Program Overview

GrACe | Graduate and Academic Career Development Centre

The GrACe | Graduate and Academic Career Development Centre is a platform that supports doctoral researchers in their academic and professional development.

PhD PeerCircle

The PhD PeerCircle is a networking and peer counseling program for doctoral candidates. The program aims to build an interdisciplinary network that motivates, relieves, and helps to tackle specific challenges together.

Target Group

The target group for the PhD PeerCircle are doctoral researchers who are interested in an exchange across faculty boundaries.

Contents

The PhD PeerCircle focuses on peer-to-peer exchange and structured reflection on the challenges of day-to-day doctoral work. The program is divided into three phases:

• Starting Your PhD - Orientation in the early doctoral phase: This phase is for doctoral researchers who are relatively at the beginning and are dealing with topics such as project and time management, structuring, supervisory relationships, literature work, or initial methodological decisions.
• Shaping Your PhD - Positioning in the middle doctoral phase: This phase is for doctoral researchers who are in the middle of the research process, are dealing with methodological or organizational issues, and at the same time are beginning to look at their own appointment prospects (within and outside academia) and strategies.
• Getting Your PhD Done - Transition in the late doctoral phase: This phase is for doctoral researchers in the final phase who are looking at topics such as completion, defense, publication, and the transition to the postdoc phase or other career prospects.

Dates

The permanent groups will meet regularly from December 2025/January 2026 in the Graduate and Academic Career Development Centre (GrACe). The exchange can take place in German, English, or bilingually. All interested parties must first register, and the language arrangements will be clarified together.

Graduate Centre

The Graduate Centre offers various services and programs for doctoral researchers, including:

• Counselling
• Networking
• PhD-PeerCircle
• Types of doctorates
• Promotionsbetreuung
• Counselling
• Current news and announcements
• Planning a doctorate
• First steps into the doctoral phase
• Funding for PhD studies
• After the doctorate

Advanced Researchers

The GrACe | Graduate and Academic Career Development Centre also supports advanced researchers through various programs and services, including:

• Federal-States Programme for the Promotion of Young Researchers (WISNA)
• Bielefeld Young Researchers Fund
• Leadership Collaboration
• Movement
• Onboarding
• PAW
• PEP für Forschende und Lehrende
• Centre for Professors
• Team
• Wissenschaftlicher Beirat des GrACe