Human resources development (HRS)

Excellent working conditions

For its exemplary human resources management, IGB was granted the HR Excellence in Research Award by the European Commission. We systematically analyse all working processes at IGB and plan improvements for all IGB employees. These are recorded in an Action Plan whose implementation is regularly evaluated. All our action plans can be found at the bottom of this page. Furthermore, we follow the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers.

International employees

We encourage and welcome the growing proportion of international scientists at our institute. Our transparent recruitment procedures give everyone fair access to advertised positions. To ease integration, we train our technicians and administrative personnel in English. Documents and forms needed for working at IGB are available in German and English. All research colloquia and courses of the IGB doctoral programme are offered in English. Our research groups and the multilingual departmental secretaries provide assistance in the cultural and language-related problems of everyday life. Furthermore, we assist international employees in finding German classes that fit their needs.

Career development

Lifelong learning is a central concept to maintain fun and success in research and work. Therefore, we offer opportunities to all our employees for continuing education:

• Training of doctoral candidates is, in accordance with the necessities at this career level, the most structured educational arrangement at IGB.
• Postdoctoral researchers determine their own training needs. The IGB Postdoc Society has collected a variety of topics and ideas. Planning and implementation are supported by the institute.
• Group leaders receive annual training on varying aspects of their leadership duties. In order to expand their practical and theoretical scientific expertise, they may apply for a sabbatical, i.e. a stay at another institute for a semester, or even for a year.
• All scientists at IGB are furthermore encouraged and supported to participate in external mentoring and coaching programmes. The annual performance interview includes a discussion of individual career aims and the planning of necessary steps to reach these.
• We provide our technical and administrative employees with opportunities for individual training as well. Furthermore, they are expected to attend in-house English courses in order to be prepared for the institute’s increasing internationalisation.