Around 125 PhD students participated in the Masterclasses of NWO CHAINS 2021.

Five exciting topics by five inspiring coaches were offered:

Positively Design your Career & Life
Lisette van de Sandt took the participants into the worlds of positive psychology and design thinking. She started the journey of exploration by asking the participants to think about questions like: ‘what do I value in life?’, ‘what meaningful work do I enjoy’ and ‘what alternative careers could I lead?’. They learned how to carry out small experiments to get new insights and take decisions. 

Publishing: Tips for Manuscript Writing and Successful Submissions
Dr. Jonathan Faiz (Wiley/Chemistry Europe) opened the Editor’s black box by explaining how manuscripts are processed from submission to publication, discussed ethical aspects of publishing and gave the participants useful tips on how to prepare a successful publication. 

Career opportunities outside the academic world
Lisette Spoelder (Herakles Pharma Staffing) asked the participant about their plans after the PhD? Staying in academia or leave? And what are the options and challenges if you want to pursue a non-academic career? In this workshop, speakers with various career paths shared their story and gave tips and tricks on how to build a career outside the academic world.

Impact of science through innovation & startups
Frans Nauta (Kilimapartners) shared his expierence at turning scientific breakthroughs into practical innovations that work. It’s really hard work, but also incredibly fun. Especially if you can do it in a small team of highly dedicated, motivated and focussed people (= a startup). Frans Nauta has trained and coached >1.000 startups in all continents of the world (bar Antarctica), mainly on cleantech. He’s also the founder and program manager of Faculty of Impact, a new national program for postdocs to work two years on building a company with impact, based on their research. It’s based on a program from UC Berkeley called Cyclotron Road, where Frans used to work.

The Power of Media
Diederik Jekel provided all his tips and tricks in his masterclass ‘The Power of Media’. How do you convey your scientific work to the general public? How do you deal with difficult discussions? How do you make your topic simple and understandable? He helped participants with concrete questions about a specific topic and work out with you personally how your message can best be conveyed.