Financing your Postdoc phase
Doctorate, what now?
The successful completion of a doctorate is the basis for an academic career. What are the options for continuing and developing an academic career as a postdoc?
Below, you can find the most common financing models for the Postdoc phase at a glance:
Many postdocs are employed as (temporary) research assistants at a professorship, an institute or a non-university research institution (budget-financed or as part of a third-party funded project). In such a position, postdocs usually work and research under the supervision of the chair holder or the project leader.
Please note the Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz (Federal Law on Temporary Employment in Science)
Scientific staff members can be employed at a German university for a limited period of 12 years (medicine: 15 years), with a maximum of 6 years before the doctorate. Fixed-term service and employment contracts with more than a quarter of the working time of a full-time employee at a German university or research institution count towards the 12-year regulation. Should any questions arise in this regard, please contact your responsible human resources department.
Further link:
Job offers of the TUD
Especially during the early postdoc phase, scholarships play an important role. Scholarship holders can usually work more independently as they are not subject to directives. The lack of involvement in academic processes within their institute/department and low social security in comparison to an employment contract are often perceived as the disadvantages of a postdoc scholarship.
Further links:
Overview over external funding organizations and programs
Postdoc funding programs of the GA / TUD
Within structured programs primarily targeted at doctoral candidates, postdoctoral positions are also announced sporadically. In addition to their own postdoctoral research project, these postdoctoral fellows are often responsible for the coordination and supervision of the doctoral fellows of the program. Detailed information on the structured programs at the TU Dresden and the local research institutions can be found in this overview of the structured programs of the TUD and its partner institutions.
Funding programs for independent junior research group leaders (i.e. by the DFG, ERC) enable young scientists to gain scientific independence at an early stage of their academic career. This implies the opportunity to independently conduct one's own research project having a dedicated budget available.
The funding usually includes posts for additional research assistants as well as means for equipment and consumables. The head of an independent junior research group is not subject to directives. This provides optimal conditions for enhancing one's profile as an independent scientist. The lack of involvement within institutional procedures and decision making processes at the university/research institute and of teaching experience may be seen as a disadvantage of such a position. Furthermore, heads of independent junior research groups are not admitted as examiners within the doctoral examination procedure. In order to counteract these disadvantages, the TU Dresden has launched the program TUD Young Investigators as a measure of its institutional strategy.
Selection processes for independent junior research group leadership positions are usually extremely competitive. Scientific excellence, primarily proven through an outstanding publication record already during the early postdoc-phase, is an essential selection criterion.
The most important funding programs for junior research group leaders with further links:
- DFG
- European Research Council
- VolkswagenStiftung
- Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung
- Max-Planck-Geselschaft
- Helmholtz Association
The junior professorship, introduced in 2002 by the Federal Ministry of Education and the Saxon state law, is an opportunity for young, excellent scientists to teach and research at university without going through habilitation. The junior professorship helps strengthening scientific independence at an early stage of the academic career, removing the hurdle of habilitation towards a chair and boosting international competitiveness of the science hub Germany by the approximate comparability with assistant professorships, e.g. in the US or Switzerland.
Junior professors assume teaching activities and are involved in the institutional processes of the university. In addition, they are authorized to evaluate diploma theses and dissertations.
A successfully completed junior professorship is considered equivalent to a habilitation. Nevertheless, some junior professors also use the time of the junior professorship for a habilitation.
Junior professorships are mostly announced as temporary positions with the grade W1. Usually, the temporary position initially applies for three years; if the evaluation is positive, the position is extended to a total of six years. There is no performance compensation, but the salary is increased after a positive interim evaluation. Compared to junior research group leaders, junior professorships usually receive less funding; often, they do not have their own staff positions, for example.
Further Links:
TUD Junior Professorship
YOU PROF - YOUNG PROFESSORS PROGRAMME
The habilitation is traditionally established within the German academic system as a further academic qualification after the doctorate. In spite of the recent diversification of academic career paths, in many disciplines, the habilitation still plays a decisive role as a post-doctoral degree that entitles to be appointable for a professorship. The habilitation consists of a habilitation thesis and oral exams, and it certificates lecturing and researching competency within a particular scientific discipline (the so-called venia legendi). Analogically to the doctorate, the admission and realization of the habilitation is regulated by the habilitation regulations of the respective faculties.
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 the time frame usually set for the completion of the habilitation thesis. However, this six-years period can be exceeded by third-party funded employments. 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.
Further link:
Job offers of TU Dresden
