Katharina Gärtner is doing her doctorate in the Management working group at the Department of Economics and Law on the topic of sustainable mobility and is taking part in the "Environmental Economics and Sustainability" (UNA) doctoral programme.

"A structured doctorate, like the one I'm doing on the UNA programme, offers good opportunities to gain further qualifications in terms of methodology and content. The structured programme also gives you a framework that you can use as a guide. But to a certain extent, of course, you also have to find your own way and solve difficulties proactively. You shouldn't be afraid to ask for help from time to time.

The biggest challenge for me when doing my doctorate at the moment is the shift to working from home due to corona. As a result, I spend a lot of time alone and have to do a lot of things on my own. The opportunities to exchange ideas with other doctoral candidates or colleagues from my own or other working groups have been greatly reduced. It is more difficult to stay motivated and continue to be enthusiastic about your own topic if there is no social interaction in the office.

The Graduate School 3GO has good programmes for structured work, such as writing weeks and workshops. I particularly enjoyed a course on publishing in leading international journals in business administration, economics and sociology with my doctoral supervisor Prof Dr Jörn Hoppmann, a seminar on the programming language Python and a workshop on science management. This was helpful in getting to know other academic appointments after my doctorate. The doctoral candidate day also helped me progress.

It's great that 3GO coordinator Rea Kodalle always has an open ear when it comes to requests for events or information."