Helmholtz Guidelines

Through their research, postdocs in the Helmholtz Association make significant contributions to solving the grand challenges facing science, society, and the economy. Their achievements are central to the scientific success of the Helmholtz Association. The Guidelines for the Postdoc Phase are based on the mission of the Helmholtz Association and were put together jointly by the Helmholtz centers to outline common quality standards. The Helmholtz centers share the understanding that the period after receiving a doctoral degree is key to a researcher's career development.

Goals:

• Strengthen independent scientific profile
• Publications, patents, acquiring third party funding, conferences, teaching, supervision and leadership
• Identify possible career paths within or outside academia and prepare or implement them
• Awareness of further training and career advice services

Review meetings with Supervisor/Mentor:

• Annual status meetings (before the end of the probationary period, annually thereafter)
• In-depth "4 years" Career Development Meeting (setting main career goals and discuss CDP "to-dos" the latest in the 4th year after PhD)
• Final meeting (6 months before the end of the employment contract)

Responsibilities:

• In agreement with principal investigator, choosing and developing research topic, taking into account career opportunities within and outside academia.
• Plan own career, reflect on motivation, professional goals and the requisite qualifications. Independently obtaining feedback from the principal investigator and mentors within and outside academia.
• Assuming ethical responsibility and following and conveying the principles of good scientific practice.
• Developing an individual scientific profile, e.g. through publications, conference contributions and networking at the Helmholtz center and within the scientific community as well as actively seeking to acquire third party funding and awards.

Doctoral researchers play a central role within the group of young researchers. They make significant contributions to the research performance of the Helmholtz Association and qualify as the leading scientists and supervisors of tomorrow. The Helmholtz centers actively encourage the formation of doctoral researcher representation groups such as the Helmholtz Juniors and other networking activities among doctoral researchers. With the Doctoral Guidelines, the Helmholtz centers agree on common standards for carrying out doctoral research projects within the Helmholtz Association.

Goals:

• Conduction of autonomous research
• Overview of research field
• Publications
• Network
• Doctorate
• Informed decision about next career step within academia or beyond

Conversations:

• Regular feedback from supervisor
• Thesis advisory committee to agree and adjust the work plan including planned career development and qualification measures (within first 6 months, thereafter annually)
• Career development planning meeting (CDP) with supervisor (end of the 2nd year of doctorate)

Responsibilities:

• Assuming ethical responsibility, complying with the principles of good scientific practice. Information about rights and duties, relevant doctoral regulations, enrolment.
• To prepare, update and regularly discuss (with the supervisor and doctoral committee) the doctoral thesis work plan in agreement with the supervisor.
• Selection of the members of the thesis advisory committee and organization of regular meetings. This includes informing about any potential difficulties, delays, or conflict situations at an early stage and taking an active role in overcoming these.
• Planning and advancing the own career development. Preparation and creation of a Career Development Plan (CDP) and discuss and review together with supervisor and the thesis advisory committee at regular intervals. Making use of appropriate career development resources and advisory services.

The point of departure of the Helmholtz Guideline on Diversity and Inclusion is the simple principle that people are diverse.

Diversity is valuable and worthy of protection!

Helmholtz conducts top-level research of a global caliber and is dedicated to solving major issues and challenges facing society. The diversity that employees bring to the organization is a key factor for the success of this innovative research because diversity fosters maximum creativity and allows incorporating a wide range of perspectives on the same issues - scientific, technical, administrative, and strategic.

Organizational culture influences diversity and inclusion!

An organization's culture consists of both its official structures and processes as well as informal, unwritten rules. In particular, an organizational culture includes the following:

• Shared attitudes (values, ways of doing things, etc.)
• The behavior of the people in the organization (e.g., leadership and communication)
• The basic assumptions shared by the people in the organization (e.g., ways of assessing certain situations)
• The general conditions an organization creates to achieve its goals (e.g., processes and structures as well as spatial conditions)
• A shared vision ("Where do we want to go?")

Diversity and inclusion - aims for Helmholtz and each of the Helmholtz centers

• All Helmholtz centers and the Helmholtz Head Office are to develop and put into practice a shared understanding of inclusion, and an organizational culture that is sensitive to diversity.
• The minimum requirement for this shared understanding is, that all Helmholtz centers act in a legally compliant way (diversity compliance) with respect to the diversity aspects laid down in Germany's federal constitution (Basic Law) and the General Equal Treatment Act (Allgemeines Gleichbehandlungsgesetz, AGG). Not only official structures, but also unwritten rules that violate these statutory provisions are unacceptable.
• The centers and Head Office will support each other and exchange information regularly in order to implement and continually encourage diversity and inclusion at the centers and to establish a culture that is sensitive to diversity. A culture that is sensitive to diversity extends far beyond simple compliance and must be based on a deeply rooted, internal attitude shared by leadership and employees that creates an atmosphere of mutually respectful, interactions and trust.
• The executive level bears responsibility for the topics of diversity and inclusion at all Helmholtz centers.