Using AI Tools Effectively – for PhDs and Postdocs

Finding and understanding literature, writing academic texts, and creating scientific figures

For up to 14 doctoral and postdoctoral researchers, in German or English

2 days – online or on-site

Trainer: Dr. Matthias Mayer

Your Benefit

In this workshop, you will learn how to use AI tools purposefully and ethically across key parts of the research workflow—from finding and understanding literature to academic writing and visual science communication. The workshop introduces you to some of the most useful AI tools currently available and gives you the opportunity to try out those that are accessible and most relevant to your own research. Through practical exercises, you will explore where AI can genuinely improve efficiency and quality—and how to maintain critical judgment, scientific responsibility, and ownership of your work.

Goals

  • Identify which AI tools can support you at key stages of the research workflow
  • Find, understand, compare, and synthesize scientific literature
  • Improve academic writing through structured AI-supported creation and revision
  • Evaluate AI outputs critically and maintain scientific responsibility

Content

  • Overview of powerful AI tools for the scientific research workflow
  • Opportunities, limitations, data protection, and responsible use
  • Finding and exploring relevant scientific literature
  • Reading and understanding scientific papers efficiently
  • Comparing and synthesizing findings across multiple studies
  • Using AI as a critical partner for academic writing
  • Identifying unsupported claims, overclaiming, and logical gaps
  • Improving structure, clarity, and scientific language
  • Creating and refining your scientific figures
  • Developing scientific presentations, storylines, and key messages
  • Exchanging AI experiences and recommendations with other participants
  • Setting up your own practical AI-supported research workflow

Methods

Trainer input, short demonstrations, hands-on exercises with shared examples and participants’ own research materials, partner and small-group work, discussion, and mutual feedback. You will test selected AI approaches on your own research questions, papers, texts, or figures and identify what works well, where limitations arise, and what needs to be checked critically. By the end of the workshop, you will have tested several AI-supported workflows and developed a personal approach for integrating AI meaningfully into your own research practice.

Participants are expected to bring selected materials from their own research and set up free accounts for relevant AI tools in advance—details will be provided after registration.

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