Workshop

Staying on Course: A Midway Checkpoint for Your PhD

The middle of a PhD is its longest and least clearly mapped phase: the initial momentum is spent, and the end isn't yet in sight. The workshop gives doctoral researchers in the middle phase a structured checkpoint: they analyze where their project stands, review their motivation, supervision, and career prospects, and adjust course for the second half. It closes with a realistic timeline through submission and concrete next steps.

At the midpoint of a PhD, what helps isn't a pep talk to keep going but a structured pause: what's been achieved, where it's stalling, and is the course still right? Using proven tools – from the PhD Canvas to a SWOT analysis to a stakeholder analysis – the workshop guides participants through an honest stocktaking. What follows isn't a restart but a course correction – exactly where the stocktaking shows it's needed. Stress and low motivation are treated not as something to train away, but as normal phases of any PhD that can be put to constructive use.

Project management and time management appear as compact input tailored to the midpoint of a PhD – anyone who wants to go deeper will find standalone workshops on those topics in the program. That way, the formats complement each other rather than repeating.

Topics & Methods at a Glance

Content

Mischpult mit vielen Reglern und Schiebern — Symbol für das aktive Steuern komplexer Prozesse

The workshop content is hands-on and conveyed through short input sessions, individual and group work, and interactive exchange formats.

  • Taking stock: what's working, where it's stalling
  • Motivation and values: what carries you through the second half
  • The PhD as a system: working with the PhD Canvas
  • A structured checkpoint using SWOT analysis
  • Career planning: sharpening Plan A and Plan B
  • Skills profile: what you've developed, what's still missing
  • Stakeholder analysis: supervision, thesis committee, and research network
  • Stress, low motivation, and crises: handling normal phases constructively
  • Compact input on project and time management for the second half
  • The path to submission: working backward from the end

After the workshop, participants will be able to …

  • Take stock of where your PhD stands, using structured tools (including a SWOT analysis and the PhD Canvas)
  • Review your own motivation and sharpen your research vision for the second half
  • Develop supervision and your support network further in a targeted way (stakeholder analysis)
  • Turn career prospects into a concrete Plan A and Plan B, matched against your own skills profile
  • Leave the workshop with a realistic timeline through submission and concrete next steps
At a Glance

Key Facts

Duration & Format

Two days, in person
Also available as a one-day compact format or as an online series of three half-days; modules are adapted to the group.

Audience

Doctoral researchers in the middle phase of their PhD (roughly the second and third year)

Group Size

Recommended: 8–15 participants

Languages

German, English
I'll be glad to put together a proposal tailored to your needs

Interested?

Nächste Schritte für den Workshop
  • Tailored: Every format is customized to your context – from methodology to scheduling
  • Practical: Grounded in academia, field-tested, and immediately applicable in everyday research
  • Efficient: Clear structures and methods deliver fast results
  • Sustainable: Materials and transfer tasks secure the learning effect long-term
  • Motivating: Interactive formats boost engagement and team spirit

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