IMPRS retreat 2025

Mandatory event

1.  Why?

Our IMPRS retreat aims to

1. Foster community building: Strengthen relationships among our PhD candidates, postdocs, group leaders and professors from our partner institutes, the Friedrich Schiller University Jena and the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry. Our retreat contributes significantly to a team spirit and to the development of personal career networks through scientific discussions after presentations of PhD researchers and during poster sessions, as well as via informal exchange during the breaks and discussion rounds.
2. Encourage collaboration: Provide opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration and idea exchange.
3. Facilitate research progress: Allow PhD candidates to present their research, receive feedback, and refine their projects.
4. Strategic planning: Discuss the program's goals, challenges, and future directions.

2.  Who?

All PhD candidates should join. All postdocs, group leaders and professors involved in the research, teaching and supervision are also strongly encouraged to participate.

3.  What?

Here you can find the preliminary agenda.

3.1  introduction of postdoc, group leaders and professors

All participating postdocs, group leaders and professors will briefly introduce themselves (max. 3 minutes per person, without slides/presentation). This provides a quick snapshot of the background, expertise, and role within the IMPRS and helps to connect with scientists who have relevant expertise or interests. To encourage further interaction and discussion the topic for the walk and talk will be introduced.

3.2 presentations of the PhD candidates

Every PhD researcher should present his/her work in a 3-minute talk and a poster. Please use the IMPRS templates.

3-minute talks

Creating a compelling 3-minute presentation involves careful planning and concise delivery. Please consider the following steps to create an effective and memorable talk.

1. Define your purpose: clearly understand the goal of your presentation. What do you want your audience to learn or do?

2. Know your audience: Tailor your content to the interests and level of understanding of your audience which is a very broad variety of different backgrounds (chemists, microbiologists, physicists, mathematiciens, etc.).

3. Structure your presentation:

• Introduction (30 seconds): Start with a hook to grab attention. Introduce your topic and state the purpose.
• Body (2 minutes): Present 2-3 key points. Use clear, concise language and support each point with evidence or examples.
• Conclusion (30 seconds): Summarize the main points and end with a strong closing statement or call to action.

4. Practice delivery and time management:

• Keep track of time to ensure you cover all points without rushing or exceeding the limit. Rehearse multiple times to ensure smooth delivery. Focus on pacing, clarity, and engaging body language.

Discuss with your advisor(s) in advance.

Poster sessions

Every doctoral researcher should bring a poster to the retreat. Show interesting aspects of your work that do not fit into the 3-minute talk. This could be

• details about your project background/setup
• (further) results
• questions you have, etc.

You can also bring a recent existing poster.

3.3 walk and talk

We would like to encourage engaging discussions between early career and established/senior researchers by discussing non-scientific topics. Therefore all professors, group leaders and postdocs are asked to choose a topic of interest such as publishing from an editor’s perspective, women in science, dual career, cultural diversity, mental health awareness, management. PhD researchers can join the informal discussion in small groups according to their interests.

3.4 Horizontal session

The parallel session will give you time to discuss important issues among your peers such as identifying common challenges and building a collaborative culture.

PhD researchers
The first horizontal discussion will be held in groups according to the stage of the PhD project / cohort (early stage, late stage, etc.) before the retreat. The horizontal discussion on the second day will be among all PhD researchers. Details will be provided.
Please actively contribute to both sessions with topics of interest to you and contact your PhD representatives if you have any questions.

Postdocs, group leaders and professors
The goals, challenges, and future directions of the IMPRS will be discussed. Feel free to submit topics of your interest.

4. Where?

Place: Youth Hostel Heldrungen

Travel options
a) Bus transfer from the bus terminal Jena to Heldrungen on Tuesday at 9:00 am (sharp!) and back on Wednesday afternoon. Registration required! or
b) Self-organized travel by bike, train or car.

Accommodation
Shared rooms will be offered free of charge as we will be staying overnight.

Vegetarian food
... will be provided.

Travel request/application
For registered participants who have a contract with MPI-BGC, we will make a group business trip request.