Course

Postdoc Academy for Transformational Leadership

06 okt, 2020 - 17 mrt, 2022

 
The call for applications for the third cohort of the Postdoc Academy for Transformational Leadership is now open!  This year’s call focuses on land use practices in a developing world – addressing scholars with an interest in transforming land use practices in a globalised world towards sustainability. Apply now!
 
The Postdoc Academy for Transformational Leadership is a joint project of the Robert Bosch Stiftung and the four academic centers Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Stockholm Resilience Centre and DRIFT, Rotterdam. It offers a unique program that trains the next generation of leaders in sustainability research affiliated with a European research institution.
 
With this year’s focus topic Land Use Practices, the program provides an intensive high-end training with four seminars in two years. The seminars broaden the research competencies of postdocs and promote their qualifications towards transdisciplinary leadership. The program also offers seed funding (e.g. for stakeholder meetings or proposal writing activities) to groups of participants planning to initiate research collaborations. Furthermore, an active network of current and former participants of the program will be established.
 
For who?
The program is aimed at postdocs from across Europe who want to make an impact on the transformation towards a sustainable society and advance the complementarity of natural science, social sciences and the humanities by means of their research. They should consider themselves intrapreneurs, who act responsibly and initiate positive changes and innovation within their institutions and strive for an academic leadership position in the future. In addition to excellent English language skills and experience with inter- and transdisciplinary collaborative research, their research topic must align with this year’s focus perspective on Land Use Practices.
 
We invite applications of postdoctoral scholars, who already conduct research on sustainability issues in the broadest sense; who work on inter- and transdisciplinary research or see why this would be useful to address sustainability issues; and who have an interest in transforming land use practices in a globalised world towards sustainability. The Academy explores through the four seminars what kind of science this will require and what this kind of science will require from the people who will shape it. How does transdisciplinary research on land use practices fit within different research institutions? How do different disciplinary lenses approach the challenges of cross-scale interdependencies of interventions in land-use patterns? How can the future governance of land use look like? What is this type of transdisciplinary research of land use doing to my academic career? Do I have the right skills already to lead a group in this direction? Do I know people across Europe who can help me develop those skills and build networks for future projects?
 
For a short impression take a look at this video-story.
 
What can you expect?
Each year the PostDoc academy recruits a select number of participants to take part in a 2 year ‘course run’ with an overarching theme. A course run consists of four seminars (three full days each) over a period of two years. Each seminar will take place at one of the four academic centres and focus on their respective expertise. The seminars build on each other and are complementary. They are linked by four thematic modules that create an overarching framework:
 
Postdoc Academy for Transformational Leadership
 
Timing & location
A course run consists of four seminars (three full days each) over a period of two years. Each seminar will take place at one of the four academic centres and focus on their respective expertise. Details for the first course run are:
 

  • 1st seminar from 6th to 8th October 2020 at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin/ Germany
  • 2nd seminar from 9th to 11th February 2021 at the Leuphana University of Lüneburg/ Germany
  • 3rd seminar from 12th to 14th October 2021 at the Stockholm Resilience Centre/ Sweden
  • 4th seminar from 15th March to 17th March 2022 at the Dutch Research Institute for Transitions (DRIFT) in Rotterdam/ The Netherlands

 
Application
You can apply to the third course run of the Academy via the online application form on the website of the Robert Bosch Stiftung until the 16th of February 2020.
 
In order to view the application form and apply you will need to register on the online platform. Once registered you can work on your application. Please safe regularly. If your application is considered successful in the first stage, you will be invited to an assessment workshop.
 
For more information please visit the website of the Robert Bosch Stiftung.