The students enrolled came from a broad spectrum of different backgrounds, such as medicine, psychology, biology, cognitive science, informatics, biomedical engineering or physics, which created a highly interdisciplinary network in the CRC. For enrollment in the Training Group, we considered applications from students who held a MSc/MA (for a PhD position), MDs with completed state examination (for a PhD position) or medical students who had been admitted to the clinical medical curriculum iMED at the UKE (for a medical doctoral fellowship).

Admission was granted on a competitive basis. The applicants for the PhD positions submitted a CV and a statement of research interests to the PI(s) of the project they were interested in. Preselected candidates were then invited for an individual interview. Based on this evaluation, the PI(s) sent a formal application for enrollment in the Training Group to the CRC coordinators. This application included a brief description of the planned thesis work and its link to the CRC project. Doctoral candidates who planned to graduate at the UKE also had to submit an application for enrollment to the deanery. This application included a formal supervision agreement signed by both the student and the advisor, a project description, and the nomination of additional faculty for the individual thesis committee of the student. The UKE PhD program committee then decided about formal admission to graduation at the UKE. All accepted doctoral students (including the medical doctoral students) became full members of the CRC.

Each student was tutored by a scientific advisor, i.e., a principal investigator of the CRC. In the group of her/his scientific advisor, the student was typically also assigned to a senior postdoc involved in laboratory training of the respective student. The advisor and the tutoring postdoc met in regular intervals with the respective doctoral student to talk about progress of the research project and the study program. At the start of the thesis work, student and advisor agreed on a synopsis comprising the title, names of the supervising team, a project outline and a time schedule. This synopsis was submitted both to the CRC coordinator and to the administrative offices of the faculty in charge of issuing the degree. For the PhD and MD/PhD students enrolled at the UKE, an individual thesis committee was formed which comprised, in addition to the advisor, two additional faculty members and met once a year with the student for progress monitoring. Students were supposed to give a project proposal and a progress report at least once a year.

Through a number of measures, career development was supported for doctoral students and postdocs. Members of the CRC could make use of various mentoring programs of the Medical Faculty. We offered additional mentoring for doctoral students and postdocs within the CRC on demand. To this end, individual coaching sessions were offered to doctoral students as well as postdocs. The CRC supported her during the second funding period in her qualification as a professional coach. These optional coachings provided the opportunity to discuss overarching personal career issues and, if applicable, problems in the laboratory, with the scientific progress of the thesis, or with supervisors. During the second and third funding periods, 200 hours of individual coaching were provided for doctoral students, and more than 150 hours for postdocs, respectively. Training of students and postdocs also included the development of additional career-relevant skills. Courses and workshops were offered that provided training in scientific writing, scientific presentation, personal time and goal management, stress, and conflict management, career planning, and problem-solving strategies. Importantly, the CRC has also substantially contributed to improving research conditions for young clinicians by providing the possibility for job rotation, allowing to be on leave from clinical duties for several months and focus on laboratory or theoretical work. This was implemented through “Gerok” rotation positions which could be allocated for researchers of the CRC in periods of up to 12 months.