Postdoc Networking and Career Development Day

On September 29, 2023, the Vienna CogSciHub and Jozsef Arato hosted a Networking and Career Development Day for Postdoctoral Researchers. Attendees included about 20 postdoctoral researchers from the University of Vienna, the Central European University (CEU), the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, and the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien).

The day started bright and early with an intense round of scientific flash talks, giving people the chance to get to know each other and their scientific backgrounds. The rest of the day was spent with talks (full schedule below) giving insights into various aspects relevant to postdoc career development in focused sessions peppered with questions from the audience. Michael Hofer (Qualitätssicherung, Uni Vienna) spoke on the evaluation of candidates for tenure track positions. Eva Wysocki (FWF) gave an overview of the FWF funding programs most relevant for early career researchers,  including the ESPRIT grant, the Erwin Schrödinger fellowship and the standalone projects. The afternoon closed with remarks by Marco Masia (Uni Vienna) on the entrepreneurship programmes of the University of Vienna and with an account by Christian Valuch (Kathrein Privatbank AG) of his transition from a postdoc position to data management in banking. Sadly, the last scheduled talk by Patrick Mineault had to be cancelled at short notice.

Overall, the day was characterized by high energy and curiosity, with an openness to new perspectives, and it ended with a wine tasting where new and old friends alike could talk, network, and exchange ideas.

Schedule

09:00-10:30: Introduction - scientific flash talks

10:30-11:00: Coffee break

11:00-12:00: Evaluation of academic candidates (Michael Hofer, Uni Wien Qualitätssicherung)

12:00-13:00: Grants for PostDocs (Eva Wysocki, FWF)

13:00-14:00: Lunch (Kolingasse Mensa)

14:00-15:00: Entrepreneurship (Marco Masia, Uni Wien)

15:00-16:00: Academia to industry (Christian Valuch, Kathrein Privatbank)

16:00-17:00: Academia to industry and back to academia (Patrick Mineault, Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute, hybrid) Patrick Mineault's talk was cancelled due to illness.