EntrepreNerds wanted

The Software Campus supports you as a computer science Ph.D. student in enhancing your leadership skills. During this 2-year program, you will lead a project team to conduct a research project in collaboration with a company.

In order to learn and develop management and leadership skills in practice, you will lead a research project. Ideally, the content is closely related to the topic of your promotion in computer science in order to make maximum use of synergy effects. The aim is to gain new scientific insights. Practically that means: you manage the whole process of the project independently with the support of the research and industry partners. It all begins with planning the project, which also includes an application for financial resources and, of course, the coordination of your team up to the completion of the project.

Each project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research with up to 115,000 euros over a maximum ongoing project period of two years. The amount of funding will be decided on an individual case. The funds are earmarked; therefore, they must be used for the realization of the project. For the implementation of the IT projects, apply the restrictions of each notice of grants from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the DLR Project Management Agency implements the funding program on behalf of the ministry.

Click here to get an overview of the projects that have been implemented so far.

To successfully lead your IT research project, the industry partners support you fully during the professional training of individual competences and promote your potential. Each participant takes part, over one to two days – in four training sessions in the fields of leadership, methods, and social and personal competencies. Those trainings are offered in German and English and take place at the company’s base.

From a pool of seminars, each participant selects her or his training courses, for example the following:

Methods

• Agile Management
• Change Management
• Design Thinking
• Innovation Management
• Negotiating successfully
• Strategy development

As a participant, you will personally be accompanied by an industry partner executive with a broad experience within the scope of mentoring. On the one hand, you will gain a direct insight into the daily working environment of IT executives with topics such as strategy development, technology, innovation and patent management, or personnel management. On the other hand, your mentor is a high-ranking contact person for questions or advice regarding your project. You can also exchange ideas with other participants in the communities of practice through peer-to-peer mentoring.