The curriculum is offered in English and prepares doctoral researchers to excel in an international environment and become sought-after employees in the public and private sector. Progress in developing excellent interdisciplinary knowledge and self-reliance is monitored by a system based on the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS). Each doctoral researcher is required to acquire a minimum of 20 ECTS during the 3-year training program (>10 ECTS through the compulsory program and >5 ECTS through electives). Associated doctoral researchers funded by other sources participate in the same rigorous curriculum. Participation is recorded for each researcher and is certified upon completion of the dissertation. The training modules are presented in Tables 7 and 8 and are outlined below.
Although entry is encouraged at the beginning of each recurring 3 year cycle, doctoral researchers can enter the program other times. To ease their entry and to help doctoral researchers to freshen up on teaching topics, all learning materials (e.g., scripts, audiovisual recordings, articles, lab protocols) are available through the learning and teaching platform RWTHmoodle.
