The Zukunftskolleg of the University of Konstanz offers up to five (5) ZIF Marie Curie 5-year Research Fellowships and four (4) Zukunftskolleg Research Fellowships (any discipline represented at the University of Konstanz) to develop and implement individual research projects.
The Marie Curie call for applications is part of the Zukunftskolleg Incoming Fellowship Program (ZIF) and is financed by the Seventh Framework Program (FP7) Marie Curie Actions – People (co-funding of regional, national and international programs), the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the University of Konstanz.
Research Fellowships are available to researchers regardless of their nationality and field of research.
The Fellowships will begin on May 1, 2015, and end on April 30, 2020.
The Zukunftskolleg provides a professional infrastructure and an appropriate workplace for conducting research. Fellows have the opportunity to benefit from a variety of career development measures, including the University of Konstanz’s Academic Staff Development and Research Support offices. Fellows may nominate recognized experts in their field of research as senior Fellows, who will be invited to Konstanz for a research stay of one to nine months. Each Fellow receives Start-up Funding and a Research Allowance. Furthermore, a pool is available for funding cooperative projects, research assistants, travel, and equipment purchases. Each Fellow is a member of both a university department and the Zukunftskolleg. A Mentoring Committee supports each Fellow in her / his career development. This committee consists of an experienced researcher from the Fellow’s research field within the university department, as well as an advanced Research Fellow of the Zukunftskolleg.
The target group consists of excellent researchers with significant work experience at the postdoctoral level, leadership abilities, and a capacity for teamwork, so that they can reasonably be expected to take up leading roles in academia and European research and innovation policy.
Applicant Requirements for this Fellowship include:
- Candidates must be in possession of a doctoral degree;
- Candidates must not hold a permanent position, a professorship, or have an habilitation or equivalent (Venia legendi);
- Candidates must already have secured a research grant of at least 50,000 € or an equivalent amount of funding to be used for their research while at the Zukunftskolleg;
- Candidates with their own position funded by another program, which can be transferred to Konstanz, are also eligible;
- Applicants must propose a research project that ties in with a discipline represented at the University of Konstanz;
- All ethical issues raised by a proposed project (if applicable) must be described in the project outline. The candidate should explain how these will be addressed, so as to conform with national and, for Marie Curie Fellowships, Seventh Framework Program (FP7) ethical principles. For advice, please see the CORDIS website on ethics (http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ethics_en.html) and contact the Zukunftskolleg office. If a proposed project that has passed the peer review stage raises any ethical issues, it is forwarded for review by the University of Konstanz Ethics Committee.
Please note that for the Marie Curie Fellowships, funding from other EU sources (such as ERC grants) is not eligible (double funding is not allowed by the EU).
Additionally, applicants for a Marie Curie Fellowship must fulfill the mobility rule:
- Applicants must not have had their main residence in Germany for more than 12 months during the three years prior to the application deadline;
Fellows have an opportunity to teach. They are expected to participate actively in the regular weekly meetings of the Zukunftskolleg and to have their place of residence in Konstanz.
Fellows are selected on the basis of their academic excellence, the quality and topicality of their research project outline, personal aptitude with regard to leadership and team skills, and interdiscipli-nary interest. International experience in teaching or research, and a strong interest in interdis-ciplinary topics are desirable.
Eligibility Requirements
In order to be eligible, candidates must fulfill all of the eligibility criteria:
- Applicants must have a doctoral degree;
- Applicants cannot currently hold a permanent position as full professor, or the equivalent of the German venia legendi (“Habilitation”);
- Applicants must have already secured a research grant of at least 50,000 Euros or an equivalent amount of funding to be used for their research while at the Zukunftskolleg;
- Candidates with their own position funded by another program, which can be transferred to Konstanz, are also eligible;
- Applicants must propose a research project that ties in with a discipline represented at the University of Konstanz;
- Applicants must submit all required documents by the specified deadline, including two letters of reference;
Applicants with pending grant applications are eligible to apply for a Fellowship. A Fellowship offer would be contingent upon the successful attainment of the required third-party funding.
Candidates may apply for either a Zukunftskolleg Fellowship or a Marie Curie ZIF Fellowship (according to their eligibility), but not for both Fellowships simultaneously.
The deadline for applications is August 31, 2014.
For more information and application please visit the ZIF Marie Curie and Zukunftskolleg Research Fellowships page.
