Course From PhD to PostDoc

ECTS: 2

Course leader: Constance Kampf

Language: English

Graduate school: Faculty of Health

Course fee: 2,400.00 DKK

Status: Course is finished

Semester: Spring 2023

Application deadline: 17/05/2023

Cancellation deadline: 17/05/2023

Course type: Classroom teaching

Start date: 31/05/2023

Administrator: Anne Fabricius

Please note:

Criteria for participation: Health PhD students enrolled for at least 6 months.

All applicants will be placed on waiting list when applying for the course.

The course A1003/01 From PhD to PostDoc is being offered by the Graduate School of Health, Aarhus University, as a 4 day course May 31, June 1 and June 20, June 21, spring 2023.

Criteria for participation: Health PhD student enrolled for at least 6 months 

Aim: To focus on knowledge that is critical for success in an academic career.  With a point of departure in the PhD students’ present and future career goals, this course explores key building blocks of successful academic careers.  These building blocks for successful academic careers include networking, interdisciplinarity and understanding grant based funding opportunities.  These building blocks are used to create a career canvas that connects PhD work to the preparation needed for successful PostDoc experiences.  The purpose of the career canvas is to Iay the ground work for recognizing opportunities and acting on them.  This course is applicable for PhD students who want to become either part-time researchers and clinicians or full-time researchers.

Learning outcomes: At the end of the course, the participants will be able to draft a career canvas in order to lay the groundwork for their future academic career as a researcher in Health.  Key skills in focus include building international research networks, laying groundwork for research opportunities, and understanding how funding works in the Health Sciences. 

Workload: The full workload of the course is expected to be 50 hours.

Content: Day 1 covers academic networking, with a focus on how the stay abroad can enhance your international research network.  Activities focus on planning your stay abroad to enhance your networking opportunities.  Day 2 covers recognizing and building opportunities for a future in academia.  Activities focus on building a future facing CV and  preparing an interview guide for the interview that you schedule between June 2-June 19.  Day 3 covers grant opportunities and other themes from the interviews.  Activities focus on sharing interview findings and discussing patterns among the different interview results, as well as engaging with a panel of grant winners to develop a deeper understanding of funding as it relates to preparation and opportunities.  Day 4 includes a speaker who has successfully navigated from PhD to PostDoc to Assistant Professor, and focuses on the activity of bringing the results from the previous days together into a Career Canvas the encompasses your PhD project and your plans for transitioning to a PostDoc. 

Assignment Descriptions: This course has pre- and post- assignments.  The pre-assignments 1 & 2 will be most successful if you begin them shortly after you apply for the course. 

Pre-assignments include: 1) A description of the department or lab for your stay abroad experience, and bringing weblinks to their information for Day 1; together with a brief stay abroad description describing where you are in the stay abroad process (i.e. pre or post stay abroad), what you have done and what you expect to do in the future for your stay abroad or post-stay abroad networking; 2) Scheduling an interview with the person who has the job you would like in five years for an hour between June 2 and June 19th ; and 3) 1 page CV + ½ page introduction to yourself, your PhD, your future career goals, and your motivations.

Post-assignments include: 1) a forward-looking CV, with future career activities highlighted in Blue; 2) a career canvas (based on bringing together your work throughout the course); and 3) a 1-2 page reflection on which aspects of the course will affect your approach to building your academic career, and why. 

Instructors: Constance E. Kampf, Ph.D., Specialkonsulent Health Ph.D. Administration

Venue: Aarhus University, Aarhus

Participation in the course is without cost for:

  • PhD students, Health from Aarhus University

Course dates:

  • 31 May 2023 09:00 - 17:00
  • 01 June 2023 09:00 - 17:00
  • 20 June 2023 09:00 - 17:00
  • 21 June 2023 09:00 - 17:00