WE ACCEPT APPLICATIONS FOR THE SEPTEMBER 2011 ENTRY!

Application deadline: 28 February 2011

Application Requirements:

Please fill in this PDF form and use the "Send via E-mail" button. The Graduate School office will receive your data as *.xml document. While you are pressing the button in the PDF document your E-mail programme needs to be active and open. Please send your CV and transcripts/degrees as PDF file in the same E-mail. Only applications that are complete and reach us within the deadline will be accepted.

Please note that we will be in contact with your referees - do not send reference letters to us directly!

Any inquiries related to the application process, eligibility etc. can be sent via online form on "Contact and Staff" or via email to the office.

Here you can read the answers to the frequently asked questions related to the selection workshop.

1. What happens during the selection workshop?

Answer 1: The workshop consists of

• a 7 min power point presentation of your ongoing or previous research project (master’s thesis or the like) - all the candidates present their presentations in public, meaning they listen to each other and are allowed to take part in discussion: 1 whole day
• a half hour interview with 2 -3 professors of our faculty: 1 whole day
• group visits (you will be taken to the labs of your interest and have a chance to talk to the people and group leaders)
• a social dinner (all candidates as well as current IGS DHD students)
  
  

2. When should I arrive, whan should I depart?

Answer 2: As the worskhop starts early in the morning, you should arrive at least ONE DAY before.

On the second day of the worskhop we plan a social dinner for all of the applicants, current Grad School students and group leaders. It starts at 7 p.m.

3. Will I get a travel expenses reimbursement? If yes - when?

Answer 3: We will reimburse all direct travel costs, provided you choose the least expensive travel option (train/flight ticket in 2nd/economy class only). After having booked your trip to Cologne, please let us know your itineraries immediately, as we need to book the hotel rooms for you very soon and therefore need to know your dates of arrival and departure.

Concerning the reimbursement of your costs, please click at this sheet, fill it in and send it to Joanna! Please mark that your full bank details will be needed including international transfer codes. If you are insecure about that you may simply ask your bank about the minimum information for an international money transfer to be successfully completed.

For reimbursement, we will also need all documents on the travel costs. Therefore, please remember to keep ALL ORIGINAL TRAVEL RECEIPTS, starting from bus or tram, train tickets for your trip to the airport as well as flight documents, i.e.: boarding passes and a document containing the price of the flight (in whatever currency) and showing you as the person who has booked it; this could be an invoice or a booking confirmation on your name.

We will also reimburse your visa fees and travel costs for the trip to the embassy to get the visa, in case you provide us with the necessary receipts.

As to your return travel: flight, train and tram or bus in your home country will be reimbursed, but you'll need to send us the original receipts via mail afterwards! So please do not forget to keep those receipts as well!

IMPORTANT INFORMATION: if for any reasons you can not book/ pay the flight yourself, please inform Joanna IMMEDIATELY sending her the following data:

• date when you want to arrive to Cologne
• date of your departure
• airport name from which you want to go (in your country)
• name of the airport which you head to after the workshop (full name: city/ country, plus official abbreviation if known).
  

4. Who will book and pay for my hotel?

Answer 4: The hotel costs including breakfast will directly be booked and paid by the Graduate School, also food and snacks will be provided during the workshop as well as the tram ticket for Cologne.

Please note that food receipts that originate from the journey and travel insurances will not be reimbursed!

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5. How will I get to the hotel?

Answer 5: the way is not direct. You will have to change the train (number S13) to tram (16 or 18) and this one to the other (9).

a.) Cologne/Bonn Airport to Cologne Railway station - with the train number S13:
From the airport you can directly reach Cologne Central Station by train. The airport has its own train station, which is called: “Köln/Bonn Flughafen”(Cologne/Bonn Airport). After arriving in the airport building and having picked up your luggage etc., please stay inside the airport building and follow the signs that direct you towards the train station (red DB letters on the whithe background).You will have to walk a bit, but the train station is inside of the building. Please, if you get lost just ask some people. Most of them do speak English and they will be able to show you the right direction. When you reach the train station of the airport, you will see two platforms below you. Before you move down the escalators, please – if your ticket does not cover the way from Cologne airport to Cologne Central station- buy a ticket at one of the vending machines. If you touch the screen you will find an English-language –option.

Please buy a Ticket “Preisstufe 1b” for 2,40 €. It would be good, if you had some Euro-Coins at that stage. Afterwards, you have to find out which of the two platforms is the one that is leading to Cologne Central Station - there are signs above the escalators (saying Köln Hbf or Messe).

Of course, not every train on the right platform may lead to the central station, so please make sure, you catch a train that does. Afterwards, you can always stay on the same train for approx. 20 minutes and then get off at Cologne Central Station (it will be announced in the train both in German as Köln Hauptbahnhof and in English).

With the following link you may also find it easier to plan your travel form the airport to the central Station:

http://www.koeln-bonn-airport.de/index.php?lang=2&TC=1262881578047

If you open the foregoing link, please choose the option bus and rail services down at the left. You will be led to a further page, where you please choose the kink “Rail services”. The following mask allows you to type in date and time of arrival at the airport train station and then click on “search” to get a list of all trains leaving from the airport. You will have to watch out though, that the train you choose, is serving Cologne central station - in the list of destinations, it is called “Köln Hbf”.

b.) Cologne railway station - Leonet Hotel:

First of all - go to the hotel's webpage and check it's address. You can use Google maps or ViaMicheli to search for the best way from the stations I mention below to the hotel. You can also take our suggetion and follow the map.

After arriving at Cologne Hauptbahnhof (Hbf), please find your way to the Underground Station (U-bahn), which is located inside of the station near the Main Entrance on the left. (please follow the sign of white U on the blue background or a sign with 3 red letters: KVB, direction City Center (Zentrum, Dom).

To get to the tram you have to get down with the escalators and go to the platform where tram number 18 and 19 go direction Klettenberg/Bonn.

Change at the station Neumarkt - go up the escalators and take tram number 9 direction Universität/ Sülz. Get out at the station Mauritiuskirche or the next one: Zülpicher Platz. Follow the map » See the next question for ticket's info.

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6. I use rail pass to take ICE from Frankfurt to Cologne, do I have buy another ticket for U-Bahn (tram)?

Answer 6: Yes or no :) If your train ticket is so called "city plus or NRW+" it means you can get to your final destination (hotel) by U-Bahn without buying additional tickets.
Otherwise you have to buy a ticket from an automat which is in each tram. You have two options:

• for 2.40 euro (inside the tram, tarife/ preisstufe 1b - ONLY with COINS, the machine gives you the change) - from the moment you buy it (it is already stamped and ready to use) you have 90 minutes to go. You can change as many times as you want
• for 1.60 euro (Kurzstrecke) - from the moment you buy it you have 20 minutes to go and MAXIMUM 4 stations. On each tram/bus stop you can find a map of connections so you can count how many stations you need to go. Also with this ticket you can change the lines.

From the station DOM/ HBF (main train station) to the station Mauritiuskirche you can use 1.60€ ticket. If you go one stop further (Zülpicher Platz) you have to buy the 2.40€ ticket. You change at Neumarkt. When needed you can freely change bus/tram.

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7. Where does the selection workshop take place?

Answer 7: In the Institute for Genetics. The address is: Zuelpicher Str. 47a, 50674 Cologne

Those of you who find it helpful to come to the institute one day earlier to learn the way and directions before the workshop are welcome to visit us.

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8. How to get to the Institute for Genetics?

Answer 8: Use the institute's address and the hotel's one to find a route in Google Maps or ViaMichelin

Cologne Hauptbahnhof (Hbf) to the Institute for Genetics:

After arriving at Cologne Hauptbahnhof (Hbf), please find your way to the Underground Station (U-bahn), which is located inside of the station near the Main Entrance on the left. (please follow the sign of white U on the blue background or a sign with 3 red letters: KVB, direction City Center).

To get to the tram you have to get down with the escalators and go to the platform where tram number 18 and 19 go direction Klettenberg/Bonn.

Take out at the station Eifelwall - you will directly see greenhouses that belong to the Biocenter (institutes of genetics, botany, zoology, developmental biology...)

Walk their direction. While passing you should have them on your left. Walk farther until you see our building (Institute for Genetics- photo below)

Hotel Leonet - Institute for Genetics:

Click for the map » the distance is so short that you can walk - average time: 15 minutes. If you're not a walker take a tram number 9 from the station Zülpicher Platz and go direction Universität/ Sülz. Get out at the next station: Dasselstraße/ Bahnhof Süd/ Bf Süd. From here you should already see our white-blue building (photo below)

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9. What is the closest international airport I can book my flight to?

Answer 9: The Cologne/ Bonn airport (CGN) is the one you will choose as the end destination airport while traveling from European countries.

For the intercontinental flights or from the airports without direct connection you can choose Frankfurt am Main (Frankfurt (M)/ FRA) which is within 1-hour high speed train journey from Cologne or Munich (MUC) which is within 5-hours journey with a high speed train.

Then, you may take a flight from Munich or Frankfurt to Cologne, but the easiest and fastest way is actually when you take a flight to Frankfurt and then change to the high speed train. They go almost every 15 minutes and you end up in the Cologne's city center. See question 5b and 6 for info how to get from the railway station to the hotel. And question 7 about how to get to the Institute for Genetics.

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10. How to buy a ticket out of a ticket machine?

Answer 10a: A ticket from/to Frankfurt/ Munich to/ from Cologne you will buy in the automat marked with orange circle.

You will find it in may places all around railway stations. Sometimes directly on the platforms, sometimes in corridors of a station.

This automats you will use through touch screen.

When you approach it, first change the language by touching the international symbol with respective flags. Approve with OK.

Now, you will see a welcome screen with different options: choose TICKETS

The automat will lead you though the following steps.

The starting station is by default the one where you buy the respective ticket. The destination is:

• Köln Hbf - for Cologne main railway station
• Frankfurt am Main Flughafen - for Frankfurt Airport

In the next step choose the TICKET PURCHASE (step by step)

Options to choose:

• 1 adult
• no Bahn Card
• 2nd class
• Immediately or choose a date in the future
• all incl. ICE
• no return

Click on: CONNECTIONS

For the fastest connection Frankfurt Airport-Cologne main station choose the high speed train ICE.

Choose your desired connection. The normal price for Frankfurt-Cologne ICE ticket is:

• 61 EUR (Normalpreis)
• 63.20 EUR (Normalpreis mit NRW+) - with this ticket you can continue your trip in Cologne by tram/ bus to reach the hotel without bying any additional tickets

You can go on with a reservation of a seat, with the following options:

• Quiet Zone ICE - where no laud converations are allowed and you should not talk on your mobile phone in a way that disturbs the others. Turn your telephone ring down.
• Mobile phone zone/ Handy
• Computer - where you can plug in your laptop computer

PAYMENT:

To pay insert coins or notes - the automat gives you change, unless it says: BITTE BEZAHLEN SIE PASSEND. It means change can not be given.

To pay with a card insert it and watch the commands on the touch screen and small card reader screen. Follow the instructions on both of the screens.

Answer 10b: A ticket from the Cologne Airport to Cologne Main Station and further to the hotel you will buy from a machine marked with a purple circle.

This machine accepts only coins and notes, where the accepted notes are indicated on the screen.

To choose your destination, find its code on the list. If I remember correctly, for Köln Hbf it's 2000.

You must choose the correct ticket type in the middle pannel with buttons. It should be is an adult/ Erwachsene for 2.40 EUR.

Control the price on the screen. If it's correct insert coins or notes. The machine gives you change, unless it says: BITTE BEZAHLEN SIE PASSEND. It means change can not be given.

The ticket you receive is valid for the following 90 minutes and you can change tram/ bus lines as many times as you need.

After changing to another line you need no other ticket, unless your trip takes longer than 90 minutes.

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