The Vienna PhD School of Informatics. Design, Implementation and Experiences

Doctoral education is one of the main contributors to scientific development through the training of new generations of scientists. In this context the traditional European individual doctoral study program is questioned as being appropriate to meet the challenges of research training in a competitive market. As a consequence one can observe a tendency towards structured programs with doctoral candidates grouped in doctoral schools. This paper presents the Vienna PhD School of Informatics, following such a structured approach and with a clear focus on scientific research. The paper also provides a short overview about different approaches applied world-wide, and presents an evaluation framework together with first evaluation results.