Training course · AI Agents · Research & Science

AI Agents for Researchers

Agentic AI for business teams: understand AI agents, automate workflows safely and keep control with human-in-the-loop and governance.

Duration
2 days (14 hrs)
Format
Online or on-site
Language
German or English
Participants
open dates or exclusive for your team
Certificate
Certificate of attendance

Overview

“AI Agents for Researchers” is designed for roles such as Doctoral candidates, Research associates and postdocs and Professors and research group leaders and shows step by step how to use AI Agents productively, safely and transparently in Research & Science – from the fundamentals to advanced workflows.

AI agents go a step beyond conventional chat assistants: they plan sub-tasks, use tools such as search, files or business applications and complete multi-step work largely on their own. Over two days you will learn how agents are built, how they differ from chatbots and traditional automation, and which tasks genuinely justify their use. Widely used platforms serve as practical examples, including Microsoft Copilot Studio, custom GPTs and Claude with projects and tool connections.

In the hands-on sessions you design agent workflows for tasks from your own area of work, from triaging requests through research and drafting to handing results over to business systems. You decide where a person reviews and approves, which permissions an agent receives and how errors are detected. A dedicated block covers governance, data protection and accountability, so that your agents not only work but remain controllable, traceable and defensible within your organisation.

Academic work is shaped by literature reviews, data analysis, grant writing and publication pressure. Generative AI can help at every stage: navigating and summarising the literature, sharpening research questions, writing analysis code, polishing manuscripts and preparing funding applications. AI agents can automate recurring steps such as data cleaning or cross-checking references. At the same time, AI touches core questions of research integrity: who is an author, how is AI use disclosed, how do you prevent fabricated references? Researchers therefore need more than prompting tricks – they need a methodologically sound, transparent and reproducible way of working with AI tools.

The course is delivered live – either online in a virtual classroom or on-site in our training rooms in Munich, Salzburg, Berlin, Augsburg, Hanover, Bremen, Stuttgart and Kaiserslautern. We can also run it exclusively for your team.

Who is this course for?

  • Doctoral candidates
  • Research associates and postdocs
  • Professors and research group leaders
  • Research offices and grant managers
  • Corporate R&D teams

Typical challenges we address

  • An ever-growing body of literature that is hard to keep up with
  • Heavy writing load for proposals, reports and papers
  • Data analysis that requires programming skills
  • Uncertainty about AI rules set by journals, funders and universities

What you will be able to do

  • You can explain how AI agents are structured and clearly distinguish them from chatbots and classic automation.
  • You can select a suitable agent platform for your requirements using transparent criteria.
  • You can design an agent workflow for a real process in your area and build a working prototype.
  • You can define human-in-the-loop checkpoints, test cases and escalation rules.
  • Use AI for literature work and writing without breaching research integrity standards.
  • Produce traceable analysis code with AI support and document it reproducibly.
  • Disclose AI use transparently in line with journal, funder and institutional requirements.

Course outline

Day 1

Module 1 What makes an AI agent
  • Agent building blocks: language model, instructions, knowledge, tools and memory
  • How agents differ from chatbots, macros and classic workflow automation
  • Levels of autonomy: from suggestion-making assistants to agents that act independently
  • Realistically judging which tasks suit agents and which do not
Module 2 Platform overview: Copilot Studio, GPTs and Claude
  • Microsoft Copilot Studio: agents grounded in company data and connected to Microsoft 365
  • Custom GPTs: configuring instructions, knowledge files and actions
  • Claude with projects, knowledge bases and tool access via the Model Context Protocol
  • Selection criteria: data access, integrations, administration and licensing
Module 3 Designing and building agent workflows
  • Breaking tasks into steps and defining hand-offs between agent and human
  • Writing system instructions, examples and knowledge sources for consistent output
  • Connecting tools: search, documents, email, spreadsheets and business applications
  • Building a prototype agent for a real process from your own area
Module 4 Human-in-the-loop, quality and error handling
  • Setting approval steps, escalation rules and thresholds for human review
  • Test cases, evaluation criteria and spot checks for quality assurance
  • Common failure modes: wrong tool choice, endless loops and fabricated facts
  • Using structured user feedback to improve the agent over time

Day 2

Module 5 Governance, security and roll-out
  • Roles and responsibilities across business units, IT, data protection and works council
  • Least-privilege permissions, logging and protection against prompt injection
  • Positioning under the EU AI Act and GDPR: transparency, documentation and data flows
  • From pilot agent to production: operation, maintenance and measuring success
Module 6 Practice lab: Research & Science
  • Navigating the literature
  • Sharpening research design
  • Writing analysis code
  • Revising manuscripts
  • Preparing grant proposals
  • Analysing qualitative data
Module 7 Data protection, quality & transfer to daily work
  • Codes of research integrity apply: AI cannot be an author, its use must be disclosed and all references must be checked against the original. Personal research data, for example from studies involving participants, is subject to the GDPR and ethics approvals; unpublished results and peer reviews must be treated as confidential.
  • Ground rules for safe AI use in your team
  • Checking results: facts, sources, tests and the four-eyes principle
  • Personal action plan for the next 30 days
  • Open questions, outlook and resources for further learning

Practical scenarios from your field

Navigating the literature

AI summarises abstracts and full texts, extracts methods, samples and findings into comparison tables and helps formulate search strings for scholarly databases – every source is then verified in the original.

Sharpening research design

Research questions, hypotheses and operationalisations are stress-tested with AI as a critical sparring partner to spot gaps, confounders and alternative explanations early. Control conditions and limits to generalisability are discussed as well.

Writing analysis code

Researchers without deep programming skills use AI to produce Python or R scripts for data cleaning, statistics and visualisation, documenting them clearly to ensure reproducibility.

Revising manuscripts

AI supports language editing, structuring and shortening of academic texts, checks terminology for consistency and helps draft responses to reviewers without taking over authorship. Your argument stays your own.

Preparing grant proposals

Funding guidelines are turned into checklists, work packages and milestones are structured, and sections such as impact plans or lay summaries are drafted in several versions.

Analysing qualitative data

Interview transcripts and open-ended responses are pre-coded and grouped thematically with AI; researchers review, refine and document the coding frame according to established methodology. Inter-coder checks remain essential.

Prerequisites

You should already use an AI assistant such as ChatGPT, Copilot or Claude on a regular basis. No programming skills are required. Experience of academic work in a discipline; programming skills are helpful but not required.

Technical requirements

You will need a laptop with an up-to-date browser. Ideally you have access to at least one agent platform such as Copilot Studio, ChatGPT with GPTs or Claude; practice accounts can be provided if needed.

Data protection & compliance

Codes of research integrity apply: AI cannot be an author, its use must be disclosed and all references must be checked against the original. Personal research data, for example from studies involving participants, is subject to the GDPR and ethics approvals; unpublished results and peer reviews must be treated as confidential.

Suggested dates

All dates are suggestions – your preferred date is always possible.

  • Thu, 26 November 2026 – Fri, 27 November 2026 Online Request
  • Tue, 8 December 2026 – Wed, 9 December 2026 Berlin Request
  • Wed, 16 December 2026 – Thu, 17 December 2026 Online Request
  • Wed, 13 January 2027 – Thu, 14 January 2027 Stuttgart Request
  • Thu, 21 January 2027 – Fri, 22 January 2027 Online Request
  • Thu, 28 January 2027 – Fri, 29 January 2027 Hanover Request

Frequently asked questions

Do I need programming skills to build AI agents?

No. The platforms used on the course rely on visual interfaces, plain-language instructions and ready-made connectors. You learn to specify agents precisely from a business perspective, connect tools and test workflows. Where deeper technical integration would be needed, you will know which requirements to put to your IT team.

Which platform will we use during the course?

The course is vendor-neutral and uses Microsoft Copilot Studio, custom GPTs and Claude as examples. You build your prototype on the platform that is available or planned in your organisation. The principles of workflow design, control and governance you learn carry over to other agent solutions as well.

How do I stop an agent from acting without control?

Through deliberate design: agents receive only the minimum permissions they need, critical actions such as sending, booking or deleting require human approval, and every step is logged. In addition, you define test cases and escalation rules. These are exactly the control mechanisms you develop for your own use case during the course.

Can I use AI to write my PhD thesis?

That depends on your doctoral regulations and institutional policies. AI is often permitted for language editing and brainstorming if its use is disclosed and your own intellectual contribution remains clear. In the course you learn to document use properly and assess common grey areas with confidence.

How do I avoid fabricated references?

Language models can produce plausible-sounding citations that do not exist. Work with tools that query real databases, ask for DOIs and verify every source in the original. The course demonstrates a workflow that combines AI-assisted searching with reliable reference management.

How much does “AI Agents for Researchers” cost?

The course costs a flat €949 plus VAT per participant – whether online or on-site. This includes 2 training day(s) with a live trainer, course materials, a lab environment and a certificate of attendance.

Can I suggest my own date?

Yes. Our suggested dates are just a guide. In the request form you can always describe your preferred date or period in free text – we check availability and confirm within one working day.

Is the course online or on-site?

Both are possible: live online in a virtual classroom or on-site in Munich, Salzburg, Berlin, Augsburg, Hanover, Bremen, Stuttgart or Kaiserslautern. We can also run the course exclusively for your team.

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