The 2025 GAIN Conference gave internationally mobile postdocs the chance to find out about career and funding opportunities in Germany and chat to some high-caliber figures from the country’s academic, political, business and industry scenes. On the agenda for the 350 or so early-career researchers were panel discussions, workshops and talks as well as networking sessions with fellow professionals. Some 80 German universities, research institutions, companies and funding institutions had come to Boston to introduce themselves.
The University of Bonn was involved in several panel debates, including one on career options in the Medicine and Biosciences forum (Vice Rector Grunwald) and another on Clusters of Excellence in the humanities (Vice Rector Münch), as well as making its own contribution to the program. Together with the University of Cologne, the Technical University of Munich, TH Köln University of Applied Sciences and the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, it organized a workshop whose title translates as “Individual career paths in academia—actively shaping career phases and transitions while taking account of funding opportunities.” The format sparked great interest among participants.
An attractive base for international top-level research
The University of Bonn also had its own booth at the talent fair, where the representatives from University management and Dr. Katharina Fuchs-Bodde, Director of the International Office, had countless chats with highly motivated early-career researchers, who appeared extremely interested in coming to work at the University of Bonn. In particular, the University showcased its eight Clusters of Excellence and six Transdisciplinary Research Areas (TRAs), positioning itself as an attractive base for international top-level research.
In the run-up to the GAIN Conference, the German Research Foundation (DFG) had issued an invitation to a roundtable in Washington on August 28 in order to consolidate transatlantic academic ties. Around 30 representatives from the worlds of academia and politics discussed how German-US scientific collaboration could be expanded further and made resilient. Among the participants in the roundtable was Rector Professor Michael Hoch, not least in his capacity as Chair of German U15—an alliance of 15 German universities with particularly strong track records in research.