Today, researchers need not only expertise, but a toolkit of soft and interdisciplinary skills for success. Often, research questions cross disciplinary boundaries, audience-oriented communication decides upon success or failure, and entrepreneurial thinking is required to tackle common obstacles. The MDSI qualification program endows its participants with the skills to tackle these challenges and prepares them for the next stage of their career.
In addition to training, the program’s central focus is on networking and forging interdisciplinary connections. Additionally, the modules offer opportunities to gain valuable skills. After completing the program, the participants are prepared to successfully pursue a career in or outside of academia.
The qualification program imbues the participants with valuable scientific, technical and communication skills, offers opportunity to connect with other doctoral researchers, and provides insight into related areas of research. With these skills and competences, young researchers can tackle interdisciplinary challenges and collaborations, and, depending on the focus module, draw from in-depth knowledge related to research activities, switch to an entrepreneurial mindset, or communicate their findings to varying audiences.
The program consists of a mixture of mandatory and optional modules. While the mandatory modules ensure participants acquire skills and provide a variety of opportunities to build networks, the optional modules provide opportunities to deepen or apply these skills. The modules may be completed in any order.
All doctoral researchers who complete six of the seven mandatory activities including the four mandatory activities from the MDSI module plus at least two mandatory activities from the focus modules will receive the MDSI-Certificate for Doctoral Researchers.
In addition to the mandatory elements of the qualification program, any number of other activities may be elected.
Doctoral researchers not aspiring to receive the MDSI-Certificate may participate in any number of the mandatory or optional activities.
The activities can be registered in TUM Graduate School’s DocGS.
Registration and further Information
If you are interested in earning the MDSI Doctoral Certificate or taking part in individual modules, please do not hesitate to contact us. You can reach us by email at info(at)mdsi.tum.de.
If you are already participating, you can find more information about the modules and requirements on our internal wiki-pages.