EVENTS

The Research Training Group (RTG) 2599 actively engages in a variety of scientific and professional development activities. These include internal scientific events such as mini-symposia, retreats and networking meetings, as well as the organization of an international congress and public outreach initiatives. Additionally, tailored workshops are offered to equip our doctoral candidates with the skills needed for their future careers.  

Paul-Ehrlich Club (obligatory)
With the help of the RTG’s scientific coordinator, Dr. Lena Marx, our doctoral candidates will host the weekly to bi-weekly Paul-Ehrlich-Club. This event is designed to promote collaboration among Dr. rer. nat. candidates, fast-track candidates in their qualifying phase, as well as Dr. med. candidates, while fostering scientific exchange across RTG labs. The Paul-Ehrlich-Club serves as a forum for discussing methodological challenges concerning daily lab work, innovative concepts in immunology, and recent advancements in the field. Both researchers within the GRK and external speakers present cutting-edge techniques such as genome editing, imaging techniques and animal models in immunology, as well as updates on clinicial immunolopgy and multimodal immunotherapy strategies. The interactive nature of the Paul-Ehrlich-Club encourages our doctoral candidates to engage in meaningful scientific discussions with fellow RTG members. We believe that the interactive format of the Paul-Ehrlich-Club will increase the willingness of our doctoral candidates to discuss scientific findings with other RTG members.
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Internal GRK Retreats (obligatory)
The annual GRK retreat serves as a vital platfrorm for internal scfientific exchange. The 2.5-day events areattended by all RTG project leaders and all doctoral candidates, providing an opportunity for the doctoral candidates to present their research findings, while the project leaders will assess individual progress. Every two years, the external advisory board will join these retreats, further enriching the discussions and fostering valuable feedback.
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GRK Networking meeting (obligatory)
The annual network meetings provide an established platform for scientific exchange and collaboration. It was successfully set up during the former RTGs in collaboration with RTGs from Würzburg (T. Hünig) and Tübingen (H.-G. Rammensee). These events continue with immunology-focused researchers from Mainz (CRC 1292 – T. Bopp & B. Clausen) and from other natioanl GRKs, offering candidates the opportunity to present their research through poster sessions and oral presentations outside of Erlangen. The GRK network meeting is vital to expand professional networks and to foster connections with other leading research groups in the field of immunology.  
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Mini-Symposia
Doctoral candidates have the opportunity to invite external guest speakers to several RTG events, including the RTG Paul-Ehrlich-Club, the immunology seminar series co-organized with the FAU Profile Center Immunomedicine (FAU I-MED), and the half-day RTG mini-symposia. These mini-symposia focus on specific immunological topics, such as neuroinflammation, antibody engineering, microbiota and immunity, fetal immune barriers, and vaccination, providing an engaging platform for in-depth discussions and knowledge exchange. 
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International GK Symposium on Regulators of Adaptive Immunity
This series of symposia, which was an essential part of the two predecessors RTG592 and RTG1660,  will be organized again once in the new RTG2599 in 2023. Renowned scientists from all over the world will be invited to the International RTG Symposium „Regulators of Adaptive Immunity“ by our doctoral candidates. Besides, they will entirely organize the symposium and will have the opportunity to intensively discuss their research results with the guest speakers in a closed poster session and during the Speakers‘ Dinner.
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Public Relations (obligatory)
To communicate the importance of immunology for public health and animal experiments in biomedicine and to inform the general public about relevant immunological topics such as vaccination, allergies, and immunotherapies of cancer and inflammatory diseases, our doctoral candidates will organize the “Day of Immunology.” This event will be arranged together with selected RTG PIs once a year during an afternoon in the pedestrian zone of Erlangen. Also, each doctoral candidate is encouraged to support the DGfI website Immunology4you (www.das-immunsystem.de) and to write an article about the topic of her or his doctoral thesis that can be published in the session “Immunologie leicht gemacht” of the new journal Trillium Immunologie of the German Society of Immunology.
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Participation in DGfI Immunology Schools (obligatory).
In their first year, all doctoral candidates will participate in the Autumn School “Current Concepts in Immunology” organized by the German Society for Immunology (DGfI). This school targets beginners and provides overview lectures from experts in the entire field of immunology. Moreover, the doctoral fellows can present and discuss their thesis projects in an interactive way in a poster and a meet-the-speaker session. More advanced doctoral candidates might also apply to the optional DGfI Spring School in immunology.
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RTG regulars‘ table (Stammtisch).
The monthly RTG “Stammtisch” is another communication platform for all doctoral candidates to strengthen the cooperate identity of the RTG and discuss new and on-going activities, plan public relations activities, and organize the guest speaker seminar visits. The speakers of the doctoral candidates will also inform all doctoral fellows about their monthly lunch meeting with the RTG speaker and coordinator.
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External research internships during the doctoral phase.
Short-term rotations (up to 8 weeks) in laboratories of collaboration partners or other groups preferentially outside of Germany will be available for Dr. rer. nat. candidates who work on one of the 17 projects. These rotations are primarily intended to help the doctoral candidates to learn a technique or get familiar with a model system that is not well established in Erlangen and is essential to complete the thesis. In addition, the rotation program can also support Dr. rer. nat. candidates preferentially in their last year to visit labs outside of Germany to explore future postdoctoral positions.
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Workshops
In order to prepare our junior staff in the best possible way for an academic career, we offer so-called soft and hard skills courses. These range from presentation skills, grant writing and scientific writing to bioinformatics, statistics and computer courses, and a symposium on a career beyond academic research.
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