CITEC's young researchers are invited to develop their individual professional profiles promoted by the comprehensive personal development program, which is coordinated by the Personnel development services for researchers and teachers (PEP). Central service units of Bielefeld University provide their respective expertise related to academic teaching and writing, leadership and overall career development and thereby contribute to a broad spectrum of qualification measures:

Qualification in Higher Education Teaching and Writing

A systematic deepening of the own competences in academic teaching is supported by the Center for Teaching and Learning. The Bielefeld Certificate for Teaching in Higher Education awards the successful practice and completion of individual trainings in didactic methods and the systematic organisation and development of the own teaching portfolio. An other elementary skill for researchers is a profound writing competence. The Writing Centre supports various scientific writing activities and offers systematic trainings.

Active Development of Competences and Career Paths

For developing the individual competences in the field of leadership, various institutions offer consultation, individual coaching, supervision and trainings, collaborating with consultants from within and outside the university. The Career Service offers a bunch of measures and events in the sphere of profiling careers. The Individual Career Portfolio (ICP) supports reflection and strategic planning of the indvidual career path, Job Shadowing allows direct insights and one day of practice on the job. The Family Service helps to achieve a work-life balance. PunktUm offers free german language courses for international young researchers. Other foreign languages can be learnt and certified at the Language Centre. The International Office supports the planning process and acquisition of funding for research stays abroad. Female international and german PhD candidates can apply for participation in the Mentoring Programm Movement.

Assinstance in Funding Applications and Transfer Tasks

The Department for Research Administration and Technology Transfer (FFT) gives information and advice on funding possibilities, and knowledge and technology transfer. Further, assistance in applications and support on inventions, patents and intellectual property rights and industry cooperations are provided, as well as training for company start-ups. Belonging to this department, the Service Center for Young Researchers bundles information and guidelines about doing a doctorate in Bielefeld and specifically offers Peer Coaching for reseach funding.

The Graduate School completed this collection from 2008-2018 by addressing specific issues that appear in the interdisciplinary research context of CITEC with it’s tailored transferable skills training workshops.