YRC › FAQ

What are the benefits of becoming a YRC member?

As a member of the YRC you will always be up to date about activities that take place within STRUCTURES. You can also apply for travel grants in order to get financial support to go to conferences, summer/winter schools and other scientific journeys. Additionally the YRC is offering financial support to any member or group of members who wish to organize events on their own.

I would like to become more active in the YRC.

We are always happy to welcome new active members! We have regular meetings in the brand new STRUCTURES offices in Mathematikon. If you want to join us, drop a mail at structuresyrc(at)thphys.uni-heidelberg.de. Events like brainstorming sessions will be announced via our internal mailing list.

I am a student and my supervisor is part of STRUCTURES. Does this mean that I am automatically part of the YRC?

No, if you are not directly funded by STRUCTURES you are not automatically part of the YRC. However, any student who is either part of a PI's group or works on a topic that is related to one of the CPs can apply to become a member of the YRC by sending a mail with their name, their supervisor and institute to structuresyrc(at)thphys.uni-heidelberg.de. A good indicator to find out whether you are already part of the YRC is if you receive e-mails from us or not.

I am not part of a group of one of the PIs but would be interested in becoming a YRC member.

Anyone can apply for a YRC membership. If you can draw a clear connection between your work and topics covered in STRUCTURES, and argue why a membership would be beneficial to you and the YRC you can get accepted as a member. Whether the application is granted or not has to be decided by the YRC speakers.

Do I have any responsibilities if I become a YRC member?

As a YRC member you have no scientific obligations and can choose to be as active as you want. Once a year you will have to participate in a 5min survey to keep the funding giver DFG - Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft up to date about people being enrolled in their projects., as STRUCTURES is a DFG funded Cluster of Excellence. Keep in mind, though, that the YRC lives from the impulses and ideas of its members. The more active the community, the more benefit every member draws from it.

How can I apply for funding?

Three times a year the YRC speakers open a funding call that all members can apply for. You can get funding for travel grants, online equipment, books, as well as online courses. For more details, check out the section on the funding calls.

I received travel funding. What do I have to do before travelling? How does the reimbursement work?

All of this is detailed in a specific FAQ in the Funding Calls section. It can be found here.

I want to organize a workshop/event myself. How should I proceed?

If you have an idea for a workshop, want to invite an external speaker to give a talk or have other exciting ideas for possible events you can always contact us at structuresyrc(at)thphys.uni-heidelberg.de.

What are the tasks of the YRC speakers?

Officially the YRC is run by a speaker and a deputy speaker. They are elected once a year in the YRC's general assembly. The speakers have several functions:

• The first speaker is part of the Steering Board and is therefore the voice of the YRC in the decision process of the cluster.
• Decisions on membership applications are taken together by both speakers.
• The speakers prepare the funding calls and evaluate the applications together.
• The speakers speak on behalf of the YRC in the general assembly.

What are CPs and EPs?

CP stands for Comprehensive Project and denotes the 7 main projects of STRUCTURES. Each CP is a collaboration of many groups and can span a variety of topics. EPs are smaller, more speculative Exploratory Projects with maximum two years of funding that investigate new ideas and questions that come up. Every member of STRUCTURES can propose an EP as a single person or in a small group of members. Also non-members can participate.

What are PIs?

PI stands for Principal Investigator and is the term used for scientists that work on the CPs.

What is the steering board?

The steering board is an assembly of 5 PIs, the speaker of the YRC and the managing director as permanent guest. The board takes all kind of managing decisions for STRUCTURES, such as the evaluation of new research proposals (for example for EPs) and the filling of positions within STRUCTURES and prepares all decision proposals for the General Assembly.