As carrying out research in the 2000s will not be the same as doing research in 2020/2030, one innovative aspect of the program is to offer an extensive and prospective view of research to candidates with the goal to prepare them to become the researchers of tomorrow. The candidates’ education will not be only a scientific research program, but also instruction on how to develop their understanding of research, their own roles/responsibilities and their personal/professional abilities. The program's ambitious aim is to prepare the young researchers for the careers of tomorrow. In parallel to high-level research activities, PhD candidates will follow different courses or training encompassing 7 main points:

1. Doing research: How to address research activities using efficient methods and tools: scientific upgrades and courses, multi-disciplinary scientific approach, practice of documentary research, basic tools.
2. Managing research: How to supervise/coordinate research projects: daily occupations of a supervisor, project management and teamwork, setting up proposals.
3. Developing research: How to innovate and transfer research results, sensitization to entrepreneurship, start-up development, patent processes, and intellectual property rights.
4. Imaging research: How to deal with imagination, creativity and complexity in research. How to develop new points of view to tackle the challenges and provoke breakthrough.
5. Thinking research: The role of research and its social impact, the new challenges for people and society, how to set up the Society of Knowledge, the European position and strategy.
6. Communicating research: How to communicate the research work: presenting the research results, international conferences attendance, scientific report and dissemination.
7. The candidates: the core of the training activities is to develop the personal and professional abilities of the candidates. All the aforementioned activities, together with specific training and the mentoring system, will help them to discover their own skills, abilities and motivations, and to prepare for recruitment.

During the annual Winter School, doctoral candidates will follow a specific common training program to address these main points. Active pedagogy will be developed and candidates will work in small groups (from 2 to 5 people) on mini-projects, case studies, working groups, simulated situations, workshops, and so on. Candidates will also use their own research challenges to feed the activities. Professionals from the partners' institutions and companies and more advanced candidates will run the groups. Hence a “cohort” spirit will be developed among the candidates. The annual Winter School will also bring together all the stakeholders of the program, including Key groups and Committees, Coordination Office, Supervisors, Doctoral Candidates, Companies, the T.I.M.E. Association and EU representatives. It will be organised each year by a different partner. DE-TUD will host the first one in 2015 with the first cohort of candidates and a detailed program for the first session.