Our structured, three-year doctoral programme, conducted entirely in English, takes an intensive interdisciplinary approach and brings together scientists from across the globe in the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region of Germany. Partner institutes of the IMPRS-SurMat are the Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung in Duesseldorf, the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung in Muelheim, the Max-Planck-Institut für Chemische Energiekonversion in Muelheim, the Ruhr-Universität Bochum and the Universität Duisburg-Essen.