Newsletter March 2015

COURSES & EVENTS

The course programm of the OVG Graduate School is online - you are invited to register. Please note that some dates are not  yet fixed. Some more courses will be offered; information will be coming soon.

• To register please refer to Barbara Witter,

• Office: Campus Universitätsplatz, building 18, room 248,

• Ph.: 18930, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

You  are required to pay a registration deposit of 20,- EUR per course. This deposit will be reimbursed after participation, there is no course fee. If you are absent without excuse the deposit will be kept.

The courses mostly have a duration of 2 days, full time. Course time is basically from 10 AM to 6 PM on the first day, 9 AM to 5 PM on the second day. If you register, please make sure to keep the days free from any other duties. This is a question of appreciation of the trainer and also this enables you to get the maximum benefit from the course.

Officially recognized training course for project managers / project manager and agents for biosafety gem. §15 gene TSV

The Graduate School of Life Sciences of the Research Academy Leipzig offered an advanced tranings course in collaboration with the Department "Continuing Education / Distance Learning" at the University of Leipzig. The course is certified by the Saxon State Ministry for Environment and Agriculture (SMUL) §15 para. 2 sentence 1 no. 3 GenTSV.. The speakers and lecturers are specialists in the field they represent and their qualification are tested by the SMUL. If you participate in two days of the course a certificate of attendance will be issued that is valid in all states. The event is aimed at PhD students and postdocs in the life sciences who have completed a degree in biology, chemistry, medicine, veterinary science or engineering degree program. The venue is the Department of Biology at the University of Leipzig.

• When? March 26.-27., 2015

• Where? University of Leipzig 

• What? advanced training course: "Biosafety of Genetically Modified - Biological Safety"

More information online

Workshops of the German Education Union (GEW)

GEW is the education sector union affiliated to the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB). The german education union organises educators and teachers in schools, universities, early childhood education, vocational training and adult education.

The German Education Union (GEW) works on an improvement of the conditions of doctorates in Germany and offers direct support.  The trainers are either doctoral students themselves or have already finished their doctorates, knowing the specific challenges of a doctorate very well. The study courses offered by GEW cover a wide range of  interdisciplinary subjects. The upcoming events concerning to networking and further education training for doctural candidates and doctural students offered by the GEW will take place on:

March 27.–28.,2015 in Berlin
workshop:"writing (project) proposals for your disseration"

and

April 18.–19.,2015 in Hamburg
workshop: "Study – and then doing doctorate"

Please note that the workshops will be held in German.

More information online

Seminar "Horizon 2020 for beginners"

On April 21, 2015, another seminar of the series "Horizon 2020 for beginners" of the EU Bureau of the BMBF takes place in Bonn. In the one-day event the participants learn to know the general structures, objectives and content of the new program. It also provides basic information about the rules for participation and deals with various aspects of the preparing and processing of the application. For the seminar registration fee will be charged. The Registration is possible from 24 February 2015.

• April 21, 2015 in Bonn-Oberkassel (registration now open)

• June 16, 2015 in Bonn-Oberkassel (registrations are presumed to start from May 5, 2015)

More information online

Still few seats for the seminar "Horizon 2020 for applicants" 

It is still possible to register for the seminar "Horizon 2020 for applicants' of the EU Bureau of the BMBF on 25th / 26th March 2015 in Bonn. This seminar is primarily aimed at scientists who plan to request participation. To understand this seminar, you require a basic knowledge of Horizon 2020. For the seminar registration fee will be charged.

• April 23.-24.,2015 in Bonn-Oberkassel (registrations are presumed to start from March 3., 2015)

• May 06.-07., 2015 in Bonn-Oberkassel (registrations are presumed to start from March 24., 2015)

More information online

FELLOWSHIPS AND SUPPORT FOR PHD STUDENTS

Search engines and links to the major funding organizations

Funding of the printing costs for PhD theses "summa cum laude"

The publisher Logos, Berlin has started its own excellence initiative:

More information online (in German)

The Wissenschaftskolleg (WiKo) Berlin is calling for applications for its College for Life Sciences until March 9th, 2015

The WiKo aknowledges that working in or leading a life sciences lab is packed with constraints (tight schedules, teaching loads, managerial tasks, a need to publish), and that this especially severe for early-career researchers.

Therefore, the WiKo wants to grant early-career researchers in the life sciences an opportunity to step back from their routine work, gain time to reflect on their domain of investigation, as well as formulate daring and unusual ideas, interacting with scientists and intellectuals from the widest possible spectrum of academic fields and traditions.

The Fellows of the College for Life Sciences are invited for a minimum of three months and are on equal terms with and have the same rights and duties as the other Fellows of the Kolleg. The institute expects them to work in B erlin for the duration of their fellowships and to take part in the common activities? Such as the weekly internal Colloquium and the meals. The Fellows of the College for Life Sciences are free to engage in additional activities in their group and to seek collaborations with members of Berlin's academic community.

The Wissenschaftskolleg provides a stipend (based on prior salary), studio accommodation as well as library and IT services and a vibrant intellectual environment with regular talks, symposia and concerts.

appliction deadline: March 9th, 2015

Additional information online

Scholarships of the EVONIK foundation

The Evonik Foundation invests in targeted support: each year, it awards scholarships with a special focus on scientific research by doctoral candidates and postdoctoral students as well as on special projects

Application deadline: March 31, 2015

More information online

Avicenna Scholarships

The Avicenna Scholarship program offers support to Muslim people during study and doctorate.

Please find more information online (in German): http://www.avicenna-studienwerk.de/

Application deadline: March 31, 2015

The Alfried Krupp Wissenschaftskolleg

The Alfried Krupp Wissenschaftskolleg will award three to five Alfried Krupp Senior Fellowships and five to eight Alfried Krupp Junior Fellowships for the academic year 2016/17.

The Senior Fellowships will be awarded to outstanding senior scientists and scholars who are qualified by their achievements in research as well as in teaching, the Junior Fellowships will be awarded to highly promising younger post-doctoral scholars.

Through the Fellowship programme, scholars are given the opportunity to concentrate on a major piece of research, free from the full teaching and administrative obligations. Fellows will be invited either for one semester (October 1 - March 31 or April 1-  September 30) or for a full academic year (October 1- September 30). Offices and accommodation will be offered to the fellows free of charge.

Proposals and applications should be submitted until 30th April 2015.

Additional information online

Boehringer Ingelheim Fellowships (Biomedicine)

The Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds awards PhD fellowships to outstanding junior scientists (max. age: 27 years) who wish to pursue an ambitious PhD project of approximately 3 years in basic biomedical research in an internationally leading laboratory. For further details please refer to "Who can apply?". The peer-review-based selection process is highly competitive. Applicants should therefore be outstanding in all three selection criteria.

Application Deadlines: February 1,  June 1, October 1

More information online

Johannes Hübner Foundation promotes research and development projects on scientific and technical fields

The Johannes Hübner Foundation created by Ms Riedl-Hübner provides universities of applied sciences in Germany with considerable financial support for their work in scientific and technological fields, and in doing so contributes towards promoting research and development.

PhD scholarships are preferred within of eligible research and development projects. In addition the Foundation awards scholarships to students. PhD scholarships are only granted for fellows which actually require support. The neediness has to be substantiated by a detailed recommendation. Foreign students may also be supported.

Application Deadlines: February 16, October 12

More information online

Travel Grants by Fritz Thyssen Foundation

The sole purpose of the foundation is the direct support of scholarship and research in universities and non-profit research institutions, primarily in Germany, with special emphasis on giving help to young scholars and scientists.

It is possible to apply for funds to cover travel costs which arise in connection with scholarly or scientific research.

Deadlines: Applications for travel grants may be submitted at any time.

More information on travel grants online

    SCIENTIFIC AWARDS

The Stockmeyer Scientific Award

Quality and safety of food, protection of consumers – these are the main fields in which the non-profit Heinrich- Stockmeyer Foundation supports scientific projects, organizes workshops with experts and promotes the international exchange of scientists.

The Stockmeyer Scientific Award honours application-oriented research. Scientific individual services may be recognized such as dissertations and doctoral theses and publications in scientific journals that have been created in the last three years.

Deadline for application: May 15, 2015

Additional information online

Langener Scientific Award

In 2015, the Verein zur Förderung des Langener Wissenschaftspreises is awarding said prize that comes with a sum of 15,000 Euros. The call for applications is restricted to Germany.

Deadline for applications is May 22nd, 2015. The required documents (in six copies) can be handed in only by mail.

Additional information online

   JUNIOR RESEARCH GROUPS / POST-DOC FUNDING

Scholarships of the EVONIK foundation

The Evonik Foundation invests in targeted support: each year, it awards scholarships with a special focus on scientific research by doctoral candidates and postdoctoral students as well as on special projects

Application deadline: March 31, 2015

More information online

Joint Research Projects for Junior Groups in Systems medicine

The e:Med research and funding concept by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research provides a possibility for planned support of young scientists within the area of systems medicine. Proper training and development of young scientists will necessarily play an important role in the process of establishing systems medicine as a research field. Young scientists must be part of the equation if the required interdisciplinary links between theoretical and application-oriented basic biomedical research and clinical research are to be built in any lasting way. The e:Med research and funding concept offer a range of different instruments aimed at early stages of careers to medical professionals, computer scientists, mathematicians and biologists to this field.

The Promotion is aimed at German or foreign scientists with doctoral degrees or habilitations. In each case, a project is to be applied for solely through the higher education institution or research institution at which the relevant junior research group is to be established. Consequently, young scientists who wish to apply for a junior research group have to reach relevant agreement in advance with a hosting higher education institution or research institution. Funding for junior research groups will provide for a group-director position, a postdoctoral fellow and up to two doctoral-candidate positions, along with customary levels of material and financial resources and travel allowances.

Eligible applicants areGermanstate andnon-stateuniversities and non-university research institutions.

Deadline for application: May 5, 2015

More information online

Mildred Scheel Post-Doc Programme

The German Cancer Aid supports young medicins and nature scientists, holding a doctoral degree, who want to run a project on clinic-related basic research in onkology or clinical cancer research at a prestigous research institution abroad. There are four application deadlines per year.

Application Deadline for the next assessments:

May 12, 2015, 1.p.m.

August 4, 2015, 1.p.m.

October 27, 2015, 1.p.m.

More information online

“Original – isn’t it?” New Options for the Humanities and Cultural Studies

The “Volkswagenstiftung” intends to fund up to 20 projects in the humanities and cultural studies that are pursuing the exploration of research ideas with groundbreaking originality. Two lines of funding are available:
The first - "Komm! ins Offene..." - addresses individual researchers, offering them the opportunity to initially explore their idea and subsequently describe it in an essay. For this purpose, the foundation grants up to 80,000 Euros for a maximum period of one year. The second - "Konstellationen" - addresses project teams comprising of up to 4 applicants who would like to jointly explore a new research idea and test its feasibility in an initial exploratory phase, and subsequently co-author a publication on the results. An amount of up to 150,000 Euros is granted for a maximum period of 1 and a half years. The funding initiative is open to all researchers who have already obtained their PhD degrees.

Deadline for application is May 12, 2015

For additional information, please check:
http://www.volkswagenstiftung.de/en/funding/challenges-for-academia-and-society/original-isnt-it.html
http://www.volkswagenstiftung.de/fileadmin/downloads/merkblaetter/MB_102_e.pdf

Peter and Traudl Engelhorn Foundation

The Peter and Traudl Engelhorn Foundation awards scholarships in the field of life sciences (biotechnology, molecular biology, cell biology, etc.) to outstanding future researchers preferably to postdocs for two years.

Deadline for application: July 15, 2015

More information online

Experiment!

The Volkswagen Foundation is funding fundamentally new research concepts, even though the outcome is indefinite, in its initiative "Experiment!".

The initiative addresses researchers in science, engineering, and life sciences, including behavioral biology and experimental psychology, who want to put a potentially transformative research ideas to the test. A concept failure as well as unexpected findings are acceptable results.

To be eligible, applicants must hold at least a PhD/doctoral degree and must be working at a German university or research institution by the start of their project at the latest. They can apply for up to 100,000 Euros of funding for a period of 18 months in order to try to find preliminary evidence for the concept's potential during an exploratory phase.

Upcoming deadline for applications: September 1st, 2015

More information online

Funding Programme „Cortexplorer“ for Neurosciences

With its funding programme "cortexplorer", the Hertie Foundation hopes to encourage brain researchers to try new approaches. The programme focuses on unusual research projects that address highly topical, socially relevant issues with an emphasis on neuroscience. The programme is open to applications at all times. Researchers can apply for funding to cover material, staffing and/or travel costs, depending on the requirements of the project. Eligible are scientists working at German research institutions and those working at European research institutions who want to apply for a collaborative project with a German research group. It is recommended to get in touch with the Foundation prior to handing in any application.

Application Deadline: Applications can be sent in any time.

More information online

Max Kade Fellowships for Natural Sciences and Medicine

The Max Kade Foundation Fellowship Programme offers the possibility to apply for a one-year research stay in the USA. The programme addresses postdoctoral scientists and young researchers from the fields of natural sciences and medicine under the age of 45. The basic fellowship totals US-Dollar 40,000 plus travel allowances, also for spouses and/or children.

Application Deadline: Proposals may be submitted at any time.

More information online

Leopoldina Postdoc Scholarship for Natural Sciences and Medicine

The Leopoldina awards the Leopoldina Postdoc Scholarship to outstanding postdoctoral scientists in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The programme is aimed at up-and-coming young scientists who have already begun conducting independent research in natural science and medicine. The applicants must have completed their doctoral degree within the last seven years.
Scholarship recipients are given the opportunity to carry out their own independent project abroad at one of the most renowned research institutes in their field. German research fellows have to choose a foreign research institute, while Austrian and Swiss research fellows must select a host institute in Germany.

Application Deadline: Applications may be submitted at any time. Scholarships are awarded four times a year.

More information online

Dr. Wilhelmy-GSO-Travel Grants Programme for STEM Disciplines

With this new travel grants programe, the Dr. Wilhelmy Foundation and the German Scholars Organization (GSO) want to contribute to the the internationalisation of the German research landscape. The programme adresses universities, universities of applied sciences and non-university research institutions in Germany, which want to recruit German researchers from abroad. Travel costs up to 2.000 € can be refunded. The programme is limited to the recruitment of researchers within the STEM fields.

Application Deadline: Applications may be submitted at any time.

More information online (German only)

EMBO-Fellowships

EMBO is an organisation promoting excellence in life sciences and aims to promote the international mobility of junior scientists. At the moment, you can apply for Short-Term Fellowships which make it possible to have a research stay abroad for up to three months.

Application Deadline for Short-Term Fellowships: none. Applications can be submitted at any time.

More information on the Short-Term Fellowships online

EU Commission publishes Handbook on Proposal Submitting

The European Commission has pulished a digital handbook on how to submit a project proposal for Horizon 2020. It includes detailed screenshot-based descriptions of each step starting with the selection of a call for proposals and ending with the submission of the proposal. The document can be found on the participant portal (registration required) as a pdf link.

Go to the online manual of the participant portal

Sciencestarter - Pimp my Science

Sciencestarter is a German Crowdfunding-Platform: researchers can present their projects on the sciencestarter internet platform and raise funds for their implementation.

More information online  
Online-Article on Sciencestarter

 CAREER

The StepStone Salary Report 2015

The StepStone Salary Report provides a detailed overview of the salaries of professionals in Germany according to job title, skills and work experience. All content data are given in EUR and refer to the average gross annual salary including bonuses, commissions, bonuses, etc.

StepStone Salary Report 2015 is online and can be downloaded as a pdf document (in German)

CAREERS WITH THE EUROPEAN UNION by the European Personnel Selection Office

Is an EU Career for me?

Whether you are a student looking at career options for the future, or an experienced professional wanting a new challenge, this section of the website of eu-careers will give you all the information you need about careers in the European Union institutions. Discover exciting career opportunities with the EU institutions and how you can make a difference for Europe.

More information online

Online platform "DocPro" facilitates PhDs entry into the economy

Since February 2015 the innovative skills portfolio DocPro is online and help postdocs to market their skills in the language of employers and thereby facilitate the entry into the economy.

More Information online

 PRESS REVIEW

The path is never straight and narrow

Is there a secret receipt, how to become a successful researcher? Do young scientists of today really need advice from experienced researcher or is every career so different, so individual that some ones counsel is not necessary? What is different today compared to then on the way up to be a top researcher and what is possibly similar?

Helmholtz will discuss such questions at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in San José. Previously the Helmholtz asked two young scientists from Germany and the United States about their career paths, receipts for success and experiences.

Interviews online at helmholtz.de

Difficulties for young scientists in academia

Almost ninety percent of all academic staff at German universities has limited contracts, half of them with a duration of less than one year. Some people feel exploited - and prefer to go into business or abroad. Students and postdocs are now demanding better working conditions at universities and research institutions.

Full article (newspaper ZEIT online) in German

The Excellence Initiative

The Exzellenz Initiative has improved research in Germany. But there are more aspects to be developed at German universities.

Full article (newspaper ZEIT online) in German