^{Photocredit: Hoda El Mahgoub}
The Cairo Liaison Offices of Freie Universität Berlin, the Technical University Munich, the Technical University Berlin and the Philipps University Marburg in cooperation with the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the German Academic Exchange Service and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina successfully concluded on April 18^th 2020 their first webinar: Your Postdoc Career in Germany - Opportunities for Outstanding Scientists!

The initial format of this webinar was planned to be a workshop dedicated to outstanding postdoc scholars that finished their PhD within the last 8 years and that are interested in pursuing their postdoc career in Germany. While 373 applications were submitted for the workshop that was supposed to take place in Alexandria, 165 applications were submitted for the webinar format.

Finally, and due to the given circumstances and with the help of modern technology and the internet around 120 postdoc scholars from all over Egypt attended the webinar that lasted over 3 hours. 58.9% of the webinar participants had a research background in Natural or Life Sciences, 20.6% had an engineering sciences background and 20.6% came from the humanities and social sciences disciplines.

Freie Universität Berlin offers various postdoc options such as the fellowships offered through their own programs or such as current available job offers at various departments or at its graduate schools. Among the various postdoc opportunities that are currently available at Freie Universität Berlin that were presented during the webinar is the Rising Star 2.0 Program of the Department of Biology, Chemistry and Pharmacy. The Rising Star 2.0 program aims to attract top-early-career-scientists who have completed their doctorate within the past four years. The Rising Star fellows will take part in the research activities of their host-research groups, will be absorbed into existing research networks (CRCs, BBIB, PhD research groups, etc.) and will publish their results together with them. The deadline to apply for this fellowship is May 31^st, 2020.

With presentations from all participating institutions, the postdoc scholars were flooded with very useful and interesting information on the vast opportunities that lie ahead of them in Germany and specifically at the participating institutions. After participating in the webinar 66% of the attendees confirmed that they are now encouraged to do their postdoc in Germany. The high number of the attendees that remained as high till the end as well as the numerous questions that were asked throughout the webinar show how immense the interest in the German research landscape remains even in difficult times as the time we are currently living in.

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