Fri, 26 Feb 2027, 9:00–12:00 / Session: Leading projects

Target group: postdoctoral researchers

This session focuses on how postdocs can lead academic projects when they have responsibility but limited formal authority. Participants work with their own current projects to clarify goals, identify key contributors and stakeholders, make roles and expectations more explicit, and create simple routines for tracking progress and addressing delays early.

This session provides a useful foundation for the later sessions on project problem-solving and AI-supported project management, but it can also be attended as a standalone session.

Objectives:

• Clarify your role and responsibilities as a project lead in postdoctoral settings

• Strengthen your ability to define project goals, roles, expectations, and simple routines for tracking progress

Facilitator: Dr Daniel Friedrich (Impulsplus)
Venue: Zoom

Fri, 26 Feb 2027, 13:00–14:30 / Session: Solving project management problems

Target group: postdoctoral researchers

This session is a practical project clinic built around the concrete project management challenges participants are currently facing. Using these themes as starting points, participants examine what is driving their project management difficulties. They learn to distinguish between problems of project clarity, stakeholder alignment, workload and prioritisation, and day-to-day coordination. The focus is on identifying realistic options for intervention that fit the constraints typical of academic research environments.

This session builds on the foundations laid in the first session, but it can also be attended as a standalone session.

Requirements: Before the workshop, participants are expected to submit concerns, questions, or recurring difficulties from their own research projects. These inputs are used to shape the session and select the most relevant themes for the group.

Objectives:

• Analyse current project challenges from your own research context and identify their likely underlying causes.

• Develop realistic intervention options that fit the constraints, responsibilities, and authority structures of academic research environments.

Facilitator: Dr Daniel Friedrich (Impulsplus)
Venue: Zoom

Fri, 26 Feb 2027, 15:00–17:00 / Session: Using AI in project management

Target group: postdoctoral and doctoral researchers

This session provides an overview of how AI can be integrated meaningfully and responsibly into project management in research environments. Participants explore concrete use cases such as breaking down projects into work packages, preparing meetings, drafting stakeholder communication, identifying risks, documenting decisions, and reviewing progress. They also discuss where AI support is useful, where it can be misleading, and which types of project information should not be shared with external tools.

This session builds on the foundations laid in the first session, but it can also be attended as a standalone session.

Objectives:

• Identify meaningful use cases for AI support in academic project management

• Practise using AI tools for selected project management tasks, such as work breakdowns, meeting preparation, stakeholder communication, risk analysis, or decision documentation

• Assess the limits and risks of AI-supported project management in research environments.

Facilitator: Dr Daniel Friedrich (Impulsplus)
Venue: Zoom