Helpful tips for scholarship applications

First of all:

As the chances of receiving the fellowship you aim at applying for are of course limited, you can also apply to different fellowship providers to increase your chances. If you may have already been awarded or received a fellowship and - possibly a little later - are offered a fellowship from another, possibly more attractive, fellowship provider, you can of course cancel or return the first fellowship; a fellowship provider will generally not take offence at this. A fellowship from the Studienstifung des Deutschen Volkes for example, is proof of an outstanding qualification.

The usual requirements of fellowship providers:

• you may not have more than a 25% job during the funding period and generally no other fellowship;
• certain additional income is possible (usually a few hundred euros, e.g. for teaching assignments or similar).

If you have a job (or have possibly been offered one), you should know/be aware of the following:

• do not claim the fellowship until your position has expired, or
• take a leave of absence; however, before you do this, you should consult the responsible person in the HR department (see your employment contract) to see whether the period of leave of absence will count towards your contract period;
• Most fellowships are not as well remunerated as a position:
• Postdoc fellowships usually correspond (depending on the fellowship provider) to about the remuneration of a 1/2 position 13 TV-L (approx. 2100 € plus any supplements);
• Doctoral scholarships are usually endowed with 1300-1600 euros, plus supplements).

What is usually required is

• a project proposal/description of your research project/dissertation topic;
• for fellowships abroad: justification for the stay abroad (usually specified by the topic or research project);
• two references from university lecturers (usually your primary supervisor, another person representing the subject);
• curriculum vitae;
• list of publications;
• possibly a list of your courses.

In general:
Preliminary enquiries can be helpful: it is generally advisable to contact the contact person at the respective funding institution by telephone after reviewing the relevant guidelines in order to clarify the current chances of an application.

Health insurance:
If you receive a fellowship, you must insure yourself (so-called voluntary insurance). This can be with a private or statutory health insurance company. Further information.

Printing cost subsidies:
As doctoral students are required to publish their dissertation, but this is generally not funded by fellowship, you can find funding options for printing your dissertation here.

Doctoral candidates at our Graduate School:
...can find this and much more information at our regular information event "Der Stipendiengreifer"  which is offered exclusively for doctoral candidates of the Graduate School and those interested in a doctorate at the Graduate School (lecturer: Dr Thomas Schmid, Managing Director). Please note our current event information.