Scholarship Database

The primary aim of this programme is to promote research projects within the context of doctoral programmes.

Excellently-qualified doctoral candidates and 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, or those who have already completed a PhD (postdocs).
Doctoral candidates who are doing their entire doctorate at a German university are not eligible to apply.

A research project or course of continuing scientific education at a state or state-recognised institution of higher education or a non-university research institute in Germany, which is being carried out in coordination with an academic adviser in Germany.

• Depending on academic level, monthly payments of
  euros 861.- for graduates,
  euros 1,200.- for doctoral candidates and postdocs
• Payments towards health, accident and personal liability insurance cover
• Travel allowance
• 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

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

Furthermore, additional documents submitted that prove the applicant's professional aptitude or provide information about extracurricular commitment will also be included in the evaluation.
For further information on the selection procedure, please refer to the Important Scholarship Information / Section E.

• As a rule, applicants should not have graduated any longer than six years before the application deadline. If you already hold a doctoral degree, you should not have completed your doctorate more than four years ago. Doctoral candidates should not have started their doctoral 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.

Note:
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).

• Applicants from third countries or German applicants, who live in a foreign country, are asked to get in touch with the responsible branch office or section within the DAAD before they hand in an application to discuss possible special application requirements.

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. 5 pages with max. 3.000 characters without spaces per page plus 2 pages of graphics if necessary). 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.
• Schedule of planned research work
• Letter confirming supervision by an academic adviser in Germany, which refers to the applicant's proposal and confirms that the host institute will provide a workplace
• 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, etc.)
• All university certificates on all annual examinations with individual grade(s), incl. explanation of grading system.
• Proof of admission to a doctoral programme at the home university insofar as the applicant intends to take a doctoral degree there
• German or English translations of documents submitted in the national language (to be uploaded with the corresponding documents)

Current note: If a language certificate is part of the application documents, please note the following: In the absolute exception, if you are unable to submit a language certificate due to Corona (e.g. due to the closure of universities or language test centres and if no digital language test is possible either), please upload an appropriate justification with a self-assessment of your current language level according to the CEFR instead of the missing document (tips for self-assessment of your language skills can be found here, under section A, point 8).
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“.

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.

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:

September 15th for research stays starting between January 1st and June 15th of the following year.

February 15th for research stays starting between July 1st and December 15th of the same year.

Branch Office London
German Academic Exchange Service
9 Gower Street
WC1E 6HB London
United Kingdom
Tel.: +44 (20)/7831-9511
E-Mail.: scholarships.london@daad.de
WWW.: http://www.daad.org.uk

• 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.)
• The DAAD portal closes at 24.00 hrs. (CET or CEST) on the last application day.
• 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.

Branch Office London
German Academic Exchange Service
9 Gower Street
WC1E 6HB London
United Kingdom
Tel.: +44 (20)/7831-9511
E-Mail.: scholarships.london@daad.de
WWW.: http://www.daad.org.uk

After the selection process:

DAAD - Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst
German Academic Exchange Service
Section ST24 - Western, Northern and Southern Europe
Mrs. Veronica Metje
Phone: +49 (228) 882-528
Mail: metje@daad.de

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.