How to Become an Associated Doctoral Researcher

Requirements

• Doctoral researcher works at KIT, DKFZ or Heidelberg University and is not directly funded by the school.
• Doctoral thesis is planned in an informatics-related faculty (Faculty for Mathematics and Computer Science (Heidelberg University), Faculty for Informatics/Mathematics/Mechanical Engineering/Economics and Management (KIT)).
• The first supervisor must come from the field of data science while the second supervisor must come from the life science field. Both preferably should be involved in the HIDSS4Health school.
• A Thesis Advisory Committee (TAC) consisting of at least three members. The responsible data science PI and the responsible life science PI must be involved in the HIDSS4Health school.
• At least one of the TAC members should come from Karlsruhe and at least one should come from Heidelberg.
• Admission to doctoral studies at the faculty at KIT or Heidelberg University has already been confirmed or at least initiated.
• Funding secured over a period of at least three years.
• Projects need to have the same basic conditions as the other projects in the school:
• Topic is closely related to data science.
• Excellent scientific content.
• Interdisciplinarity and collaboration.
• Relevance for at least one of the three research areas of the school (Imaging & Diagnostics, Surgery & Intervention, Models for Personalized Medicine).
• Relevance for at least one of the four methodological challenges of the school (scalability, personalization, uncertainty awareness, interpretability).
• Feasibility of the work plan and the milestones.

Procedure

• Written application (in English) with research statement (use the proposal form) and CV to steering committee (mail: office@hidss4health.de).
• Steering committee decides on proposal and has to accept application with simple majority. If necessary, steering committee can request personal Skype interview with applicant and/or responsible PIs.

Responsibilities

• Organize TAC meetings.
• Participation in retreats, educational program, self-management (Doctoral Researcher General Assembly), research cooperations within HIDSS4Health.
• Details can be found in the GreenSheet of HIDSS4Health (internal document).

Benefits

• Participation in HIDSS4Health activities/events.
• Support from HIDSS4Health budget in selected categories (support of mobility phases, transferable skill courses, networking, diversity and equal opportunity, summer schools) but no support for personnel costs and no directly assigned material costs or travel expenses.

Contact

Daniel Walther studied history and German language and literature at the University of Heidelberg. He then completed his doctorate at the Institute for the History of Medicine in Stuttgart and at the University of Mannheim in the field of social history of medicine.

After completing his doctorate, he worked as a research assistant at the FZI Research Center for Information Technology in Karlsruhe, where he was involved in the transfer of scientific findings into practice.

Since November 2021, he has been working as a science manager in the Medical Image Computing department. Additionally, since November 2023, he has been co-leading the Graduate School HIDSS4Health.

Contact

Thomas Gerhardy studied sports science at the German Sports university Cologne and university of Heidelberg. After a position as research consultant at a spin-off company, he completed his doctorate at the university of Heidelberg. His research expertise lies at the intersection of sports science and psychology, with a focus on innovative approaches to studying human movement and behavior.
After his defense, he was working at the Institute of Computer Engineering at the University of Heidelberg. On his project he focused on mobility in older adults to improve assistive devices for older adults. Since March 2025 he has been co-leading the graduate school HIDSS4Health for KIT related concerns.