GROW Empowerment Program
As part of the action plan, the Graduate Campus has launched the Empowerment Program GROW, designed to support first-generation* and/or female** postdoctoral researchers pursuing academic careers. In each edition, 16 postdocs benefit from one-to-one mentoring, targeted workshops, and peer exchange opportunities.
*Researchers whose parents do not have a university degree
**Trans, inter and nonbinary persons are eligible as well
The first group (GROW 2025/2026) is currently completing the program. A new call for two additional groups, which will run in parallel, is open (call and selection process). The application deadline for the new groups is 8 March 2026.
Table of contents
Mentoring
Over the course of a year, the selected participants have three one-to-one meetings with a mentor to discuss their personal and professional development. The mentors are experienced academics who are selected together with the participants, with a focus on the program’s thematic priorities. The program coordination team facilitates the initial contact.
Workshops
The selected participants will attend five workshops.
| Grant Writing Ingo Hebach, UZH Research & Grants Office |
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Participants will learn the basics of third-party funding and how the evaluation procedure is implemented in practice. Derived from this, some fundamental recommendations for writing a good proposal are explained. Afterwards, we will practice them with some real proposals. After the course, the participants will be able to avoid typical mistakes in proposal writing and will know how to write a competitive proposal. Participants can make use of individual coaching with the trainer within 6 months after the course |
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| Life Balance Tobias Oberli, Fachstelle UND |
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| Balancing the different areas of life, managing work and everyday life, always poses new challenges. This workshop addresses personal values, priorities and plans and considers individual stage of life to create an action plan for optimizing life balance. | |
| Speech, Voice & Confidence Isabelle Paris Coach, voice actress, actress |
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| Performance skills – voice, speech and impact, for an authentic and self-confident appearance. This course is designed to help communicate with clarity, authenticity and confidence by harnessing the power of voice and speech. Combining vocal training, speech techniques and psychological strategies, it helps participants build a strong, persuasive presence in both personal and professional settings. | |
| Career Sponsorship & Networking Graduate Campus in cooperation with UZH Equality, Diversity, Inclusion (EDI) |
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| Career sponsorship and networking accelerates careers. What transformative power career sponsorship and networking have, what it involves and the right use of it – we provide answers to these and more questions. Keynote and panel event/workshop. | |
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Appointment Training |
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| A systematically and purposefully preparation for the application and appointment process by a comprehensive training in the basics and procedures involved in university appointment processes. After the workshop, all participants receive individual coaching. | |
Peer-Mentoring
The program provides an opportunity for informal and collaborative discussion on topics and formats that participants choose themselves. The initial meetings for these peer exchange sessions will be supported by organisational resources, as well as input from workshop leaders.