18 April 2024 – An intensive, two-week long training course for PhD students of EMBO Young Investigators took place from 17 to 28 March. The course offered participants opportunities to strengthen personal and professional competencies critical to career success. Focus was placed on building skills in communicating science to different target audiences. In dedicated sessions, participants practiced writing abstracts, giving presentations, creating posters and drafting grant proposals. The interpersonal communication training, a one-day intensive course based on the curriculum of the EMBO Lab Leadership Course, dealt with resolving interpersonal conflicts and providing constructive feedback to colleagues.
Sreesa Sreedharan, course attendee and PhD student in the lab of EMBO Global Investigator Sunil Laxman investigates the response of yeast cells to different phosphate levels. She, like many other participants, is currently completing her final year of the PhD. For her, the ‘Night Science’ workshop, which focused on creative approaches to scientific questions, was particularly impactful. “This session changed my perspective of the scientific process. It was about how people come up with new ideas or new scientific questions. It was eye-opening. We have a new recipe on how to break down the process of scientific thinking,” she said.
For the course, the 40 participants travelled to the EMBL campus in Heidelberg from all over Europe and as far as India, Singapore, Taiwan and Chile for the first week of training. The second week of training took place online and covered scientific integrity, peer review of manuscripts and how to apply design principles when creating figures. Special sessions were dedicated to mental health and gender in academia. Numerous scientific talks and career talks provided insights into the breadth of career options in academic and non-academic environments after degree completion.
