Funding People Athena Scholarship
After successfully completing your studies, you start your dissertation with great motivation – but what do you do when the doctoral phase gradually turns into a test of endurance, your stamina wavers and you start to question your degree?
Challenges of a professional, personal, family and often also financial nature can lead to stagnation or, in the worst case, even to a cancellation of the doctorate. The aim of the Athena Scholarship is to minimise financial worries during the doctoral phase and thus create more space to concentrate on the subject matter.
During the course of a doctorate, there are typical crises that need to be overcome in order to progress with the dissertation. These are triggered, for example, by high pressure to perform, fear of failure and uncertainty about the future. These are often exacerbated by financial burdens and an excessive workload in non-specialist part-time jobs. We can do little to influence this, but we can at least provide some financial relief.
The Athena Scholarship supports doctoral candidates at the Faculty of Philosophy at Heidelberg University who need temporary financial support, for example because they have unexpectedly found themselves in an emergency situation or need a temporary grant to be able to concentrate fully on their doctoral project. The support provided by the scholarship creates the freedom to cope with the current difficult phase while continuing to pursue or complete the dissertation. Your donation to the Athena Scholarship is an investment in the future of young people as well as in science and is therefore valuable for us all.
In 2025, the Athena Scholarship was established thanks to the initiative of a Heidelberg alumna, Prof Dr Hannelore Grimm, who, after completing her degree and doctorate in psychology, habilitated in Heidelberg in 1977 and worked as a professor at a German university from 1985 to 2004. After her habilitation, Hannelore Grimm received a Heisenberg Fellowship, which enabled her to make decisive progress with her research projects not only in Germany, but above all in the U.S.. Her knowledge of the importance of supporting young scientists and the value of a scholarship, which opens up freedom and opportunities, were her personal reasons for setting up a scholarship herself. She would like to use it to support young scientists on their career path during a financially difficult phase.
With this alumna's first donation to the Athena Fund, the scholarship will be awarded for the first time in winter semester 2025/26. In order to make the scholarship sustainable, we are asking for further donations. Every amount – no matter how small – is valuable!