Postdoc support for Donders researchers

Within the Donders Institute we aim to support our postdoctoral researchers as much as possible. We encourage them to build a multidisciplinary network, we offer support for their personal and academic development and they are welcome to join several training and coaching programmes.

Social platform

This specific group of early career scientists connect with each and share knowledge via the Donders Postdoc platform on Mattermost, where the latest social and career events are shared. Postdocs at the Donders Institute can find more information about onboarding and working at the Donders on the intranet page for postdocs.

Postdoc personal development plan

We highly recommend all postdocs to work on their personal development plan. In the framework of the sustainable science initiative of the Donders Institute (DI) a working group has written a proposal entitled Training and support of postdoc to faculty. It summarizes the results of a recent survey among postdoctoral researchers at the DI and recommends following actions. One of the recommendations was a personal development plan (PDP).

The PDP is intended to facilitate the career development of postdoctoral researchers since they perceived themselves as ill-prepared for the next step in their career. According to one of the postdocs:

"The personal development plan is a good opportunity to sort out your priorities for your future career.”

Download PDP (pdf, 1 MB)

Postdoc council

The postdoctoral representatives are members of the postdoctoral community. They form the postdoc council and organize events and activities for postdocs Donders-wide. You can contact them postdoccouncil [at] donders.ru.nl (here) if you have any questions about past/future postdoc events.

Each Donders centre has postdoc representatives who aim to assist with the postdoc life at the Donders Institute. The postdoc representatives are listed here:

  • DCC: Julian Kosciessa, Bertalan Polner
  • DCCN: Anouk van der Heide (chair), Nico Adelhöfer, Yamil Vidal
  • DCMN: Barbora Rehak-Buckova, Mireia Coll-Tané
  • DCN: Natalia Mora Garcia
  • MPI: Danielle Houwing, Sharice Clough

TRAP

The TRAP network (Temporary Academic Personnel of the Radboud University) was founded to promote the interests of all academic staff with temporary employment contracts at Radboud University. It is a good idea to regularly check their agenda, they organize very useful things to facilitate temporary staff!