Finding Scholarships
Here you can find information on various kinds of DAAD funding for foreign students, graduates and
postdocs as well as on funding offered by
other selected organisations.
Please also take note of our important scholarship information.
Research Grants – Doctoral Programmes in Germany • DAAD
Basic-Requirements
| Status: |
Graduates Doctoral candidates/PhD students Postdoctoral researchers |
| Country of Origin: |
Only specified
The scholarship for this programme is restricted to certain countries of origin. You can find an explanation for this on the details page of the scholarship programme under the application requirements. |
| Subject: |
See list
Applicable to the following disciplines:
|
Overview
Eine Druckversion dieser Ausschreibung (PDF) steht Ihnen in den weiteren Registerkarten (z.B. „Bewerbungsvoraussetzungen“) zur Verfügung.
A print version of this announcement (PDF) is available in the further tabs (e.g. “Application requirements”).
Objective
The aim of this grant programme is to support doctoral projects in Germany.
Who can apply?
Excellently-qualified young academics and scientists who have completed a Master's degree or Diplom, or in exceptional cases a Bachelor's degree at the latest by the time they begin their grant-supported research.
What can be funded?
Doctoral programmes at a state or state-recognised institution of higher education or a non-university research institute in Germany:
- individual projects under the supervision of a university teacher or academic adviser
or - participation in a structured doctoral study programme
Duration of the funding
- a maximum of four years; the length of the grant is decided by a selection committee and depends on the project in question and the applicant's work schedule.
- Grants are initially awarded for a maximum of one year. Extensions depend on whether the selection committee considers the previous award period to have been successfully completed.
- For doctoral projects in Germany that require several years of research, research phases outside Germany can be supported if these are critical for the successful completion of the doctoral degree. Planned stays must be specified in the application in the work and time schedule and should not exceed a quarter of the anticipated total funding period.
Value
- Depending on academic level, monthly payments of:
euros 861.- for graduates,
euros 1,200.- for doctoral candidates - Payments towards health, accident and personal liability insurance cover
- Travel allowance
- One-off research allowance
- monthly rent subsidy
- monthly allowance for accompanying family members
- Payment of course fees for the online language course "Deutsch-Uni Online (DUO)" (www.deutsch-uni.com) for six months after receipt of the Scholarship Award Letter
- if necessary: Language course (2, 4 or 6 months) before the start of the research stay; the DAAD decides whether to fund the grant holder's participation and for how long depending on language skills and project. If a language course scholarship is granted and the working language at the host institute is German, participation is compulsory.
- Allowance for a personally chosen German language course during the grant period
- Reimbursement of the fees for the TestDaF test which has either been taken in the home country after receipt of the Scholarship Award Letter or in Germany before the end of the funding period
- As an alternative to the TestDaF for scholarship holders who have taken a language course beforehand: the fee for a DSH examination taken during the scholarship period may be reimbursed.
Selection
An independent selection committee consisting of specialist scientists reviews applications.
Selection criteria:
Academic Qualification (documented by: university degree certificates, references, list of publications)
- Academic achievements and duration of studies
- If applicable, academic achievements after graduation (e.g. publications, lectures, conference contributions)
- Quality of research project presentation and preliminary work
- Originality, topicality and relevance of project
- Reasons for choosing Germany and host institution
- Feasibility and consistency of work schedule and time plan (analysis and evaluation steps, if applicable, language skills)
- Integration of the project into the overall doctoral project (in terms of content/time), if relevant
- Importance of the research project and stay in Germany for academic and professional plans
- Additional knowledge and skills (e.g. through professional or voluntary activities, further training)
- Involvement in academic self-governance, higher education policy issues
- Political, social, cultural, family (parental leave or care periods, etc.), social commitment
Application requirements
What requirements must be met?
- As a rule, applicants should not have graduated any longer than six years before the application deadline. If you are already working on a doctoral degree, you should not have started your degree any longer than three years previously.
- Applicants who have been resident in Germany for longer than 15 months at the application deadline cannot be considered.
For applicants from the fields of human medicine, veterinary medicine and dentistry, other regulations are applicable. Please refer to the leaflet "Additional information on DAAD Research Grants for applicants from medical fields" (www.daad.de/extrainfo).
- A Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Science degree of 2nd class upper division level and a Master of Arts/Master of Science degree are required.
- For francophone countries: A Licence or Maitrise degree of "assez bien" level and a DEA/DESS degree or a Master corresponding to the LMD system are required.
Language skills
- The required language level depends on the applicant's study plans and subject: In the arts, social sciences and in law, at least a good knowledge of German is usually expected. For the natural sciences and engineering, proof of good English language skills may also be accepted if English is spoken at the host institute.
Application Procedure
The application procedure occurs online through the DAAD portal. Please note that the access to the application portal only appears while the current application period is running. After the application deadline has expired, the portal for this programme is not available until the next application period.
The access to the DAAD portal generally opens about 6 weeks before the application deadline at the latest.
To apply, please select the call for applications for this programme in the scholarship database (www.funding-guide.de). From here, you can enter the portal by clicking the tab "Submitting an application".
Application documents
Certificates, proof of credits, certifications and translations may be scanned in non-certified form and uploaded to the DAAD portal. The DAAD reserves the right to request certified copies of the documents.
Documents to be uploaded to the DAAD portal:
- Online application form
- Full curriculum vitae in tabular form (max. 3 pages)
- List of publications (max. 10 pages), if applicable
- Extensive and detailed description of the research proposal and a description of previous research work (max. 10 pages)
- Letter confirming supervision by a university teacher in Germany (academic adviser)
- Schedule of planned research work
- Letter of admission to a study programme; this can be subsequently submitted before the grant-supported research begins if it is not available at the time of application.
- Proof of existing contacts to the coordinator of the doctoral programme in the form of copies of correspondence
- Diplom or degree certificate indicating final grade(s): the certificate must be subsequently submitted before the grant-supported research begins if it is not available at the time of application.
- Other documents which support your application (example: certificates of employment, proof of practical training/internships, etc.)
- German or English translations of documents submitted in the national language
- All university certificates on all annual examinations with individual grade(s), incl. explanation of grading system.
To be submitted by post:
One recent reference from a university teacher which provides information about your qualifications (hand-signed, no digital or scanned signature). Please regard the instructions given on the tab “Submitting an application“.
Current note: Due to the current pandemic situation, applications can be submitted on application dates that lie in 2020 without application reference.
Application deadline
30.10.2020
Application location
Regional Office Nairobi
German Academic Exchange Service, Regional Office for Africa
Madison Insurance House, 3rd floor, Upper Hill Close, P.O. Box 14050
00800 Nairobi
Kenya
Tel.: +254 (733)/92 99 29
E-Mail.: info.nairobi@daad.de
WWW.: https://www.daad.or.ke
Please note
- Your application is only valid if you submit all the required documents to the DAAD portal on time.
- For submitting references by post, the postmark date serves as proof that they have been dispatched on time.
- (If further documents are to be submitted by post, please send them as soon as possible.)
- Incomplete applications cannot be considered. Applicants are responsible for ensuring that their applications are complete.
- The application documents remain with the DAAD. Data relating to applicants is saved by the DAAD in accordance with the Federal Data Protection Act and with the EU Data Protection Regulation insofar as this data is needed to process the application.
Contact and Consulting
Information and advisory centres
Regional Office Nairobi
German Academic Exchange Service, Regional Office for Africa
Madison Insurance House, 3rd floor, Upper Hill Close, P.O. Box 14050
00800 Nairobi
Kenya
Tel.: +254 (733)/92 99 29
E-Mail.: info.nairobi@daad.de
WWW.: https://www.daad.or.ke
More detailed information
- DAAD website section "PhD studies and research"
- Website ”Research in Germany”
- Website ”GERiT – German Research Institutions"
- DAAD website ”Important information for DAAD scholarship applicants”
Submitting an application
General information on the application via DAAD portal
You can access the DAAD portal by clicking "Application portal" at the end of the page. Here you will find an online application form in which you can enter your application data.
This is what you have to do:
1. Register in the DAAD portal (Read notes about registering in the portal >>)
2. Request references
The form, which has to be completed by a referee, has to be generated in the DAAD portal in the section "Request reference" after registration and downloaded. Please send the form by e-mail to your referee and ask for the completed reference form to be returned to you in a sealed envelope. In each case, please provide your referee with the application address thus enabling him/her to send the recommendation letter there direct.
Please note that the form for completion by a referee can only be generated during the application period (from about 6 weeks before the application deadline).
Please generate one form for each referee.
The reference is confidential and may not be viewed by the applicant!
3. Applying online in the DAAD portal (Read notes on applying in the portal >>)
- Download and complete the online application form
- Prepare application documents
- If necessary, translate documents (unless they are already in German or English).
- Scan paper documents (except references) and save in PDF format. Please note that you can only upload PDF files to the portal.
- Upload the completed application form and the other application documents to the portal in PDF format. Translations, if applicable, should be uploaded together with the document issued in the original language.
- Submit the uploaded application documents online.
4. Sending application documents by post
References must be sent in the unopened envelope to the application location.
Information for applicants from non-EU countries:
Please remember to specify the exact contents of your postal consignment in the documents for the customs authorities, e.g. "Application for a scholarship with application documents, a reference and a DVD with work samples (no commercial goods, no merchandise value, no insurable value)".
Please note:
If you have any technical questions or problems your local information and advice centres could not help you with, please do not hesitate to contact our technical Portal hotline: +49 (0228) 882-8888 or via e-mail portal@daad.de, open every weekday from 9.00 am to 12.00 pm and from 2.00 pm to 4.00 pm (CET).
Please consider this when you are planning your application.