The PhD degrees are granted by the departments of Goethe University Frankfurt. The FIGSS PhD students are typically funded by research grants to their advisors and are expected to obtain their PhD degrees within 3 years. Current enrolment is about 60 students with roughly half of them being foreign nationals.

Next to research training, the doctoral education in FIGSS comprises various courses taught by FIAS Fellows such as a base course in Methods for the Study of Complex Systems as well as many specialised courses in the different research areas of the institute. In addition, students can choose from a wide range of transferrable skill courses offered by GRADE, the Goethe Graduate Academy of Goethe University.

A core activity of FIGSS is its weekly interdisciplinary seminar, where FIGSS students and post-docs of the institute report on the status of their research. Special care is taken that the talks are accessible to an interdisciplinary audience. In 2016 presentations ranged from topics like “What is a neuron?”, via the question “Why do we perceive the world in 3-D?” to “Magneto-hydrodynamical numerical simulations of heavy-ion collisions”. 

In order to apply for the FIGSS, interested students should apply directly to the FIAS fellow, they want to work with, and ask for open positions.