1. Admission
Prior to admission to the DRS, new doctoral programs must develop program regulations that include the following mandatory aspects: competitive selection processes, team supervision, supervision agreement, regular progress monitoring. In addition, a curriculum must be developed consisting of subject-specific and interdisciplinary elements to deepen and broaden the methodological and theoretical knowledge as well as professional and transferable skills. The admission of programs is limited in time, the decision on this is made by the Permanent Commission of the DRS. Compliance with the criteria is reviewed at regular intervals.

2. Reports
DRS regularly collects qualitative and quantitative data from its programs on the number of applications, admissions, and number of doctoral researchers; the proportion of international doctoral researchers; gender distribution; successful completions and terminations; recruitment and selection procedures; curriculum; supervision and quality assurance procedures, etc.

3. Evaluation
Every three years, member programs are invited to meet with Dahlem Research School to review their activities, to identify potential problems and determine any need for support.

4. Ombudspersons
Each DRS program has an ombudsperson who is the contact person for doctoral researchers and who is to mediate in cases of conflict regarding good scientific practice.