How does the Research Careers Campus enhance researchers' experience at our university? In advance of our festival (April 22-23), we've asked our community what they think of our work.
Long-time collaborator Ariane Pessentheiner has gotten back to us with this statement:
“For me, connecting researchers from different disciplines and facilitating the exchange among people at various career stages is particularly important. This creates new perspectives and perhaps even sparks some collaboration ideas. At the RCC, this is put into practice – through a wide range of activities, such as the 3MT Competition, the Writing Retreat, or the Fiasco Fest, PhDs and Postdocs from across the university are brought together and get to know each other on a deeper level, which absolutely promotes the development of a sustainable network!”
Ariane has been both a "customer" and a collaborator for years - she made the switch from full-time researcher to researcher-and-science-communicator, and currently works with MetAGE - Cluster of Excellence.
For us, she's been the secret ingredient of our success with the Three Minute Thesis competition. Two years in a row now, our University of Graz PhD researchers took the stage at the Europe-wide Coimbra Group competition, coming first and second in this final.
In this spirit, we want to offer you also a reading recommendation from Ariane: our PostDoc Office resource collection for making your research widely accessible to a range of audiences: https://postdoc.uni-graz.at/en/tips-and-tricks/communicate-my-research-results-and-engage-the-public/
Register for our Festival here: https://postdoc.uni-graz.at/de/veranstaltungen/research-careers-campus-festival/
Maybe you'll get the chance to have a chat with Ariane there!
Picture credit: Pessentheiner, privat.
Text: Johanna Stadlbauer, Nov 19, 2025