Surprise! Embracing the unexpected in academia

This year, we focus on the unexpected in academia: Surprising research results, unconventional approaches that are high-risk, and career journeys that surprised the people taking them. And most of all, we will explore how to cultivate an attitude of openness to serendipity.

Since 2022, the PostDoc Office, and then the Research Careers Campus, have hosted an annual gathering in the Unicorn Rooftop to explore how to create a research environment in which both researchers and excellent research are thriving. Again in 2027, we invite researchers of all career stages, higher education experts, university leadership, and all those interested to come along, discuss, and network!

Preliminary schedule:

• 2pm: Welcome interview 
  • Joachim Reidl, Vice-Rector for Research, University of Graz
• 2:15pm: In conversation: Four career paths that surprised those that took them
  • Raffael Himmelsbach (Founder, Raffael Himmelsbach Consulting e.U., Vienna)
  • tbc
  • tbc
  • tbc
• 3pm: Lecture: Risky research that goes wrong – and why it still matters
  • Selhattin Danisman, Programme Director at VolkswagenStiftung
• 3:40pm: Interactive lecture: How to equip yourself for the unexpected
  • tbc
• 4:15pm: Three projects in three minutes: The 2026 Research Culture and Integrity Ambassadors

• 4:30pm: Mingling, surprising soup and drinks

  Hosts: Gerald Lind & Johanna Stadlbauer (RCC, University of Graz)

***Register until April 15 here.***

Full programme will to be announced in January 2027!

Speaker biographies:

Selhattin Danisman: Programme Director at the Volkswagen Foundation, Germany's largest private, non-profit organization engaged in the promotion and support of academic research (headquartered in Hannover). In a statement on funding goals, the foundation writes on their website: “We are not afraid of taking risks – a rare characteristic for a funding body – and realize that promising projects may not always reach their goal.” Four key principles are among their guidelines: Stimuli for new ideas, Funding for risk-laden projects, Support across borders, and Impetus to reshape structures. Dr Danisman is responsible for the scheme “Momentum - Förderung für Erstberufene”, and has a background in molecular biology research and teaching.

Joachim Reidl: The Rectorate member responsible for the Research Careers Campus, Reidl has been Vice-Rector for Research at the University of Graz since 2021. A university professor of microbiology at the Institute of Molecular Biosciences at the University of Graz since 2007, and co-referee at the Austrian Science Fund FWF since 2016, Reidl is a specialist in bacterial infectiology and the modes of action of antibiotics.

Raffael Himmelsbach: With his consultancy, founded in 2025, Raffael Himmelsbach offers coaching, training, and process facilitation for people and organisations in research and healthcare. He obtained a PhD in Political Science from the Université de Lausanne in 2014. His subsequent research career took him to Linköpping University, Aarhus University, and NTNU Trondheim, before he became Co-Director of the multidisciplinary Research Group Senescence and Healing of Wounds at Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft, Vienna, a role he held until September 2024.