CASUS participates in effort to expand researchers’ data science skills
The Helmholtz School for Integrated Data Science in Environmental and Life Sciences, short IDEAS, is welcoming applications. The new graduate school aims to train the next generation of data scientists who combine data-driven methods with key challenges in the environmental, health and life sciences. IDEAS runs for three years. Applications for the first round can be handed in until mid-February. Among the exciting projects to be tackled are two by the CASUS research team leaders Justin Calabrese and Michael Bussmann.
IDEAS is a joint graduate school of two Helmholtz centers: Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) and Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden Rossendorf (HZDR) with its Görlitz-based Center for Advanced Systems Understanding (CASUS). It is run in close collaboration with University of Leipzig and Technische Universität Dresden.
As part of the Helmholtz Information and Data Science Academy (HIDA) network, IDEAS is the seventh Information & Data Science School within the Helmholtz Association. Its goal is to educate doctoral researchers who combine innovative data science approaches – including machine learning as well as generative and explainable AI – with real-world applications in fields such as bioinformatics, climate and biodiversity research, toxicology, sustainability, or cancer research.
Press contact:
Dr. Martin Laqua
Officer Communications, Press and Public Relations
Center for Advanced Systems Understanding (CASUS) at HZDR
Image: Frank Bierstedt/HZDR
Among the eight projects offered in the first IDEAS round CASUS is involved in two:
A key feature of IDEAS is the Y-supervision model: each PhD project is jointly supervised by mentors from domain science (typically from a Helmholtz center) and data science (typically from a university). This is complemented by an individually tailored curriculum as well as cross-site formats such as seminars, retreats, and hackathons that foster scientific exchange and collaboration.
The first PhD cohort is scheduled to start in April 2026, and the call for the initial PhD positions is already open. Future cohorts are planned to begin at the start of each year. The pool of IDEAS principal investigators is intentionally dynamic; a call for additional project ideas will be launched later this year.
More information: https://ideas.helmholtz.de/
Press contact:
Dr. Martin Laqua
Officer Communications, Press and Public Relations Center for Advanced Systems Understanding (CASUS) at HZDR