Steering Group
The Steering Group is the main contact between doctoral researchers and the Headquarters of Max Planck Society in Munich. They coordinate the communication within the PhDnet and outside of it. The members of the steering group are elected annually at the General Meeting and assume office each year on January 1st.
Some of the main tasks are managing the representation of PhDnet within the MPS and to the public, problem-solving, overseeing the work of the PhDnet working groups and voluntary involvement in MPS wide working groups (e.g., together with the GA).
In addition to the fixed responsibilities of each office, the SG members adopt responsibilities for other organs: each Working Group is supported by at least one SG member.
The Steering Group consists of a spokesperson, three representatives for the different sections (BM/CPT/HS), the deputy spokesperson (financial officer) and the general secretary. The members of our current Steering Group are:
| Spokesperson | Rajalekshmi Narayana Sarma |
| Deputy spokesperson (financial officer) | Tarik Karakaya |
| General secretary | Grgo Marijan |
| BM section representative | Louison Nicolas- Asselineau |
| CPT section representative | Matilde Accorsi |
| HS section representative | Saparya Sood |
Agenda of Steering Group 2025
The newly elected members of the Steering Group represent all doctoral researchers (DRs) in the Max Planck Society. We are working closely together with the General Administration of the MPS and these are our goals for the year 2025:
Enhancing institutional support for DRs
- Improving onboarding of DRs by ensuring improved assistance, introduction to the German health system & eMAP.
- Ensuring that all doctoral researchers have a local (PhD or IMPRS) coordinator to assist them.
- Endorsing Thesis Advisory Committees (TAC) project to ensure a regular monitoring of progress, supervision quality and identification of potential issues.
Working conditions
- 1-year extension (3+1) should be made available for all doctoral researchers who have not completed the thesis.
- We encourage the tracking of working hours (Zeiterfassung) as established by European court.
- Increasing the salaries of all DRs to75% of TVöD 13 and providinga fair, even and transparent salary grid to all doctoral researchers.
Refining the PhDnet Governance Framework
Ensuring that external representatives update the institute comparison report regularly, attend section and general meetings, and actively participate in internal committee meetings.
Enhancing the advisory role with the Working Groups by strengthening collaboration and communication to improve efficiency, particularly with the Survey Group, as its data supports the other groups.
Political work
- Actively participatingin shaping policies that impact the interests of DRs, e.g. implementing a time tracking policy.
- Continuing collaboration with stakeholders and student bodies, e.g. Planck Academy Advisory Board, N2 and Postdocnet.
- Advocating for a system that holds leadership accountable for any instance of power abuse and protect victims who report abuse from retaliation or any adverse consequences.
