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Good practice Imported

Dual Career Netzwerk Deutschland — A Quality-Assured National Network for Partner Employment

Germany · Berlin · See the Germany profile · See the Berlin profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 27% 76/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Founded in Berlin in 2010 by 20 university dual-career services, DCND now links over 50 German universities, research institutes and regional networks that jointly advise around 1,000 relocating partners of recruited researchers each year.

20
Founding member organisations (2010)
50+
Current member organisations
~1,000
Dual-career partners advised per year
50-100 EUR
Annual membership fee
Dual Career Netzwerk Deutschland — A Quality-Assured National Network for Partner Employment

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Dual Career Netzwerk Deutschland (DCND)
Period
2010–present
Keywords
higher education, research policy, talent retention, dual-career support

Context

Universities recruiting international researchers and professors often lose top candidates when the accompanying partner cannot find comparable employment in the new city; 'dual-career' support services address this directly. DCND, founded in 2010 in Berlin by 20 founding dual-career services, sets shared best-practice standards, trains advisors and connects member institutions' partner-employment programmes rather than running placements centrally.

Activities

Membership fees (EUR 50-100/year) keep the network self-funded.

Results

Per DCND's own member directory and the German Academic International Network (GAIN), the network has grown to more than 50 member organisations -- universities, Fachhochschulen, research institutes and regional dual-career networks such as DCN Ruhr and DCN Mitteldeutschland -- that collectively advise roughly 1,000 dual-career partners a year on relocation employment options. An independent five-year retrospective by the GESIS Center of Excellence Women and Science documented the network's rapid growth from 20 founding members.

Conclusions

Like most sources on DCND, the retrospective does not report a controlled measure of how many recruitments the service actually saved; formal outcome evaluation remains the weakest part of an otherwise well-documented practice.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k) — Self-funded via member dues of EUR 50-100/year; no central placement budget.
Time to results
Long (> 3 years) — Founded 2010 with 20 members; grown to 50+ by present day.
Staffing & skills
Member-institution dual-career advisors, DCND coordination (best-practice standards, advisor training)

Conditions for success

  • Shared best-practice standards across member institutions rather than centralised placement
  • Low-cost membership-fee model (EUR 50-100/year) enabling broad participation
  • Network effect connecting regional dual-career networks (e.g. DCN Ruhr, DCN Mitteldeutschland)

Common failure modes

  • No controlled measure of recruitments actually saved has been published

Where it fits

Governance type
member-funded university network
Scale
national (Germany), 50+ institutions
Income level
high-income

Commonly funded by

Own resources / municipal budget

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

Attachments

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