new handbook · 2018. 6. 20. · postdoc at ki. handbook for postdoctoral fellows at karolinska...

Handbook for postdoctoral fellows at Karolinska Institutet 1

HANDBOOKfor postdoctoral fellowsat Karolinska Institutet

Career Service

This handbook has been revised 2007 byKarolinska Institutet Career Service(KICS), a career service for researchersand postgraduate students. For moreinformation, visit http://ki.se/careerservice

”Your postdoc studies will give you:· a strengthened CV· a solid network· a goal for your future career”

Professor Francesca Chiodi,Karolinska Institutet

CONTENTS

Definition of a postdoc ..................................................... 4

Welcome ............................................................................... 5

Postdoctoral studies .......................................................... 5

Advice for your Postdoctoral studies . 6

Postdoc Resources ......................... 12

Rules and Regulations ..................14

Useful Links ...... ..................... cover

HANDBOOKfor postdoctoral fellowsat Karolinska Institutet

4 Handbook for postdoctoral fellows at Karolinska Institutet

Definition of a postdoc at Karolinska Institutet

Karolinska Institutet defines a postdocas an individual who holds a PhD awarded

within the last five years, possesses asource of funding or is financed by a depart-ment at Karolinska Institutet, and is being

mentored by faculty for advanced training andskills development.

In exceptional cases, this five-year periodcan be extended by one year owing to

circumstances such as parental leave,internship, illness or military service.

All postdocs at Karolinska Institutet,defined as above, are to be centrally registe-

red. A registration form can be found athttp://ki.se/careerservice


Welcometo Karolinska Institutet. I trust this will be a most exciting time full ofprofessional and social opportunities for you, and I hope that you willtake advantage of the vast range of excellent research opportunities Karo-linska Institutet and the neighbouring Karolinska University Hospitalhave to offer.

Harriet Wallberg-Henriksson,President

Postdoctoral studiesat Karolinska Institutet are intended to give you the opportunity to deve-lop skills and independence through advanced training and supervisormentorship. This handbook has been written to facilitate your postdoctoralstudies at KI and we hope that you will find it helpful during your stayhere.

Karolinska Institutet Career Service (KICS) is a career developmentservice for researchers at Karolinska Institutet, including postdocs,and will be at your service during your time at KI. Karolinska Institu-tet Career Service belongs to the Career and Recruitment Unit. Ouraims are to help you make your time here productive and rewarding,and to give you the tools you need to establish a stable foundation foryour future career. We hope that you will benefit from the servicesprovided and will not hesitate to contact us with questions or suggestions.

Anna Rennermalm, Postdoc CoordinatorJohanna Bäckström, Head of division


Advice for Your Postdoctoral StudiesThe first part of the handbook is a compilation of theadvice and experiences of senior researchers andprofessors at Karolinska Institutet, and has beenproduced to give you the best support possible inyour postdoc studies and future career.

What to consider when joining a new groupEach research group and research institute has itsown culture that is subtle and often baffling. Whenjoining a new group, it is worthwhile taking your timeto meet people, and by this we mean those in theneighbouring groups as well as your new colleagues.Learn what they are doing, and their expertise. Arethere lunch seminars that you can attend? Whatmeetings are relevant to you?

When arriving at Karolinska Institutet from anothercountry, you might find yourself lost in the Swedishlegislative and healthcare systems. Don’t worry: theInternational Desk at KI might have the informationyou need and the KI Intranet, intra.ki.se can help youtoo. Other postdocs in your own or neighbouringgroups might also be able to give you valuable tips onhow to navigate Swedish society.

Early in the transition process it is advisable todiscuss practical matters, like how much space youwill be allocated for your work and what equipmentwill need to be bought for your project. Think aboutwhat material resources you will need for your project:maybe a special centrifuge? Specific software?Discuss in advance with your group leader what youneed to ease the transition into your new group.

You will also have to learn certain procedures, suchas those for purchasing and chemical wastedisposal.Some useful tips can be found by followingthe links presented at the back cover.

… make surethat after thefirst weeksyou’re not onlygeo-graphicallyoriented, - butalso socially …

”KI’s laboratoryfacilities areamazing compar-ed to anywhereI’ve been”Dr. Ashley Miller,

Postdoc at KI


Mentoring and being mentoredAs a postdoctoral fellow you will be honing yourpractical and professional skills. The postdoctoralyears are also intended to prepare you for a futurecareer as an independent group leader. Your supervi-sor will be your primary advisor, and you might havethe opportunity to supervise an undergraduate orpostgraduate student yourself. As the need for supportis very individual, the supervisor-postdoc agreementmight be a useful tool to help you define your expecta-tions before you start. You can find a possible agree-ment template at http://ki.se/careerservice.

Support is given in various ways, and one of the firstthings you should do is to specify your expectationsfor areas such as economic support, material sup-port, personal support and career guidance. It couldalso prove valuable to extend your network and lookfor additional mentorship outside your lab. Thementor is then meant to be a complement to ongoingdaily support, in the sense that he or she has nodirect management responsibility over you. Thementor can help you assess employment opportuni-ties and deal with social and cultural issues.

As a postdoc, you are a valuable technical andscientific asset to your group. In preparing for a futurecareer as a group leader you might want to extendyour supervising skills, and acting as an annotatedassistant supervisor will earn you official credit for thelab supervision you do. However, to facilitate yourshared supervision it is worth entering into an explicitagreement with the student’s main supervisor. It isalso good to discuss the extent to which you want toguide the student and how much of the student’s timecan be allocated to your project before you start, andto define your respective roles in mentoring thestudent.

”No one is ascapable in ourlab as ourpostdocs!”

Prof. Hans-Gustaf Ljunggren

... remember thatas a postdoc, it isyour responsi-bility to ask forthe support youneed ...


Goals and managementThe following text has been written by the careercounsellor at the Junior Faculty.

Where are you going?And why?In order to excel in your research career, it is importantto set goals, long-term and short-term. The goalsshould not just be scientific, but also related to yourpersonal development. The long-term goals areimportant in identifying the skills and tools you willneed to acquire for your future career and the short-term goals are indicators of your individual develop-ment. Tools for designing an Individual DevelopmentPlan (IDP) are available at http://opa.faseb.org/pdf/idp.pdf. You should seek assistance with the assess-ment and evaluation of your IDP from your mentor orsupervisor. Your goals might very well change overtime, but still you need to work out where you areheading in order to gather the competence necessaryto move up the career ladder.

Engagement in academic administration and teach-ing are important assignments for anyone opting foran academic career. The sooner you start, the betteroff you will be. Networking within the university as wellas with the scientific community is essential for anycareer choice. An important network is the oneincluding your peers, as the other postdocs will beaccompanying you on your career path, where theycan make good collaboration partners and providegreat support in the years to come.

Specialise within your field and make sure that youuse this time to learn advanced techniques. It is nowthat you should establish and develop your professio-nal profile.

”Constantlyexpose yourself tocritique from· yourself· senior

colleagues· grant assessorsand after yourpostdoc studiesyou will have afair idea of whereyou are going”Prof. FrancescaChiodi

”The mostimportant exercisefor a postdoc is towrite grant pro-posals”

Prof.GeraldDiBona


Getting publishedThe following text is based on the article ”Getting YourPaper Into a High Impact Journal” by Stephen Simpson(4 April 2003 http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org).

For a future academic career, you will need a goodbalance of quantity and quality, and it is advisable tolet colleagues read and suggest suitable journals.Some journals consider pre-inquiries, where theeditor might offer feedback on whether your studymight be of interest to the journal. Even when plan-ning your project you should be thinking about thepublication potential of your study. You might want toaugment your project with new techniques, or invitecolleagues with complementary expertise to join you.

When considering publication in a journal with awider readership, you might want to include a collea-gue in an unrelated speciality in your review group.When writing your manuscript, always keep yourreader in mind, and do not forget to express why yourstudy offers a major advan-ce in science. However, donot over-estimate the novelty of your data and mode-rate the language when interpreting your data. Followthe journal’s instruction for authors and be careful toseparate Methods, Results and Discussion.

You can find the full article from Stephen Simpson, theAssociate Editor at Science, on the Science Nextwavewebsite (http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org) alongwith a ”Checklist for Writing the Publishable Paper”,containing additional advice.

CollaborationsCollaborations can provide your study with theexpertise you need and may also prove useful whenyou establish yourself in a new lab. Having an ongo-ing collaboration might ensure a steady publicationrate, even when you are between positions. When

… a high qualitystudy includes· a relevantquestion· extensive andadvancedtechnology· significant andconclusive results…

”If you aim forexcellence earlyin your work, youare more likely toachieve yourgoals.”


”The needs ofthe project decidewhen to colla-borate”

Prof. KarlTryggvason


identifying valuable collaboration partners, carefullyconsider what talent and resources you lack and whowould best supply it. If it is a long-term collaboration, beflexible for the advantages might well lie in the long-term perspective. Discuss, or even write an agreementon your financial and practical responsibilities such asproject costs and authorship. Make sure that you lookfor collaborators close to you before you go searchingelsewhere. The closer they are to you, the moreefficient the work is likely to be.

A large proportion of the employees at KI are active atKarolinska University Hospital and are valuablecollaboration partners when closer contacts withclinical research are warranted.

Applications and how to obtain grantsGrants Office supports researchers at KI by helpingthem to apply for external funding of projects. TheGrants Office provides information on possiblesources of research funding, and advice andassistance for producing a successful and competitiveapplication. In addition, KI has a subscription toResearchResearch, a funding opportunity databaseand alert service for researchers. ResearchResearchalso provides tips for writing a successful grantproposal. You can apply for research grants and travelgrants from KI at http://fonder.ki.se. Applications areevaluated on the basis of the originality and quality ofproject plans and previous publications.

Intellectual Property RightsThe following text is taken from enterprise.ki.se, whichcontains a description of KI’s innovation system.Teachers, researchers and postgraduate students at KIown the proprietary rights to their research results andinventions by virtue of what’s known as the Teacher’sExemption. If your invention is based on your academicresearch at KI, the Teacher’s Exemption means thatyou and your co-inventors own the rights to it. If yourinvention is the product of the joint efforts of several

”The generalwillingness andability in Swedento collaborate aretremendous andthe internationaladvantage of thesecharac-teristicsshould not beunder-estimated”


…teachers, re-searchers andpostgraduatestudents at KIown the proprie-tary rights totheir researchresults andinventions…


research scientists, then a number of people mightown the rights to it. The principle for research-basedinventions is that an invention is owned by all who havecontributed intellectually to its development. ”Contribu-ted intellectually” means that they have added eithersomething other than pure routine work or some criticalelement of the innovation, without which it could nothave been developed.

The situation surrounding the identity of the inventor(s)is generally unique from case to case, and needs to bediscussed amongst those who have taken part in thedevelopment process. There are, however, no generalprinciples stipulating that a professor, supervisor orpostgraduate student automatically owns the proprie-tary rights to inventions based on research conductedin collaboration with others. Proprietary rights toresearch results and inventions can, however, betransferred by contract or agreement.

Collaboration with industry and the commercialisationof research results are made much easier if thesituation concerning the ownership of results andinventions is clarified as early as possible. KarolinskaInstitutet Innovations AB can professionally evaluateany project researchers choose to discuss andestimate an innovation’s commercial possibilities. Thisdisclosure is confidential.

Do you have an idea?Do you have an idea of how your research data couldbe developed into new applications? Has your re-search led to an innovative product that you would liketo patent? Are you interested in starting a company onyour new business concept?If so, contact Karolinska Institutet Innovations AB(http://www.karolinskainnovations.ki.se/)

… the researchbehind an inven-tion is often con-ducted as a jointproject, whichmeans that severalpeople may ownthe rights to oneand the sameidea ...


Postdoc Resourcesat Karolinska Institutet

CoursesThere is a variety of courses available to KI research-ers. Information about courses available can be foundat intra.ki.se/staff. The Department of Learning,Information, Management and Ethics also offersteacher training courses.

Karolinska Institutet Career ServiceKarolinska Institutet Career Service assistsresearchers at KI. The objective is to provide tools forsuccessful careers for researchers and teachers.

Karolinska Institutet Career Service is a service forresearchers who wants to pursue a career within theacademia as well as for those who wants to makethe break into private enterprise or an alternativecareer. Karolinska Institutet Career Service offerscareer workshops with inspiring speakers fromacademia or industry, courses in career planning,CV-writing, interview-techniques, scientific writing,grant writing, mentoring support, networking facilitiesand more.

Karolinska Institutet Career Service publishes aCareer Service newsletter with hot news andinformation about upcoming career-related events.Sign up to receive the newsletter at http://ki.se/careerservice. You are also welcome to send insuggestions of activities you would like KarolinskaInstitutet Career Service to organise.

Visiting research serviceThe Visting research service at Karolinska Institutet isa support service that can help you with general


inquiries regarding your stay in Sweden and socialsecurity. You can contact them at:[email protected]. The visting researchservice website also contains useful information andtips for visitors to KI. You’ll find the website at http://ki.se/vrs.

The LibraryKarolinska Institutet University Library (KIB) is thelargest medical library in Sweden, and a nationalresource library for medicine, including dental sci-ence, nursing science and healthcare. You can findinformation about opening hours, access databasesand download electronic copies of journals on thelibrary website.

Health PromotionAs an employee of Karolinska Institutet you areentitled to one hour’s paid health and fitness sessioneach week. Health Promotion at KI offers access tolectures, individual guidance, events, courses anddiscounts on training equipment and venues. As apostdoc, you are entitled to discount at Friskis&SvettisCampus Solna.

Core FacilitiesKI Core Facilities (CF) is an umbrella term for theservice laboratories, resources and centres ofexcellence whose activities are coordinated, supervi-sed and partly financed by the Board of Research andoperated in collaboration with the local committeesfor Research and Education of the associatedhospitals. Access to CF is open to all researchers atKI. Service Laboratories and Resources operate on afee-per-service basis, while the centres of excellenceaim to disseminate specific technologies and know-how through collaborations. Go to ki.se/corefacility formore information.


Rules and Regulationsat Karolinska Institutet

RegistrationAll postdocs at Karolinska Institutet are to be cent-rally registered. A registration form can bedownloaded from http://ki.se/careerservice. Once youhave completed it, print it out, have it signed by yoursupervisor and the Head of Department, sign ityourself, and send it to the recipient listed on theform.

Please note that this registration does not replacescholarship agreements or employment agreements.

DiplomaAfter you have completed your postdoctoral studies,you will be awarded a diploma, provided that at least50% of your study time was taken up with researchconducted independently of your PhD supervisor andlasting between one and three years. An applicationform can be downloaded from http://ki.se/careerservice.

AgreementsKarolinska Institutet strongly recommends postdocsto sign an agreement with their supervisor regardingthe estimated duration of the project, allocatedresources and expected teaching hours. A templatefor a postdoc-supervisor agreement can be downloa-


Employment rules and regulationsDetailed information regarding your employment atKarolinska Institutet is available in both Swedish andEnglish at intra.ki.se.

Ethical guidelinesEveryone associated with Karolinska Institutet isexpected to comply with KI’s ethical guidelines andcommon values for how we relate to each other andthe outside world. Guidelines for planning,conducting and documenting experimental research,along with guidelines on publication ethics, can befound at http://intra.ki.se/organization/committees/Ethical_Committee/index_en.html

ScholarshipsA scholarship for the pursuit of postdoc studies maybe awarded to a foreign citizen who has obtained adoctorate or the equivalent outside Sweden. The headof the department decides whether the academic andscientific qualifications in question can be regardedas equivalent to at least those of a Swedish doctorate.A scholarship for the pursuit of postdoc studies maybe awarded for up to two years in the five yearsfollowing the public defence (or equivalent) of adoctoral thesis.


ded from http://ki.se/careerservice. For information regarding intellectual property issues,contact the legal advisers at Karolinska Institutet.

Useful LinksKarolinska Institutet Career Service ki.se/careerservice

Website for employees at KI intra.ki.se

Grants Office at KI http://intra.ki.se/finances/funding/grants_office_se.html

Research grants at KI fonder.ki.se

Library at KI http://ki.se/ub

Dept. of Learning, Informatics,Management & Ethics lime.ki.se

Core facilities at KI ki.se/corefacilities

Ethical guidelines at KI http://intra.ki.se/organization/committees/Ethical_Committee/index_en.html

Karolinska Innovations ki.se/innovatios

FASEB individual plan for Postdocs http://opa.faseb.org/pdf/idp.pdf.

ResearchResaerch website www.researchresearch.com

EU career portal for researchers http://ec.europa.eu/eracareers/index_en.cfm

Thanks toDr Lou BrundinProfessor Franscesca ChiodiProfessor Gerald DiBonaAssoc Professor Robert A. HarrisProfessor Hans-Gustaf LjunggrenDr Vivi MalmströmDr Ashley MillerProfessor Karl Tryggvasonfor their valuable contributions to this handbook.

Editor: Anna Rennermalm, Karolinska InstitutetForm: Maja von Krusenstierna, Karolinska Institutet

ISBN 91-85910-87-2

new handbook · 2018. 6. 20. · postdoc at ki. handbook for postdoctoral fellows at karolinska...

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