Usually, habilitation candidates have a fixed-term position at a university. According to the Federal Law on Temporary Employment in Science (Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz), a budget-funded employment at the university is limited to max. six years. This time frame corresponds to what is usually set for the completion of the habilitation thesis. However, this six-years period can be exceeded by third-party funded employments. Post-doctoral or habilitation scholarships are an alternative funding option. Habilitation candidates are subject to directives from part of the chair holder or the head of the institute/department respectively. This might impose restrictions to the development of scientific independence of the habilitation candidate. Analogically to the doctorate, admission and realization of the habilitation is regulated by the habilitation regulation of the respective faculty.

Admission to and administration of the habilitation (post-doctoral lecturing qualification) are subject to the respective habilitation regulations of the faculties, similar to the procedure for a doctoral degree. The habilitation is administrated by a habilitation committee composed of at least six professors. In order to complete the habilitation process successfully, the following tasks have to be performed:

• presentation of a habilitation thesis or proof of equivalent scholarly work;
• an academic lecture with a subsequent colloquium and a course that is discursive in nature to demonstrate suitability for teaching, to be held in front of the panel determined by the habilitation regulations; this panel needs to include student representatives from the relevant subject.

Reviewing of the habilitation thesis is undertaken principally by three university lecturers of whom at least one must not belong to the university awarding the degree. The doctoral degree title can be supplemented with the word "habil" (Doctor habilitatus).

Maria Reiche Postdoctoral Fellowships

The Maria Reiche Postdoctoral Fellowships support excellent female postdocs in their intention to independently acquire a third-party funded project in order to qualify for a scientific career at the TU Dresden with the goal of becoming a professor.

Eligibility:
Early career female researchers who have completed their doctorate no longer than six years ago
Application deadline: Monday, 14^th June 2021

Further funding options

In addition to scholarship programs for the habilitation from third-party institutions (e.g. Emmy Noether-Programm, Heisenberg-Programm), there are other interesting funding opportunities, such as travel grants for conferences or stays abroad, funding for international cooperation between working groups (AGs) or funding opportunities for developing and sharpening the scientific profile. The Graduate Academy and TU Dresden offer a wide range of funding opportunities for postdocs. Get an overview right now!

The team of the Graduate Academy will be pleased to help you with any questions you may have about funding your habilitation. Make an appointment or visit the website of the Graduate Academy.

Research stays abroad help sharpen your scientific profile and gain international experiences during the postdoc-phase. They are an asset when applying for research funding and within the appointment procedure. There are various forms of international mobility during the postdoctoral phase:

If you are planning to spend the whole postdoctoral phase abroad (usually one to three years), there are i.e. the DFG with the Research Fellowships, the Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation with the Feodor Lynen Research Fellowship for Postdoctoral Researchers or the European Union with the Marie Curie Actions where you can apply for funding. Also the DAAD awards postdoctoral fellowships for research stays abroad of a duration of one to two years. In addition to these cross-disciplinary funding programs, there are numerous subject- or country-specific funding possibilities. For further information please visit the webpages of the Graduate Academy.

As an alternative to applying for funding from German funding institutions, it might be promising to search for funding options within the target country, even though this might be somewhat more time-consuming. For a European-wide search for funding possibilities, it is recommendable to use the EURAXESS database.   

However, also if you are working as a postdoc in Germany, a shorter research stay abroad may be beneficial for your postdoctoral project. Funding for short research stays abroad is provided mainly by the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service), by the DFG (German Research Foundation) as well as by the Fritz-Thyssen-Foundation (travel grants). Postdocs in the humanities are supported by the Max Weber Foundation (Gerald D. Feldman-Travel Grants). Postdocs of the TU Dresden who are members of the Graduate Academy can apply for travel allowances for short research stays abroad (up to three months).