Funding Doctoral fellowships
A fellowship provides a great deal of freedom to work on your dissertation. However, you should be aware that with a fellowship, you make no payments into the social security system and therefore must arrange and pay for your health insurance separately.
If you are interested in a fellowship as an international student, you should first research what is available in your home country through programs offered by your government, the German embassy and other funding agencies such as the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service). Information about the fellowships offered by the DAAD as well as other funding agencies is available through the DAAD scholarship database.
Please visit our Service Point for individual advice on funding your doctoral studies!
Where can I apply for a fellowship?
Landesgraduiertenförderung (LGF)
The Graduate Academy awards individual doctoral fellowships through the Baden-Württemberg Landesgraduiertenförderung Program and regularly supports research training groups with fellowships funded through the LGF program.
Funding organizations
There are many private funding organizations in Germany that offer doctoral fellowships or other funding for doctoral projects, often with a subject-based focus. The funding database of the Bundesverand Deutscher Stiftungen offers a wide range of entries.
The Begabtenförderungswerke are funding organizations supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research that provide fellowships to students and young researchers. Doctoral candidates in all subject areas can apply to these organizations for funding.
Fellowship Search Engines
Hints for your funding search
Focus your search on funding organizations or programs that could have a special interest in supporting your doctoral project either because of your topic or your own background. Feel free to contact the organizations personally to ask about the organizations’ culture and the application procedures. Assemble your application carefully and tailor it to the requirements and interests of each organization separately.
Be prepared to provide the following documents, among others, in an application:
- working title of your project,
- synopsis of your project,
- time and work schedule for the project.
Research proposal
The Graduate Academy is happy to advise you on preparing the research proposal for your fellowship applications. If you wish to take advantage of this service, please contact us in advance by email: graduiertenakademie@uni-heidelberg.de