Equal Opportunities Funding
Table of contents
Members of the School of Science may apply for financial support for activities that serve to implement the equal opportunities mandate in the School.
For now, a total of 38,000 EUR is available in 2025.
There are four allocation rounds per year, the deadlines are February 15th, May 15th, August 15th and November 15th.
Note: Starting 2026 the deadlines change to January 15, April 15, July 15, and October 15.
Example of previously funded projects
Applying for equal opportunity funding
| 1. | Check, if the planned activity aligns with the goals for using equal opportunity funds as stated in the allocation guidelines. A look at the criteria we use, when allocating equal opportunity funds, might also be useful. The Equal Opportunity Officers of the faculties and the School of Science can help you with questions. |
| 2. | Fill in the application form in its current version electronically and read the privacy policy. For bigger activities an additional letter with a more detailed breakdown of the costs can be usefull. Then send all documents via email to the Equal Opportunity Officer of your faculty. |
| 3. | After the deadline all Equal Opportunity Officers decide jointly on the allocation of the equality funds. Afterwards, you will be informed by the Equal Opportunity Officer of your faculty. |
| 4. | Carry out your activity. We wish you good luck. |
| 5. | After the activity is finished, you first have to sellte the costs as usual with the university administration. Afterwards, fill in the final report and send it via email to the Equal Opportunity Officer of your faculty. |
Outcome of the latest allocation round
On May 7, 2026, the equal opportunity officers from the five faculties and the division reviewed a total of 13 applications and approved a total grant amount of 5,365 EUR. As always, they thoroughly verified that the planned measures complied with our guidelines for the allocation of funds.
Two applications were submitted from the Faculty of Biology: one for a grant to support a student’s participation in a competition and one for a workshop on balancing family life and research. A grant of 1,500 EUR was approved for the first application; unfortunately, the second application could not be funded.
Three applications were submitted from the Faculty of Chemistry and Food Chemistry, all for grants to support conference attendance. A total of 1,080 EUR was approved for these applications.
One application was submitted from the Faculty of Mathematics for a grant to support conference attendance. 735 EUR was approved for this application.
Five applications were submitted from the Faculty of Physics: three for student events, one for a grant to attend a conference, and one for a language course. While the last application unfortunately could not be funded, a total of 1,300 EUR was approved for the other four applications.
Two applications were submitted from the Faculty of Psychology for grants to cover conference travel expenses. While one of the two applications could not be funded, 750 EUR was approved for the other.
There was no application from the School of Science this time.
Annual Report 2025
In 2025, a total of 45 applications for support from equality funds were submitted and a total of EUR 31,320 in funding was approved. Below are a few key figures relating to these 45 applications.
As before, applications for individual support for one person account for the majority (58%), with this proportion remaining roughly the same as in 2024.
The funded measures can be roughly divided into seven categories: “travel activities,” “event organization,” “own position,” “SHK/WHK for research project,” “research,” “teaching,” and “purchases.” As in previous years, travel activities were the most frequently funded measure in 2025. The observation made in 2024 that there was an increase in applications for the organization of events was confirmed again in 2025.
If, on the other hand, we classify the measures according to the group of people they support, we see the groups “HSL,” “postdocs,” “doctoral candidates,” “students,” “school students,” “MTV,” and “several groups of people at the same time.” The most common applications in 2025 were for funding for students, followed at a slight distance by applications for funding for multiple groups of people, postdocs, and doctoral candidates. Compared to the previous year, there were significantly more applications in 2025 for funding for multiple groups of people, which were usually submitted by students.
Finally, let's take a look at which of the 10 equality goals from the school's equality concept were mentioned most often in applications. The graph shows the figures based on the applications, where several goals were usually specified in the applications at the same time. The most frequently mentioned goal in 2025 was by far Goal 2, the promotion of female scientists' careers. This was followed at a slight distance by Goal 4 (promotion of underrepresented student groups). Compared to the previous year, there were significantly more applications for Goal 1 (increasing the proportion of female scientists) and significantly fewer applications for Goal 5 (inclusion) in 2025.
All documents for an application for equality funds
- Guidelines for use of equal opportunity funds in the School of Science (first version from January 3, 2018, in response to the Corona pandemic last revision on June 24, 2020)
- Criteria for the allocation of equal opportunity funds (latest revision on May 22, 2023)
- Application form (last revision on July 21, 2026)
- Privacy policy (last revision on June 21, 2022)
- Final Report (latest revision on April 25, 2023)