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 December 4, 2025, the gender equality officers of the five faculties and the department reviewed a total of 2 applications and approved a total funding amount of EUR 2,500. As always, a thorough review was conducted to ensure that the planned measures comply with our funding allocation guidelines.
From the Faculty of Biology, no applications were submitted this time.
From the Faculty of Chemistry and Food Chemistry, two applications were submitted this time. One application was for an excursion fo the FSRand has been postponed to 2026. The other application was to set up relaxation rooms so that students and staff can continue to take part in university life as much as possible during menstruation or pregnancy. For this application EUR 2,500 were granted.
From the Faculty of Mathematics, no applications were submitted this time.
From the Faculty of Physics, no applications were submitted this time.
From the Faculty of Psychology, no applications were submitted this time.
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 03.01.2018, in response to the Corona pandemic last revision on 24 June 2020)
- Criteria for the allocation of equal opportunity funds (latest revision on May 22, 2023)
- Application form (last revision on November 22, 2024)
- Privacy policy (last revision on June 21, 2022)
- Final Report (latest revision on April 25, 2023)