What percentage of PhD candidates are not German? Would you say that you have a multicultural group?

About 30 percent of the 40 PhD students at the Graduate School are from overseas. In comparison with the overall percentage of non-German students at German universities, this is a high proportion, and one that we are proud of. The countries of origin are very varied, but there is a trend that you could call "going west": We have students from Poland and Romania, the Ukraine, India, China and even Korea. The University of Constance can offer these PhD students numerous advisory services for individual issues. We greatly value the influx of fresh talent. At this point in time, 50 percent of our PhD students come from universities other than the University of Constance. We carry out intense promotion at other universities twice a year, for each application round.

Your aim is to intensify the connection between research and industry; what steps are being taken to facilitate an exchange between companies and industry partners with the graduate students?

The Graduate School already maintains numerous cooperations with biochemical and pharmaceutical companies. Such collaborations are incredibly diverse and comprise internships as well as the use of special instrumentation up to the involvement of experts in our course programme or the financing of scholarships. In this regard, maintaining and initiating contacts is an important task of the Graduate School. We offer an education that lays the groundwork for leading positions in research, research policy or applied research. Pertinent contacts are of major importance in this area. Our PhD students are given the opportunity to network in their research area and to develop their job prospects especially through the invitation of renowned researchers and through visits to our academic partners.

What exactly does the newly agreed cooperation with the Graduate School of Organic Chemistry and Chemical Biology at the University of Turku entail?

First and foremost, the cooperation offers intense scientific exchange between PhD students themselves, such as through joint participation at conferences, seminars or summer schools. The earlier this scientific exchange begins, the better; it is the only way to learn another method or approach. We are also promoting an exchange of professors to participate in teaching at partner universities, so that expensive equipment or a new method that only exists at one particular university can be accessed by the other university. Turku is our most recent cooperation. Our cooperations with institutions in Zurich, Stanford, Toronto, Kanpur, Nanyang or Harvard have similar goals.

With its "Fast Track" programme, the Graduate School offers PhD candidates the possibility of completing their studies including a Master's degree within four years. What are the entry requirements for the course?

The "Fast Track" is like a good pie: the base must be brilliant, then you can add the cream topping directly without needing another layer. Basically, students with excellent marks and additional qualifications in chemical biology can skip the master's thesis. The best prerequisites are obtained by studying chemistry or biology at the University of Constance, especially with our "Life Science" programme.

How will the Graduate School develop in the coming years? What are your goals?

This year, we are laying the foundations for the coming years. This means that we hope to accept excellent PhD students from excellent universities, and we want to find new partners - academic as well as industrial. In addition, we are in the process of setting up a major internal research association. The plans for the building that will house the latest project, a Centre of Chemical Biology, have already taken shape. And who knows: all this may serve to boost science management. Time will tell.