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.
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
- annual research allowance
- monthly rent subsidy
- monthly allowance for accompanying family members
- In the case of a disability or chronic illness: subsidy for additional costs which result from the disability or chronic illness and are not covered by other funding providers: Further information
To enable grant holders to improve their language skills in preparation for their stay in Germany, DAAD offers the following services:
- Payment of course fees for an online language course after receipt of the Scholarship Award Letter
- if necessary: Language course (2, 4 or 6 months) before the start of the research stay in Germany; 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. Due to the pandemic, German courses may take place online.
- Allowance for a personally chosen German language course during the grant period
- Reimbursement of the fees for the TestDaF or DSH 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
Selection
An independent selection committee consisting of specialist scientists reviews applications.
Central selection criteria are:
- a convincing and well-planned research or training project
- academic achievements
In addition, in order to ensure equal opportunities, the selection committee may take into account special life circumstances, about which you can provide information in the application form.
For further information on the selection procedure, please refer to the Important Scholarship Information / Section E.
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, it also applies that the start of the doctorate should not be longer than three years ago. Please also read our Important Scholarship Information / Section A, point 2.
- Your application cannot be considered, if you have been resident in Germany for longer than 15 months at the application deadline.
For applicants from the fields of human medicine, veterinary medicine and dentistry, other regulations are applicable. Please refer to 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
- Good German language skills - especially for students taking arts subjects - are usually a requirement for study and research projects in Germany. Exceptions are possible if the project is carried out in English.
- A prior German language course of 4 to 6 months is generally included in the scholarship
Application Procedure
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
- A proposal, prepared and formulated by yourself, as well as a description of previous research work (max. 10 pages in total). A proposal is an extensive and detailed description of the research project which has been discussed with the academic adviser. Please also read our Important Scholarship Information / section B, point 2.
- 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
- University 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 and voluntary commitment etc.)
- All university certificates on all annual examinations with individual grade(s), incl. explanation of grading system.
- German or English translations of documents submitted in the national language (to be uploaded with the corresponding documents)
- Proof of admission to a doctoral programme at the home university insofar as the applicant intends to take a doctoral degree there
In these cases, the absence of a language certificate does not lead to a formal rejection of your scholarship application by the DAAD. However, submitted language certificates are included in the assessment. If you acquire language certificates after the application deadline, please submit them later.
Please note that you will still need proof of language proficiency in order to apply for a place at a German higher education institution and thus to be able to take up the scholarship.
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“.
You are also required to send 1 copy of the "Application summary" (PDF file), which is generated in the DAAD portal after the online application procedure has been completed, by post to the application address.
The application procedure occurs online through the DAAD portal.
You are also required to send 1 copy of the "Application summary" (PDF file), which is generated in the DAAD portal after the online application procedure has been completed, by post to the application address.
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 deadline
Application deadlines are updated at least once a year. In most cases, they are in the same period as the previous year. You can find the current dates here:
29.10.2021
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. You are responsible for ensuring that your applications are complete.
- The application documents remain with the DAAD. Your personal data 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 you!
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.
You are also required to send 1 copy of the "Application summary" (PDF file), which is generated in the DAAD portal after the online application procedure has been completed, by post to the application address.
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.