Group Coachings and Events
Join our group coaching sessions and career events to connect with peers, exchange experiences, and explore opportunities within and beyond academia.
Take your next career step with confidence. Join our group coaching sessions and career events to connect with peers, exchange experiences, and explore opportunities within and beyond academia. From job fairs and job shadowing to leadership programmes and funding workshops, these initiatives offer hands-on insights, networking opportunities, and practical tools to help you navigate your professional journey.
Interuniversity Job Market
The cross-disciplinary Interuniversity Job Market for Young Researchers, co-organised by Ghent University, KU Leuven, VUB, UA, and UHasselt, offers a unique opportunity to connect in person with over 100 companies and organisations.
Gain insights into different industries, expand your network, join workshops, and sharpen your interview skills. In the lead-up to the fair, you can also benefit from online CV analysis, speed career coaching, and a series of online career lunches to help you prepare.
News and highlights from previous editions are available on the site.
Job Shadowing
Job shadowing offers postdoctoral researchers the opportunity to explore careers beyond academia by experiencing the work environment first-hand.
Participants spend one or several days within an organisation, observing professionals in their daily roles, attending meetings or trainings, and engaging in informal conversations to better understand specific job functions, required skills, and company culture.
This “test-drive” of a career helps you assess your fit with a particular sector or organisation, expand your professional network, and gain valuable insights to support your career choices.
For practical information, visit the Doctoral School page or the VLIR page.
Funding Academy Day
Designed for staff, PhD candidates, and postdocs, this annual event brings together experts, funding advisors, and experienced researchers to help you explore and secure funding opportunities across all career stages.
Through inspiring plenary talks, thematic workshops, and interactive sessions, you’ll gain practical insights into grant writing, academic and entrepreneurial funding, international collaboration, and talent attraction. Whether you aim to strengthen your grant proposal skills, launch your academic career, or build bridges with industry, the Funding Academy Day offers the tools, connections, and expertise to take your next step with confidence.
Edition 2025:
- Programme
- Presentations: (employees only)
- Plenary: How to avoid killer mistakes in grant applications? (Margo Baele and Frederik Vandecasteele)
- Specific track: Career boost (young researchers)
- Entrepreneurial careers (Ann Zwertvaegher and Kamila Mascart)
- Academic careers (Frederik Vandecasteele and Thijs de Jaegher)
- Collaboration (postdocs and professors)
- Local charm (Cédrique Walthoff-Borm, An Moors, Sien Smits, Fien Elderweirdt and Ann Zwertvaegher)
- Global flavours (Sylvia Burssens, Steven Schoofs, Sien Smits and Andries Verspeeten)
- More presentations
Keep an eye out for next year’s edition!
Winter and Summer Schools
- KBC PhD Winter School: KBC hosts exclusive Winter Schools for selected PhD candidates and postdocs from Belgian universities. The most recent edition, PhD Winter School 2025 – Innovation as a Common Denominator for Sustainability, focused on the pivotal role of innovation in driving sustainable progress.
- Other Winter and Summer Schools:
- Let’s talk science – summer school on Science Communication
- Flames Summer school - summer school on Statistics, Qualitative Methods and Data Science
- Bio business Winter School
- Bio business Summer School
Other events
- The BCF Career Event is the largest career fair in the Life Sciences sector — the go-to meeting place for anyone active or aspiring to work in Bio/Life Sciences, Chemistry, Food, or Pharma. It offers a unique chance to connect directly with a wide range of employers and organizations that can support your professional growth.
- Organised annually by the PhD Society Leuven, the PhD Job Fair brings together companies from diverse industries eager to meet PhD candidates and postdocs from all fields. Whether you’re exploring future career options or actively looking for your next opportunity, this fair provides an open setting to engage with employers, discover possibilities, and get valuable insights into the job market.
Previous Job Events and Campaigns
2025
More and more PhD holders are discovering rewarding careers at Flemish Universities of Applied Sciences and Arts (hogescholen), where they make an impact through research, education, and policy. The PhD Talent Meets Hogescholen campaign shines a light on these exciting opportunities.
👉 Explore the campaign on LinkedIn.