Build the skills that drive academic success.
Do the academic work that matters, and do it well.
Academic expertise alone isn’t enough.
Academic careers demand deep disciplinary expertise. But expertise in a research field doesn’t automatically prepare someone for every academic responsibility.
Communicating complex ideas, making sound decisions, bringing projects to completion, supporting colleagues and leading people all require additional skills.
These skills can be developed systematically. Practical training helps researchers apply them to the challenges they face in their own academic work.
Courses & programmes you can join
PAPER WRITING ACADEMY
Next start: 15 Feb 2027
8-week writing programme
PHD SUCCESS LAB
Next start: 8 Mar 2027
12-week mentoring programme
HOW TO IMPROVE PHD SUPERVISION
Next date: 10–11 Dec 2026
1.5-day course
RESPONSIBLE USE OF AI FOR ACADEMIC AUTHORS
Next date: 2 Dec 2026
0.5-day live-virtual
HOW TO REVIEW A PAPER
Self-paced · Start anytime
OTHER COURSES & SERVICES
All courses & formats
Strengthen researcher development at
your institution.
Every university and research institute has its own priorities for developing researchers.
We work with institutions to complement their existing programmes with practical training, targeted workshops and longer-term development opportunities.
Our expertise covers three connected areas:
Our approach to practical academic training.
Academic challenges rarely disappear simply because someone understands the theory.
What makes a difference is knowing how to approach a problem, choosing the right steps and applying what you’ve learned to your own work.
That’s how we teach at TRESS ACADEMIC.
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Step 01
Analyse the problem
Understand the challenge, identify what matters and decide where to focus.
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Step 02
Go step by step
Learn a systematic approach to make complex academic tasks manageable.
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Step 03
Work on your solution
Apply the approach to your own research, writing, supervision or leadership challenge.
Our aim is not simply to help you solve the challenge you bring to a course. We want you to develop an approach you can use again when new academic challenges arise.
Experience that researchers and institutions trust.
Since 2007, we have worked with researchers and institutions across disciplines and career stages. Our experience is built on practical teaching, long-term relationships and helping participants apply what they learn.
- 9,300+Researchers supported
- 725+Courses & programmes delivered
- 80+Institutional clients worldwide
- 55+Nationalities among participants
- 19+Years developing researchers
Partnerships that last. Some institutions have worked with us for more than 15 years.
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I attended courses with Gunther and Bärbel during my PhD, which helped me cope with the challenges of doctoral research and find my way towards publishing in peer-reviewed journals. … TRESS ACADEMIC is a real booster for strategic writing and for shaping academic careers.
Prof. Dr. Martin Manhembué -
Recently, we wanted to try something new and asked Bärbel to run a course called ‘Improving PhD supervision’ for the supervisors at our institute. … to our surprise, our professors were really enthusiastic about it! … In the end, all professors were adamant that the course should be made mandatory for all supervisors!
Dr. B. Elija Bleher -
I took TRESS ACADEMIC’s PhD and paper-writing courses during the first year of my doctorate and they were absolutely essential in setting my project onto the right track. … The lessons learned about academic writing are useful beyond the doctorate …
Dr. Arttu Jutila -
TRESS ACADEMIC was a very important partner for us from the beginning. Not only are they professional and communicative, but they are also always willing to find individual solutions. This has made our cooperation very effective, uncomplicated and extremely pleasant.
Dr. Andrea Flora Bauer -
As a new PhD supervisor, I found it extremely valuable to learn about challenges that I had not even considered before. The practical techniques, solutions, and experiences shared throughout the course have given me useful tools for building a strong supervisor–candidate relationship and creating and monitoring effective project plans. …
Erfan Tajalli-Ardekani -
We require not only a perfect curriculum that guarantees training success, but also a willingness and ability to deal with heterogeneous groups, strong individual characters, institutional constraints and the very special atmosphere every research institution has. We experienced all of this with TRESS ACADEMIC on many occasions, and have never been disappointed. …
Dr. Claudia Hanfland
Practical insights & free resources.
Explore ideas, advice and practical resources for writing, publishing, supervision and academic leadership.
From our SMART ACADEMIC blog
#161: How Should PhD Supervisors Respond When Students Use AI?
PhD students are increasingly using generative AI (LLMs) to write, revise and communicate their research. For supervisors, this raises a difficult question: how can they recognise what students genuinely understand when AI can produce...
#160: Research Communication in the Age of AI: Why Academic Writing Still Matters
AI can now produce fluent academic text within seconds. So why should researchers still learn academic writing? This article argues that academic writing is not simply text production. It is the process of making research communicable...
#159: Why Academic Writing Problems Are Often Institutional Support Problems
When researchers struggle to publish, institutions often look first at the individual: their writing habits, motivation, confidence, or time management. Yet many publication delays are not simply individual writing problems. They are...
Free guides & resources
Practical tools and materials you can use in your academic work.
Join the TRESS ACADEMIC Tribe
Receive practical ideas and advice for your academic work.
Ready to take your next step?
For researchers
Find a course or programme that helps you move forward.
For institutions
Let’s discuss how we can support your researchers and development priorities.
Have a question? Contact us