FAQ

No, all nationalities are eligible.

For the purposes of the program, you are no longer in an early career phase if you have already carried out projects under your own responsibility, have managed staff or have led a junior research group.

There is no age limit and no restriction based on the time since obtaining the PhD. Applicants will be assessed in relation to their career stage: more advanced candidates are expected to demonstrate a correspondingly higher level of achievements than applicants who just finished their PhD.

We refer to academics who are the first in their family to enter higher education.

An expert assessment is a reference letter.  You do not need to ask your assessors to review your project idea.

You will choose your own assessors. One of them should be your PhD supervisor.

You may submit an assessment from your current supervisor instead. You can inform the Recruitment Office at MartianMindset.applicationsprotect me ?!uni-bremenprotect me ?!.de why you did not include an assessment from your PhD supervisor.

Should assessors send their assessments themselves or can the applicant submit the assessments?

Your assessors should submit their assessments directly to this email address: MartianMindset.applicationsprotect me ?!uni-bremenprotect me ?!.de

Assessments must be submitted by the application deadline.

You will have a budget for student assistants but no extra funding for additional PhD positions. The basic budget for student assistants, consumables, travel is 10.000 € per year.

No, you will receive funding for your own salary. This cannot be reallocated to other people. However, you will have a budget for student assistants.

Yes, there will be a basic budget of 10.000 € per year for student assistants, consumables and travel. You may ask for additional direct project costs, e.g. for expensive experiments or equipment. It is also possible to apply for instrumentation. If you have any doubts about the appropriateness of the proposed budget, please feel free to contact us.

A host is an experienced researcher (R3–R4, according to the European Framework for Research Careers, https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/) from the University of Bremen or one of the Cluster’s participating institutions who provides the institutional environment for the proposed project. Successful candidates will carry out their research independently as project leaders in the Cluster. The host provides scientific expertise where appropriate, as well as access to the necessary research environment and facilities.

As part of the application, the host must provide a letter of support confirming the availability of a workplace and the necessary research facilities (e.g. laboratories), and explaining how the proposed project substantially extends both the Cluster’s research and the host’s own research group. If the host is not already a project leader in the Cluster, they will become one.

Hosts are not required to fund the position, as it is financed through this call.

Any experienced researcher (R3–R4, according to the European Framework for Research Careers, https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/) from the University of Bremen or one of the Cluster’s participating institutions can act as host. For organizations with multiple sites (e.g. DLR), only those sites that are formally part of the Cluster’s participating institutions are eligible. Affiliation with the same organization at a non-participating site is not sufficient.

Participating institutions are:

1. University of Bremen (all faculties)
2. Leibniz Institute for Materials Engineering (Leibniz-IWT)
3. Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials (IFAM)
4. German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI)
5. DLR Institute for Space Systems (DLR RY)
6. UBremen Research Alliance (UBRA) (all institutes)
7. Matena innovate! Center

No. You need to submit a host agreement by the application deadline.

The call is open to all disciplines. There are no restrictions. However, projects should demonstrate a clear connection to the Martian Mindset.

This criterion is interpreted as a meaningful distinction rather than a strict separation. The proposed project should clearly go beyond existing Cluster activities, such that it would not be feasible within the Cluster without the additional contribution of the applicant and the host.

Your project may propose collaborations, but your host needs to be from the institutions that already formally participate in the cluster (see section Hosts).