The GSfBS wishes to promote talented women and offers a variety of programme elements to support them in reaching their career aims, including special measures for women with young children.

Practical help
Information
Upon arrival students will be provided with a folder containing a comprehensive overview of the available university programmes for women in the biomedical sciences (courses, networks, publications, etc.).

Help for students with children
Students of the Graduate School have access to a daycare facility located next to the Biosciences campus that takes children from 3 to 6 years during normal working hours. Additional late hour child-care can be provided on a regular basis or on demand should the occasion arise. The graduate school will contribute towards the additional child-care costs incurred as a result of this service. Temporary child-care may be arranged during Graduate School retreats, in cases of children falling ill or other special situations. Students of the Graduate School will also have access to a day care center for children from the age of four months which will soon be opened at the University.

Financial aid
The fellowships of female GSfBS students with children are supplemented by 200 € per month for each child. During the period while pregnant women are legally prohibited from working in the lab, funds will be made available to hire student helpers to carry out some of the experimental work under the instruction of the pregnant student, so that the experimental programme does not have to come to a standstill.

Mentoring
Graduate School students may enroll in the University’s Cornelia Harte Mentoring programme, which will give them the opportunity to meet women in leading positions from academia, industry or administration. A matching procedure taking into account the students’ special interests and abilities ensures the establishment of a good relationship between mentor and mentee. The mentor may suggest short-term and long-term career steps to the mentee and invite the mentee to take advantage of her network.
Female graduate students who do not wish to participate in a structured mentoring programme will nevertheless be encouraged to choose an additional female mentor who is not part of their thesis committee. Female professors and junior research group leaders are available for this role.

Preparation for further career steps
The step from completing a doctoral thesis to joining a top-ranking international research lab for postdoctoral work requires courage, and the next step, of succeeding as a postdoctoral fellow in the new lab, requires more assertiveness than may have been necessary as a graduate student.
While scientific excellence is a prerequisite for both steps, it is not sufficient, and those women who are not naturally assertive may need to be helped with the first and prepared for the second step. The graduate school provides funds for students to attend career workshops and special training offered by organizations specialised in careers of women in science, such as the Female Career Center (FCC) of the University of Cologne, or external organizations such as CEWS and ELSO.

Special course offer:

Career advancement for female doctoral students, a retreat in Vienna, trainer Dr. Ruth Willmott.

Open calls are sent by email to registered GSfBS students, participation is limited to students who fulfil the GSfBS core programme requirements.
example flyer from 2010

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