Conflict Counseling / Ombudspersons

Our ombudspersons listed below provide advice and address conflict situations mainly in the context of PhD theses with the aim to facilitate their solution. Their services are available not only to doctoral students but also to postdoctoral researchers, junior research group leaders and junior professors.

They proceed according to the code of conduct of the DFG "Guidelines for Safeguarding Good Research Practice"; in particular, they observe strict confidentiality.

If you feel the need for external advice and help, please contact one single ombudsperson of your free choice. You may choose a person whose scientific area is close to yours, but you may deliberately also choose one far away from your area.

The purpose of a first contact, for instance, by phone or email, can just be to get an outside view and opinion concerning a difficult situation you are facing, and it does not necessarily lead to any escalation of the issue. The ombudsperson will discuss possible further steps with you, and will act only upon your consent. Since the range of difficult situations is wide, the suitable steps heavily depend on your specific case.

It may happen that matters do not - or in the course of the process no longer - fall within the remit of the  ProTrainU ombudspersons and it may be important to pass them on. The consent of the person seeking advice is required for this. A confidentiality form is available for obtaining this consent, which may be used in every phase of the conflict resolution process.

For general questions about the ombudsman system, please refer to the ProTrainU office or the PhD Students' Convention (Promovierendenkonvent).