Post-Docs
Current calls for Post-Docs
Early career postdoctoral researchers (at most one year after having received their doctorate)
Advanced postdoctoral researchers (one to four years after having received their doctorate)
International postdoctoral researchers (at most two years after having received their doctorate)
Career perspectives for Post-Docs
The University of Bremen perceives a special mission in supporting its Post-Docs and makes an effort in providing attractive career pathways for them since a long time. Some 20 years ago, the University’s own Central Research Development Fund started to finance Post-Doc positions. Irrespective of these centrally funded positions, there are additional Post-Doc positions provided by the respective faculties and institutes of the University.
The University of Bremen offers an academic environment ensuring that all Post-Docs and researchers on the way to tenured professorships will avail themselves of a broad range of support measures testifying to Bremen’s reputation as a talent incubator. The Personnel Development Office offers a wide range of customized trainings, including intensive (career) coaching, and Research Services is ready to help with grant applications for extra-mural funds. There is support in coordinating career and family life, such as the university’s Day-Care Center and other on-campus child-care facilities. There is a dense interdisciplinary research network with the University of Bremen at its center, offering stimulating research to connect to. Furthermore, the university campus offers ample opportunities for engaging in research cooperation with non-university research institutes of excellence, e.g. including institutes of the Max Planck Society, the Fraunhofer Society, the Helmholtz Association and Leibniz Association. The university's close cooperation with the region's private sector provides the chance to engage in R&D activities.
All Post-Docs being funded by one of the funding lines mentioned below, are part of a Post-Doc-Network stimulating their career in a special way.
| WHO CAN APPLY? | DOCTORAL DEGREE | TIME PERIOD OF THE FUNDING | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Central Research Development Fund: TEMPORARY POSITIONS FOR POST-DOCS | - Doctoral candidates of any nationality - Post-docs of any nationality |
- Doctoral candidates expecting to receive their doctorate within the next half year - Post-docs who have received their doctorate at most one year prior to application |
12 months with the possibility of further 12 months (24 months maximum) |
| Central Research Development Fund: INDEPENDENT PROJECTS FOR POST-DOCS | Post-docs of any nationality | The doctorate was received at least one year and at most four years prior to application | 48 months (maximum) |
| Post-Doc Initiative (M8): EARLY CAREER POSTDOCTORAL POSITIONS | - Doctoral candidates of any nationality - Post-docs of any nationality - The doctorate should not have been attained at the University of Bremen |
- Doctoral candidates expecting to receive their doctorate within the next half year - Post-docs who have received their doctorate at most one year prior to application |
24 months (maximum) |
| Post-Doc Initiative (M8) INDEPENDENT POSTDOCTORAL POSITIONS: | - Post-docs of any nationality - The doctorate should not have been attained at the University of Bremen, otherwise at least two years of postdoctoral research at another institution are required |
The doctorate was received at least one year and at most four years prior to application | 48 months (maximum) |
| BREMEN TRAC/COFUND | - Post-docs of any nationality - At the time of application, they must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Germany for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the call deadline. |
The doctorate was received at most two years prior to application | 24 months (maximum) |
Details on the table’s funding lines
At present, there are two special funding lines for Post-Docs financed by the University’s Central Research Development Fund (CRDF). Post-Docs at an early stage in their careers can receive support to set up independent research projects to be run under their own leadership and responsibility by applying for temporary positions for Post-Docs. On the other hand, positions for advanced investigators offer advanced and international Post-Docs the opportunity to run their own four-year independent projects for Post-Docs in an optimally conducive environment.
Thanks to being one of Germany’s eleven Universities of Excellence, the University can offer further Post-Doc positions. Since 2012, the University of Bremen disposes of funds for its Institutional Strategy. The University is implementing its Institutional Strategy through a total of nine measures. Being one of these measures, the Post-Doc Initiative of the University of Bremen lays a further career track and awards positions competitively and with their own budget to create more room for independent research in the Post-Doc phase. Just as for the CRDF, the university has created two different types of Post-Doc positions to use this productive potential to the fullest: Early Career and Independent postdoctoral positions.
Last but not least, the University offers a new fellowship-programme for Post-Docs from 2013 on: The incoming COFUND fellowships – BREMEN TRAC (Fellowships for Transnational Academic Careers). The programme is funded by the University of Bremen and the SEVENTH FRAMEWORK PROGRAMME (FP7) Marie Curie Actions. BREMEN TRAC explicitly targets excellent researchers residing outside Germany and offers two-year fellowships. It will contribute to fostering transnational mobility of highly promising researchers at an early career stage.
Female Post-Docs
A measure of career advancement explicitly for female Post-Docs was introduced in 2004, the “plan m” coaching and mentoring program, that recently received the accolade of being a European Good Practice Project. The program is open to all women at the university, and is also demand-tailored to Excellence Clusters, Graduate Schools, and Collaborative Research Centers. Being an equal-opportunity employer, the University awards at least half of all the above mentioned Post-Doc positions to women.
