Otto Stern School for Integrated Doctoral Education
The Otto Stern School (OSS) is the platform for doctoral education in natural sciences at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main. Organisation. The Otto Stern School was founded in 2006 as a scientific centre of the Goethe University. It offers support and sponsorship for its members. Doctoral candidates and their supervising teams (professors and, as second or third supervisor, postdocs) can become members if they belong to one of the natural sciences faculties or PhD programmes and Collaborate Research Centres of the Goethe University, e.g.: International Helmholtz Graduate School Institutions of  the Otto Stern School are the Council, consisting of representatives of the respective faculties, PhD programmes, supervisors and doctoral candidates, the Directorate, the Quality-Assurance Board, the Admission Committees, the Chairperson, the Management and the Ombudsperson. This is accomplished by three main offers: A Target Agreement is concluded between doctoral candidates, supervisors and the OSS, which limits the dissertation project to 3-3.5 years and arranges regular meetings of the candidate and the supervising team. Responsibilities. Furthermore, the OSS offers workshops for doctoral candidates and, if desired, supervisors to convey key skills in research (e.g. scientific presentation), organisation (e.g. time  management and communication strategies) and career planning (e.g. application training). English and German language courses are also part of this programme. Also funding options like travel grants, start-up scholarships and child-care subsidies are awarded to foster international and interdisciplinary research in the natural sciences of the Goethe University.