctoral candidates and supervisors confirm the doctoral relationship in DocGS every year in July. The automated procedure ensures that only ongoing doctoral projects are listed on the doctoral list.

The first supervisor bears the primary responsibility for the subject-specific supervision. Additionally, a mentor supports the doctoral candidate in several aspects of her or his doctoral project and specific life situations.

The mentor can give further academic support, but can also focus on advising on transferable skills or project, self and time management . Another topic can be life and career planning  as well as personal development. Mentors can be all persons with a proven track record of independent scientific work, in general as part of a doctorate.

As a member of Graduate Center of Life Sciences you have the possibility to register your mentor within 6 months after  starting your membership.

Procedure for a later announcement

  • At the beginning of your application, please fill in the field "Mentor" and "Email" with the place marker NN and NN@NN.de in DocGS.
  • If your mentor is set, download the PDF scan of your supervision agreement from your DocGS-account and let your mentor sign.
  • After this please use the option in your DocGS account: Request change of data regarding your doctoral project --> Request for Change.

Optional Qualification Programme

Beside the Subject-specific Qualification the TUM Graduate School offers you the possibility to develop your transferable skills and expand your interdisciplinary experience, too. Therefore you can choose a wide range of courses. The course program as well as the terms and conditions of participation you can find on the homepage of TUM Graduate School.

You can also strengthen your interdisciplinary and science-related skills at the Graduate Center of Life Sciences.
Dates and registration can be found on the DocGS portal.

In addition, other TUM institutions offer seminars on a wide range of topics, most of which can be used by all TUM members.

Form: Transferable Skills Qualification

Talks and poster presentations at national conferences, within research collaborations, retreats, etc. can also be listed in your TUM Graduate School certificate.

If you do not have an official confirmation, you can use our form to upload in DocGS.

Form: Scientific Presentation

Within the framework of the TUM GS membership, doctoral candidates have a number of possibilities to promote their personal international exchange. An overview and further explanations can be found in the Wiki of the Graduate Center of Life Sciences.

In addition, academic staff at TUM can use the Erasmus+ program to promote mobility for teaching purposes and further education.

Form: Certificate International Experience

If you take over courses at TUM, you can list them in the Transcript of Records of the TUM-GS:

Form: Teaching Experience

Offers and Services

For the proofreading of your texts, you can use the online program Grammarly.

Grammarly is an AI-based writing assistant that detects and corrects grammatical, spelling and punctuation mistakes and makes suggestions for clarity, syntax and writing style.

For log in use your TUM login data directly on the Grammarly website.

Information on this can be found in the general TUM Wiki under Grammarly.

In our "Schreibstüberl", doctoral candidates will find a quiet place for writing, researching, reading, calculating, etc.
If you are interested, please contact the Graduate Center of Life Sciences. You will receive a transponder key.

Equipment:

  • Large desks with comfortable office chairs
  • Monitors
  • Lockers
  • A cosy couch
  • Noise-cancelling headphones
  • 24/7 access to the room
  • Access to coffee and tea in the GC Pausenstüberl
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