All PhD students and young postdocs can participate in a competitive exchange programme. In principle, any international institution can serve as a host. The purpose of the exchange programme is to learn new skills that are relevant to the respective CRC project and to make new contacts to gain visibility. The CRC aims to fund a 3 month‘s exchange for 5 people each year. To participate, young researchers should apply to the CRC executive board with a research statement and a cost estimate. The PL will be asked to write a support statement. If there are more applications that can be funded, the PLs will be asked to outline their priority setting to the Executive Board. Furthermore, the PLs are asked to maintain active planning of exchange activities for each funding period. Due to the scientific activities of the CRC in Chile, close contact with the Universidad Catolica de la Santisima Concepcion exists and can be used to enable a PhD exchange to Chile where the young researchers can gain experience in using some of the world’s most modern telescopes. Participants must report on their experience within this exchange programme, and the reports will be uploaded on the CRC website.
Experiences from CRC 956 PhD-students can be read here: https://www.sfb956.de/students/experiences