Career Paths after the Doctorate

The concept builds on existing career development services and creates a common framework for different career goals. It covers academic career tracks as well as prospects outside the universities. Binding standards are intended to ensure greater transparency and predictability and to provide better guidance and support. In order to enable the best possible research and scientific innovation, the concept also provides for elements such as periods spent abroad and entry from outside, particularly from abroad, at all career levels.

Six Paths, Different Prospects

The concept distinguishes six career paths. Three of them are structurally independent and enable early academic autonomy: the Junior Professorship with or without Tenure Track as well as working as an ECR Research Group Leader/Individual Research Scholar with a research group of one’s own. In these paths, all researchers have their own budget and staff responsibility, hold the right to supervise doctorates and develop an independent research and teaching profile. However, Research Group Leaders and Individual Scholars may only supervise doctoral candidates in projects funded by external grants that they have secured themselves. In the case of a Junior Professorship with Tenure Track, the career goal is a full professorship at TU Dortmund University or Ruhr University Bochum. For the two other paths, professorships at other universities or academic positions outside the university are also an option.

Three further paths are structurally more integrated into existing organizational structures, such as professorships. They offer academic development opportunities without an own budget and own staff responsibility. Researchers make independent academic contributions and can likewise supervise doctorates within third-party funded projects they have acquired themselves. Lecturers concentrate on teaching, degree program development and teaching innovation. Science Managers take on science-supporting and steering tasks in administration, research funding and university development. For Science Managers, a trainee program of up to six months is envisaged at the beginning of their work.

The six paths are not conceived as rigid career tracks. Switching between the development paths, entering at a later point or different time frames for the individual career levels are possible in principle. In the future, both universities are to have a minimum number of researchers participating in each of the three structurally independent paths.

Support along the Career Path

Regardless of the career path chosen, Early Career Researchers receive support through mentoring, coaching and advice. Regular development reviews with qualification agreements are just as much a part of individual career planning as structured interim and final evaluations based on transparent criteria. Depending on the career path, the evaluation takes into account research achievements, the acquisition of third-party funding, publication activity and achievements in teaching and transfer, among other things.

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