How to become part of the IRTG3019?

The IRTG3019 aims to recruit highly motivated students, who have completed timely and excellently their higher education, and who are interested in pursuing basic, clinical and clinical translational research in an international environment and training programme. The PhD students who will be recruited should have a Master’s degree in Life or Natural Sciences, Applied Mathematics or Engineering. MDs that have completed their studies, have obtained a Dr. med or have a certified participation in a research lab for at least one year in the last three years and want to pursue with a PhD can also apply for the programme. At UZH, MD needs to enrol in either the Clinical Science or the MD-PhD program, latter being an entry point into any of the laboratory based PhD programs of the LSZGS after obtaining training in lab sciences The PhD track will award a PhD or Dr. rer. medic. title. For the MD track, medical students will be recruited to obtain the Dr. med. title.

 Announcement

For the recruitment of PhD students, we are going to leverage the advantages of the DIGS-ILS’s well-established and successful recruitment strategy. The IRTG3019– MEDIS programme is embedded in the DIGS-ILS at the TUD. The DIGS-ILS has proven that it can recruit high-motivated ambitious international PhD candidates. The DIGS-ILS runs two selections per year (spring and fall) within given deadlines via an online application system. At the DIGS-ILS applicants apply to the PhD program and not to a specific position, but candidates are asked to indicate in the application which are the groups they are interested in. In the DIGS-ILS webpage the application to the PhD program is advertised and not specific positions. However, on the webpage it is indicated which group leaders have currently open positions and give some short information about the project(s). To address excellent local Master students in the international Master’s programme “Regenerative Biology and Medicine”, an information event will be announced at the homepage of the programme. 

For the recruitment of MD students, we are going to profit from the Carus Promotionskolleg Dresden (CPKD) recruitment strategy. Every summer at the “Dies Academicus” event, which is announced at the TUD homepage, the CPKD invites PIs to present research project proposals to potential MD candidates. The event attracts numerous excellent local MD students who will be able to apply for the IRTG-MEDIS projects. In addition to the face-to-face promotion, CPKD uses its website and newsletter to announce the call for MD projects.

 Application and selection procedure

Dresden recruitment process- PhD students: Applications for the PhD programme are solely accepted via the DIGS-BB’s online application system. Applicants are requested to complete the online application form including details about their resume, education, scientific research experience as well as preferred research groups, motivation, and supporting documents. Moreover, two recommendation letters are needed to be provided directly by the referees. PIs from both Dresden and Zürich sites are involved in the student selection process.
Evaluation by Office: The experts in the PhD office conduct the first evaluation step and identify applications, which are qualified to be further evaluated by faculty. The evaluation by office is standardized through a scoring system, which focuses on eligibility (University & grades) and suitability (scientific focus, research experience and interest), in order to obtain comparative results that are independent of the individual evaluator.
Evaluation by Group Leaders (GLs): Applications that have passed the “Evaluation by Office” will be further reviewed by at least two recruiting faculty members from TUD. The tasks of the GLs are (i) ranking the candidates and (ii) recommending whom to invite for admission committee interviews.
Video Interview: Applications passing the first assessment steps will be invited for interviews with an Admission Committee via a video conference. This is composed by a minimum of 3 recruiting GLs. Candidates will present a brief chalk talk of a research project (generally their Master thesis), which will be followed by a Q&A session. Afterwards, the IRTG-MEDIS PIs receive online access to the application documents and the evaluation results and decide whom to invite to Dresden for the face-to-face selection week.
Interview Week in Dresden: Candidates who have passed the Admission Committee interviews and are shortlisted by participating faculty will be invited to Dresden to meet group leaders and learn about research projects. The selection week will be an intensive and competitive week for candidates and will include a poster session where the candidates present a poster of their previous research, and interviews with individual group leaders, in which the IRTG-MEDIS group leaders will introduce their research projects and the joint research training to the candidates. The UZH/ETH group leaders will be invited to attend the interviews in Dresden or via video conference and participate in the final selection of the candidates. Admission is granted based on the results of the Admission Committee and the group leader interviews by the end of the interview week. 
IRTG-MEDIS only offers PhD positions to those candidates who pass the DIGS-ILS/DIPP selection. 
The selection mechanism guarantees the professional and transparent evaluation of the 
applicants. In addition, the potential doctoral researchers can make a considerate and committed decision to start the training programme after getting to know the PIs and the research environment in Dresden.

Dresden recruitment process- MD students : Applicants for the MD programme are demanded to hand in a motivation letter to the CPKD together with their resume and the certificate copy of the first section of the state examination. In the letter, they need to state what motivates them to put on hold their medical studies for one year to complete their doctoral research. Candidates are selected competitively in a two-stage procedure. In the first stage, suitable candidates are selected on the basis of the submitted application documents, followed by the second stage of candidate selection. For this purpose, the candidates present a scientific article and the favoured doctoral thesis topic to the selection committee. On the basis of the presentation, the Board of CPKD decides which candidates will be accepted as fellows.

Zurich recruitment process- PhD students: The recruitment process of the PhD students in Zurich is very similar to the Dresden recruitment 
process. Applications will be solely accepted via the Life Science Zurich Graduate School 
(LSZGS) online platform. A selection committee consisting of officers assessing the official 
requirements as well as of experienced scientists (GLs) will invite the highest scored candidates to be interviewed online by the admission committee of the individual programmes. Students who pass the admission interview may join one of the 17 PhD programmes within the LSZGS and can then have (still mostly virtual) lab visits with the PIs who offer a PhD position. The IRTG-MEDIS group leaders of Zurich are all part of the LSZGS and thus they will be actively involved in candidate selection during these online lab visits. Moreover, the Dresden group leaders will be invited to attend the lab visits and participate in the final selection of the candidates. If desired an onsite interview can be arranged before making a final decision for or against offering the PhD position.