Graduate schools
Graduate schools are intended to interlink and improve the advancement of next-generation scientists and research profiles. Highly-qualified postgraduate students are trained here in a superb research environment. Graduate schools cover a broad spectrum in their fields of science, and are based on innovative questioning capabilities and headed by leading scientists. This should enable them to offer ideal conditions for doctoral studies, encourage the students to identify with their respective locations, and contribute overall toward creating internationally competitive science locations. During the Excellence Initiative, 39 graduate schools were selected to receive an average of five million euros over a period of five years.
"Excellent fundamental research – the physics of today for tomorrow" - Graduate School of Fundamental Physics (since 2007)
The Faculty of Physics and Astronomy at Ruprecht Karls University in Heidelberg, together with the Max Planck Institutes of Astronomy and Nuclear Physics, have founded a graduate academy of fundamental research. The most important goal of this superlative graduate school is the interdisciplinary education of its doctorate students. The utilisation and disclosure of the common frameworks of astrophysics, cosmology, particle physics and complex quantum physics are the core success factor. The aim is to train a new generation of interdisciplinarily qualified physicists capable of collaborating where apparently incongruous specialised fields come together.
"Promotion par excellence of young scientists" - The Hartmut Hoffmann-Berling International Graduate School of Molecular and Cellular Biology (HBIGS) (since 2007)
Renowned scientists from the University of Heidelberg and the research centres at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, the Max Planck Institute of Medical Research and the German Cancer Research Centre have come together at the Hartmut Hoffmann-Berling International Graduate School of Molecular and Cellular Biology (HBIGS). The graduate school's objective is to broaden the training of the postgraduate students by means of additional interdisciplinary teaching and care services. In doing so, the HBIGS is keeping in line with the rapid developments in the life sciences, which motivate young people in particular to take an active part in investigating biological processes.
"Economy and society in focus" - Graduate School of Economic and Social Sciences (GESS) (since 2006)
The Graduate School of Economic and Social Sciences (GESS) offers postgraduate candidates interdisciplinary training in empiric and quantitative methods and their use in the economic and social sciences. This makes the GESS the first institution in the country to offer a joint postgraduate course for economists and social scientists. Its goal is to train next-generation academics according to the highest international standards. To achieve this, it offers a structured postgraduate education in empiric and quantitative methods and their application in business administration, applied economics and the social sciences. The internationally recruited up-and-coming scientists are trained in a unique research and education-oriented environment to become first-rate scientists.
"Scientific calculation – setting off for new shores" - Graduate School of Mathematical and Computational Methods for the Sciences (IWR) (since 2007)
The IWR pursues the generically interdisciplinary approach of scientific calculation, regarded as the third pillar alongside experimentation and theory, because it has developed into a key technology for understanding and mastering technical scientific challenges with its core areas of mathematical modelling, simulation and optimisation. Interdisciplinarity is a focal concept not only in a scientific context, but beyond all conceivable boundaries. After all, co-operation with the world of industry also enjoys a long tradition in the IWR. It is not without reason that a major industrial group such as BASF from neighbouring Ludwigshafen puts its faith in the specialist knowledge of the mathematicians and computer scientists at the Heidelberg graduate school when it comes down to calculating heat distribution in tube reactors, for example.