05.10.2022

Kick-off meeting of the RTG

On the 5th of October, members of the RTG 2753 came together for the first time in person for a Kick-off meeting in the premises of the Dialoghaus Hamburg, in the middle of the beautiful UNESCO-protected Speicherstadt.

At the beginning of the meeting, the speaker and initiator of the RTG, Lars Schwabe, warmly welcomed the student members and introduced the RTG. In particular, he highlighted the aims and vision of the RTG, its specific constitution, as well as its international nature. The PhD students and associate members of the RTG then had an opportunity to get to know each other with the help of fun ice-breaker games.

This was followed by the presentation and discussion of the qualification programme of the RTG. Lars Schwabe laid down the core elements of the diverse qualification programme for the upcoming semesters, as well as the opportunities with regards to supervision, mentoring and career development. The students then got to vote on the candidacies of an RTG student representative and deputy. We are very pleased that Josefine Hebisch and Kim Sobania were elected for these important roles, which give the students a channel to help shape the RTG.

In the second part of the day, the PIs of the RTG from Universität Hamburg and the UKE, as well as a Benno Roozendaal from the Donders Institute, joined the meeting to introduce their labs and their research. The introduction round by the PIs not only highlighted the spectrum of the research fields and methods which the RTG embraces, but also gave the student members lots of impulses with regard to considering their lab rotation plans and wishes for mentoring teams.

The afternoon programme of the Kick-off meeting involved talks by two of the PIs of the RTG. Jan Haaker from the UKE shared the results of his research under the headline “Questions for translational threat research”. Tania Lincoln then gave a captivating talk under the topic “Translating findings on emotional information processing to psychological interventions for people with delusions: progress and challenges“.

In the final official part, the election of the RTG spokesperson and steering committee members took place. Lars Schwabe, Anja Riesel and Tina Lonsdorf all got confirmed in their respective roles and will be shaping the RTG.

After a busy day, it was finally time to celebrate the official start of the RTG with a glass of champagne and an informative exchange!