Funding

Join PAIR with Your Own Funding

There are several roads to joining the team at PAIR, one of which is to apply for funding yourself, with our help. This has a much higher success rate than job applications, and it adds prestige to the person who acquired the funding.

This web page is to help you with such applications, both in terms of finding a suitable source (given your career stage and location), and in terms of writing a successful proposal. Once you have a rough plan of what you want to do, please reach out to us (the Director) early with your plan, including a CV and 1-2 page exposé.

1. Get support from the Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU)
   • Our Faculty Office for Research and Young Scientists supports researchers who are at FAU or would like to come to FAU by securing third-party funding – do talk to them! The faculty office has links to funders; it also supports conference travel and gives seed funding to support applying for funding, including retreats (in addition to the seed funding PAIR provides for its members).
   • The university has several web pages about funding, e.g. for all Students, PhD Students and PostDoctoral Researchers – and a useful general guide. There is a specialised centre for help with EU Funding.
2. If You Are in Germany
   • The DAAD funding database provides a comprehensive, searchable collection of scholarships and fellowships.
   • The main government-funded foundations in Germany offer PhD scholarships.
   • More links at the FAU Faculty page.
3. If You Want to Come to Germany
   • The DAAD funding database provides a comprehensive, searchable collection of scholarships and fellowships
   • “Research in Germany” offers an overview of funding opportunities for international researchers.
   • The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation provides a database for various fellowship programs.
   • The main government-funded foundations in Germany offer PhD scholarships (accessible to candidates from outside Germany as well)
   • Researchers at Risk can benefit from special funding (2+ year fellowships) of the AvH “Philipp Schwartz Initiative” (e.g. if freedom of expression is under threat, the researcher has applied for asylum, war is raging, …).
   • More links at the FAU Faculty page.
   • Do consider funding from your home country or institution – Many universities offer funding for research stays abroad. Check with your research office or international programs coordinator. Your country’s national research funding body, national foundations and private charities very likely support international research visits, PhDs abroad, and PostDoctoral research abroad. If you have the chance, do consider a sabbatical at PAIR.

Selected Major Funding Programmes