Responsibility from the outset

Why FAU is an excellent location for young researchers, and what advice FAU President Hornegger has for them

The President’s office in the Schloss in Erlangen. Joachim Hornegger has just come out of a marathon of back to back meetings. An interview about early career researchers and new talent is quite relaxing for him. That’s not really surprising – it is his favorite topic, after all.

“We want FAU to gain the reputation of being the perfect place for early career researchers.” 

FAU-President Prof. Dr. Joachim Hornegger

Prof. Hornegger, FAU has set itself the goal of becoming one of the most attractive universities for early career researchers. What are you doing to reach your goal?

Hornegger: A lot! We encourage young talents from an early stage, while they are still students. FAU firmly believes in research-oriented teaching. That means that we introduce students to the concept of research questions and encourage them to develop their own questions during their Bachelor’s degree already, or at the very latest once they start their Master’s. From an early stage, they experience the passion that drives researchers, and have opportunities to make their first contacts with other academics and establish a network, making the decision to commit to a doctoral degree less daunting when the time comes.

If they do decide to do a doctoral degree, they have more opportunities at FAU than elsewhere. We are the university with the most DFG-funded research training groups in the whole of Germany. We have also been able to establish a number of doctoral degree programs using funding from the Free State of Bavaria. We are one of three teaching institutions of the Max Planck School of Photonics. And thanks to our unique innovation ecosystem here in the region we have innumerable doctoral collaborations with partners from industry and society, where talented researchers can complete a doctoral degree on the job, if that is what appeals to them.

After a doctoral degree, we invest in supporting our postdoctoral researchers with our FAUnext program. The program brings together young researchers from different disciplines and encourages them to share experiences with each other, for example about their career plans and paths. In addition, participants also receive personal career coaching sessions and training courses from excellent specialists in all the different areas you have to master if you want to be a successful early career researcher – from the acquisition of third-party funding to innovative teaching to developing your own style of leadership. At FAU they have the opportunity to assume responsibility from an early stage, for example as the head of a junior research group.

We want FAU to gain the reputation of being the perfect place for early career researchers who are looking for a great location with a strong environment and good connections to academia, industry and politics.

Excellent infrastructure for early career researchers is no guarantee of success on its own, however. Which three pieces of advice would you pass on to young people based on your own experience?

First of all: Always keep an eye on your peer group. What are the others up to, what stage are they at? That is particularly the case for publications. The aim should be to publish first-class publications. Secondly: Early career researchers must take care to include interesting aspects in their CV. For example, I still think that spending time at an international university is extremely important, and I would recommend everyone to spend some time abroad. My third recommendation is to get involved in teaching. Anyone who is aiming for a career in academia needs to be good at more than just research: Holding good lectures and sparking enthusiasm for the topic allows you to attract very good students. These then help increase the performance of your own working group, and the quality of your publications. It is a win-win situation.

What is the point of young people becoming involved in science communication or administration of academic affairs? Many people are of the opinion that it is not worthwhile.

I don’t agree. Outreach creates visibility, for the university and for the researcher’s own work. Anyone who wants to enter academia today would benefit from learning as early on as possible to explain their own research to the general public. That also helps for funding applications. Believe me: Reviewers are just human too. As for the administration of academic affairs: Of course, you have to make sure that you have enough time left for research and teaching. But participating in the Faculty Council or an appointment committee can give you valuable insights into the mechanisms of a university and which criteria are taken into consideration when making important decisions. And having a better understanding of this is no bad thing, for example when it comes to your own appointment procedure. Experience like this is also extremely advantageous if you want to move from academia to industry, or to a profession calling for management and project-related skills. It also helps you build up a network within the university, which can be beneficial for future career plans.

Nowadays, many early career researchers become discouraged when they see how strong the competition is and how few positions are available in the system, for example professorships.

I understand. And everyone involved in academia should always have a plan B. We provide our young people with such a good education, they will have opportunities wherever they choose to go. However, it is true that anyone striving after a career in research will have to perform at an extremely high level. In my opinion, anyone who is mobile and is very good at what they do will have excellent prospects. And by “very good” I mean in accordance with very clearly defined criteria for quality. That may be excellent performance regarding publications – publications in good academic journals that are cited regularly remain hard currency in the academic world. Another important criterion is acquiring third-party funding or awards from an early stage. For example, we do our very best to offer early career researchers who gain an ERC Grant, one of the most important research awards in Europe, a long-term perspective at FAU. We don’t always manage, but it is at the very top of our list of priorities.

Author: Blandina Mangelkramer

This article is part of the FAU magazine

Innovation, diversity and passion: Those are the three guiding principles of our FAU, as stated in our mission statement. At FAU, we live these guiding principles every day in all that we do – in research, in teaching and when it comes to sharing the knowledge created at our university with society.

This, the second issue of our FAU magazine, underlines all of the above: It shows researchers who tirelessly keep pushing the boundaries of what has been believed to be possible. It introduces students who work together to achieve outstanding results for their FAU, talks about teaching staff who pass on their knowledge with infectious enthusiasm and creativity. And it reports back on members of staff with foresight and a talent for getting to the crux of the matter who are dedicated to improving the (research) infrastructure at FAU as well as people in key positions who are there for their university and are committed to its research location.