Integrated Research and Training Group (IRTG)

As in the prior two funding phases of the CRC, the proposed IRTG will build on existing PhD programmes at both partner universities, but complements them with a training programme that addresses the particular needs of the CRC. In the third phase this programme will be enhanced by a close-knit collaboration with the existing DAAD Global Climate and Environment Centre AFAS with its focus on MA and PhD education hosted at the UoB and UoC. Furthermore, we will expand our PhD students’ transdisciplinary perspective by exploring synergies with the organization of policy-dialogue activities by projects B03, B05 and B06 (see section “The way forward II: Synthesizing activities” in 1.2.2) and thus introduce them to science-policy-practitioner interaction. Over the last decade, a variety of structured doctoral programmes have been established at the universities of Bonn (UoB) and Cologne (UoC). The Bonn International Graduate School in Development Research (BIGS-DR) based at ZEF builds on a long tradition of graduate education in the context of development research, with many of its graduates focusing on the field of African Studies. Additionally, the BIGS Land and Food of UoB’s Faculty of Agricultural, Nutritional and Engineering Sciences (AEI) also provides a structured graduation context for PhDs working on topics related to agrarian questions in the Global South, particularly Africa. At the UoC, the a.r.t.e.s. graduate school serves as the educational basis for all doctoral students of the Faculty of the Humanities, supported by the German Excellence Initiative (until 2019) as well as the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). Furthermore, the Graduate School for Geosciences (GSGS) at the UoC offers a structured PhD programme. In all four schools, the interdisciplinarity and internationalization of academic research play a decisive role, so that they form an ideal institutional background for the graduate training of the CRC. Doctoral researchers of the CRC must join one of these graduate schools, but have the choice to join the graduate schools and the specialized classes at either one of the two universities according to their disciplinary specialization, needs and interest. In addition, to strengthen cohesion and to deepen exchanges with PhD students in collaborating institutions in Africa it remains crucial for the CRC to create structures that facilitate and foster exchange and discussion among all the early-career researchers (ECRs) involved in the project. For the IRTG, a number of mandatory modules amounting to 12 Credit Points (CP) have been developed in order to guarantee and encourage exchange between the CRC graduates, who will all be enrolled in either the BIGS-DR, BIGS Land and Food (both UoB), a.r.t.e.s. or GSGS (both UoC). The first two modules are designed as CRC summer schools and coordinated jointly by the PLs and postdocs of the CRC. They will provide ECRs with training to enhance their theoretical knowledge and jointly explore the conceptual potential of Future Studies, particularly in relation to the thematic focus of the CRC, and train a new generation of scholars transcending traditional disciplinary boundaries to understand, critically discuss, and handle diverse methodological approaches and respective formats of data generated across the divides between the social and natural sciences (Modules 1 and 2). With the third phase focusing on transdisciplinary science-policy-practitioner interaction we will add a further module to the IRTG’s programme that introduces to and reflects upon diverse transdisciplinary engagements and challenges and provides ECRs with transdisciplinary competences and options for engagement with the policy-dialogue activities (Module 3). As in the second phase, we continue to acknowledge and encourage the participation of the ECRs at external workshops and conferences, as well as the organization and reflection of CRC-related lecture series, workshops, and reading weeks (Module 4). General academic skills as well as transferable skills shall be addressed within the existing structured doctoral programmes. In this way, the IRTG will enhance the exchange and coherence within the highly interdisciplinary yet thematically focused CRC, while at the same time providing opportunities to strengthen disciplinary skills in the context of well-established programmes.