The IntCDC NextGen Leadership Program is the Excellence Cluster “Integrative Computational Design and Construction for Architecture” (IntCDC) program to support high-potential junior academics (postdoctoral researchers and advanced doctoral candidates) all the way to an academic leadership position. The program is available until the end of the first funding phase of IntCDC (December 2025) and considers three elements: mentorship, qualification, and exchange.
Applicants to this program have to:
- Find and address a mentor of their choice.
- Design a qualification plan and timeline. To do so, they should identify their strengths and weaknesses, define how to close the gap between their current situation and the desired one, and identify measures and other qualification opportunities available worldwide.
- Take opportunities for networking with the cluster’s professors and their program peers.
This should help our junior academics reach the qualification level needed in positions of higher responsibility, as fast as possible.
NextGen is challenging, requiring highly autonomous decision-making skills. Toward the end of this program, participants must apply for at least one leadership or more advanced position (e.g., junior professorship) in Germany or abroad. Through this strategy, we intend to expand our IntCDC network, spread our vision, and share it with future generations of young academics in Stuttgart and worldwide.
Two of the applicants from the first nomination phase will now receive funding from the IntCDC NextGen Leadership Program. They are postdoctoral researcher Yana Boeva and doctoral researcher Ann-Kathrin Wortmeier. The board of directors decided on the funding of specific measures outlined in the applicants' action plans.
Yana Boeva is a funded aspiring professor. The funding will enhance her academic writing and teaching approach, focusing on research publications and diversity in teaching. If she accomplishes her objectives, the IntCDC Board of Directors will provide her with funding for a PhD position to build a junior research group.
Ann-Kathrin Wortmeier is in the process of completing her doctoral thesis and intends to submit it by May 2023. She is aspiring to become a junior professor and her proposal centers around enhancing scientific writing, increasing didactic expertise, and developing skills in securing research funding.
Both awardees are currently attending a one-week writing retreat in Italy funded by the IntCDC NextGen Leadership Program. Congratulations to Yana and Ann-Kathrin from the Early Career and Equal Opportunity Team and the Board of Directors!
Please find Interviews with both of them here: