Structured Doctoral Programs at JGU

Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) offers numerous possibilities to obtain a doctoral degree within the framework of comprehensive structured programs supplementing the traditional individual doctorate.

ATLAS is an international, graduate program with a strong focus on translational medicine. ATLAS covers immunotherapy, computational biology and infectious diseases.

Graduate schools and centers

Graduate schools and centers are university institutions which bring together under the same organizational roof different structures and offers to promote young researchers, i.e. individual research training groups or doctoral programs. As to their subjects, the schools and centers cover several fields of knowledge and thus offer their doctoral students an inspiring research environment. Moreover, they have comprehensive qualification and supervision concepts.

The following graduate schools and graduate centers are currently established at JGU:

DFG Research Training Groups (RTG)

The German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft - DFG) is one of the most important research funding organisations in Germany. It has made a significant contribution to establishing Research Training Groups (RTGs) as a permanent fixture in the German research and academic landscape and thus embedding doctoral projects in existing research and supervision structures.

Research Training Groups are officially coordinated groups of doctoral candidates whose dissertation projects fall within a given, preferably interdisciplinary, thematic framework. In addition, they offer an attractive supervision concept and a structured qualification program that also goes beyond scientific work. The Research Training Groups are supported by designated university faculty members.

RTGs are funded for a maximum of nine years. The individual funding period for doctoral candidates in a RTG is usually three years. As a result, places continuously become available. Applications are submitted directly to the RTGs themselves. Information about current vacancies can be obtained from the RTG. The department of Research and Technology transfer informs about current Research Training Groups at JGU.

International postgraduate research groups and programs

Cross-border postgraduate research groups and programs enable doctoral candidates at an early stage in their academic careers to get to know different research cultures and in particular contribute substantially to building international networks.

JGU-funded Research Training Groups in the Humanities and Social Sciences

The postgraduate research training groups in the humanities and social sciences (“mini-graduate schools”) funded internally by JGU aim at creating sustainable structures for the promotion of young researchers. For this purpose, existing structures have to be profiled effectively and promising approaches for the future have to be identified. Postgraduate research groups who work within a common field of research are supported. Currently, there are six mini-graduate schools at JGU within different fields of research.