Open mobile navigation

+49 40 8998-5500

+49 40 8998-5507

info@pier-hamburg.de

graduateschool@pier-hamburg.de

Scientist Registration Lunch Talks Startup Bootcamp Past Events PIER Helmholtz Graduate School (PHGS) PIER Education Platform (PEP) DOIT PhD Representatives Research Fields PIER Research Perspectives Workshops PIER International PIER Idea Fund PHGS Travel Awards Calls, prizes and funding for doctoral researchers News & Events PIER Boards PIER Team CONTACT MEDIA CREDITS Quick links PHGS MEMBER LOGIN

Innovation & Startup

You are interested in learning about business startup and innovation topics? Check out PIER events and activities in this field.

PIER Research Funding

PIER offers funding for seed projects, joint workshops or short visits of international colleagues in your field.

PIER Education Platform

Transferable skills for doctoral and postdoctoral researchers

Language courses

German and English courses for doctoral and postdoctoral researchers

PHGS Travel Awards for doctoral researchers

Outstanding doctoral researchers of the PIER Helmholtz Graduate School (PHGS) can apply for a PHGS Travel Award to pay for travel to and participation in scientific events. Find out more...

Forms and info Sheets for doctoral researchers of the PHGS

Here you can find all templates and information sheets that are important for your membership in the PIER Helmholtz Graduate School.

Buddy Programme for new doctoral researchers of the PHGS

You are a new international doctoral sresearcher and would like support during your first time in Hamburg? You are an experienced doctoral researcher and would like to support a new international doctoral researcher? Register here.

Registration membership PIER Helmholtz Graduate School

You are starting a doctorate at DESY or Universität Hamburg and want to become a member of the PIER Helmholtz Graduate School? Here you can sign up.

Curriculum PIER Helmholtz Graduate School

The PHGS curriculum is the core of the education of our members and is the basis for the PHGS Certificate and Transcript of Records.

Education for Early Career Researchers

// Learn how Nur Jomhari and Mahdi Bidhendi boosted their academic careers with the help of PIER.
Learn more

Graduate education for doctoral researchers and postdocs

Education is the letter „E“ in PIER and has two pillars:

  • The PIER Helmholtz Graduate School (PHGS) ensures that doctoral researchers receive an internationally recognized and optimally supervised education in their respective research fields. Our graduate school has a wide and interdisciplinary scope, offers a high-degree of service-orientation, and focuses on transferable skills training.
  • The PIER Education Platform (PEP) for both, doctoral and postdoctoral researchers, is a cooperation of research schools on the the science campus Bahrenfeld. PEP offers transferable skills training, language courses, career orientation and interdisciplinary scientific training for young scientists. The portfolio is tailor-made for doctoral and postdoctoral researchers and focuses on the needs in the respective stage of the individual research projects - from research effectiveness for first year doctoral researcher to career advice and networking events for postdocs.
»The PHGS is a great tool for broadening the scope of a PhD, finding new research interests and career ideas, and learning transferable skills that will help in all future plans«
Image of Blae Stacey/ © DESY/Marta Mayer
Blae Stacey
Member of the PHGS since 2022

PIER Helmholtz Graduate School (PHGS)

The PIER Helmholtz Graduate School (PHGS) is a joint graduate programme of Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) and the University of Hamburg with support of the Helmholtz Association.

PIER Education Platform (PEP)

The course portofolio of PEP is open to doctoral researchers of the PIER Helmholtz Graduate School and its coopration partners on the science campus Bahrenfeld.

DOIT PhD Representatives

DOIT (doctotoral initiative) and the PIER Helmholtz Graduate School work closely together. The elected representatives from DOIT are the voice of PIER's doctoral researchers.

The science campus Bahrenfeld with its unique research environment is where all PIER activities unfold. The campus hosts around 3,000 guest researchers from more than 40 countries every year who are attracted by the world-class research facilities available in Bahrenfeld.

The campus will be the nucleus of Science City Hamburg Bahrenfeld – one of Hamburg’s most ambitious urban planning projects. The aim is to boost Hamburg as a hub for science by offering researchers a creative and sustainable space to learn, teach, research, innovate, live, and work. Key pillars are the further expansion of DESY and the University of Hamburg research facilities as well as the permanent establishment of the university's physics, chemistry and biology departments on campus. In this environment innovative startups and new technologies can thrive in close proximity to science.

A perfect place for growing knowlegde, ideas and inter­disciplinary exchange

two female researchers working with a machine / © DESY/Marta Mayer

PIER Helmholtz Graduate School doctoral programme

The PIER Helmholtz Graduate School (PHGS) is a joint graduate programme of Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) and the University of Hamburg with support of the Helmholtz Association.

Doctoral candidates benefit from outstanding research in the PIER research and competence fields. The PHGS offers its members internationally recognized training in their respective research fields as well as the opportunity to conduct interdisciplinary research. Furthermore, all PHGS members choose from a variety of tailor-made transferable trainings and benefit from a special focus on career planning for their future career. By offering a wide range of services and support measures, personal well-being is guaranteed.

Doctoral Programme Membership Forms & Info Sheets Equal Opportunity & Diversity Services Buddy Programme Our Doctoral Researchers
Scientist reviews an experiment through a porthole / © DESY 2017 Image of a male researcher working with a microscope / © DESY/Marta Mayer Image of workers at CERN Scientist explaining an equation on a chalkboard / © DESY / Heiner Müller-Elsner Image of a scientist working on the computer / © DESY/Marta Mayer

Meet your mates

The Science campus Bahrenfeld hosts hundreds of early career researchers from all over the world, who form an extremely lively and colorful graduate community.

Image of Mostafa Vahdani/ © DESY/Marta Mayer
Mostafa Vahdani
Mostafa Vahdani, began his doctoral studies in September 2020 at DESY in Accelerator research in the Ultrafast Optics and X-rays research group.
Image of Judita Beinortaite/ © DESY/Marta Mayer
Judita Beinortaite
Judita Beinortaite, started her doctorate in October 2020 at DESY in Accelerators and is part of the research group FTX-AST and FLASHForward.
Portrait of Pascal Stienemeier/ © Pascal Stienemeier
Pascal Stienemeier
Pascal Stienemeier, completed his doctoral studies in the field of Theoretical Particle Physics in 2022 at the University of Hamburg.