TUM Global Postdoc Fellowship

The TUM Global Postdoc Fellowship 2023 offers up to 10 international young scientists the opportunity to conduct research with a host at TUM for up to 2 years within the framework of the fellowship and thus continue their career at TUM. All further information can be found below.

Applications are submitted through our application portal (http://bit.ly/tumportal). The application deadline is November 19, 2023 (23:59 CET).

For any question, please contact the team of the TUM Talent Factory at postdoc@tum.de.

About the TUM Global Postdoc Fellowship

The TUM Global Postdoc Fellowship is a funding opportunity for external postdoctoral scientists who are currently residing abroad and would like to start their research at TUM. For 24 months, fellows are supported by TUM to diversivy their research profile at a TUM department and to initiate new research projects together with TUM scientists.

Researchers who have completed their doctorate a maximum of three years ago or who will complete their doctorate within the next 12 months and reside outside of Germany at the time of application are eligible to apply. The application requires the support of a host at TUM. Here, the Research Opportunities Week offers an excellent opportunity to learn about the fellowship and other funding opportunities as well as to exchange ideas with potential hosts.

The TUM Global Postdoc Fellowship is open to all topics. Researchers are invited to apply with a project that matches the research of the chair/institute/lab of the respective host who supports the application.

If you want to be informed about future calls, please register for our newsletter.

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Details on the Fellowship

The TUM Global Postdoc Fellowship 2023 offers successful candidates a fellowship (scholarship) for 24 months. The fellowship can be started within one year in the period from April 1, 2024 - April 1, 2025 and gives the scholarship holders the opportunity to conduct their own independent research project at TUM.

Fellows receive a stipend of 2.670 € per month and one additional kick-off flat rate of 430 €. Researchers living in the Munich metropolitan area receive an additional allowance of 350 € per month. It is also possible to apply for family benefits. The fellowship covers living expenses whereas additional payments for consumables and conferences are not included and may be covered by the host.

The TUM Global Postdoc Fellowship is a co-financed fellowship. This means that the host needs to co-finance 20% of the fellowship costs. One host can support up to two applicants per call.

During the time of their fellowship, fellows are supported by central TUM services, as for example the TUM Talent Factory.

Application Requirements

Candidates fulfilling the following criteria are eligible to apply for the TUM Global Postdoc Fellowship:

Mobility Rule

External early-career postdocs and doctoral researchers in their final year, residing outside of Germany at the time of application, are eligible to apply for the TUM Global Postdoc Fellowship. Researchers who are already working at TUM or completed their doctorate at TUM are not eligible for the event.

Completion of PhD or letter of confirmation from PhD supervisor

You are eligible to apply for the fellowship if you finished your PhD within the last three years at an institution other than TUM. Cut-off date is October 1, 2023, which means you can apply if you have completed your PhD on October 1, 2020 or later. The date of the doctoral certificate is binding.

You can also apply if you have recently handed in your PhD or if you will complete your PhD within the next 12 months. In this case you must hand in either an official letter of confirmation, for instance from the university registrar/examination office, stating that you have handed in your PhD or a letter of confirmation from your supervisor stating that you will finish your PhD within the next 12 months. You will need to have your PhD certificate to be able to start the fellowship.

Support of a TUM Host

For your application, you need the support of a TUM host. You also need to hand in a letter of support from your TUM host as part of the application documents.

If you have further questions on the application requirements, please check our FAQ document (PDF).

Application Documents

To apply for the TUM Global Postdoc Fellowship 2023 you need the following documents in English:

• CV, including list of publications (max. 5 pages)
• Research Proposal (max. 4 pages). Please present the research project which you plan to conduct at TUM in such a way that a reviewer who is not an expert in your specific field can follow your argument. In your research proposal, you should also address synergies with the TUM host and your career plans: Why is TUM the best possible place to do your research project? Why is your TUM host the person with whom you want to conduct your research project? What are your future career plans? For which subsequent funding would you apply during the fellowship? Your proposal should not exceed 4 pages (including references and footnotes).
• PhD certificate or letter of confirmation stating that you will finish your PhD within the next 12 months.
• Letter of Recommendation from your TUM host (for details on what the letter of recommendation should entail, see Information for Hosts)

Please note that it is not possible to apply for the fellowship without the support of a TUM host (i. e. a TUM professor or TUM Junior Fellow). As a host can support not more than two applications per Call, we recommend that you make sure that a potential host will support your application before preparing the respective documents. Because the program is new, you should keep in mind that potential hosts may not be familiar with all the details of the TUM Global Postdoc Fellowship.

For questions, you may also refer to our FAQ document (PDF).

Information on the Selection Process

All applications will be checked for completeness and the candidate’s meeting of the selection criteria. In a next step, each application will be evaluated by three expert reviewers.

Evaluation is based on the following criteria:

• Academic excellence of the applicant
• Relevance and originality of the proposed research project
• Synergies with the TUM host
• Personal motivation of the applicant

All applicants will be informed about the results in January 2024. The fellowship can be started within one year in the period from April 1, 2024 - April 1, 2025 (always on the 1st day of each month). The start of the scholarship needs to be discussed with the TUM host.

Information for Hosts

The TUM Global Postdoc Fellowship is a central measure of the TUM Agenda 2030. It offers talented postdocs who have recently completed their PhD the opportunity to continue their career at TUM. In order to provide researchers with attractive conditions, two-year fellowships will be awarded. Postdocs who bring their family will receive additional payments for their partner and children. This fellowship can be considered as a startup fund which allows postdocs a smooth start of their research at TUM. The TUM Talent Factory  will support the fellows with their applications for third party funding and will offer advice on career planning. 

For you as a host the following information is particularly relevant:

• TUM Professors and TUM Junior Fellows can be hosts. Other researchers at TUM cannot become hosts (see also our FAQs)
• Successful applicants receive a fellowship for 24 months during which they conduct their own research project at a chair/institute/lab. The fellowship can be started within one year in the period from April 1, 2024 - April 1, 2025
• You can support not more than two applicants per call. If you support two applicants, at least one applicant must be female. Please bear this is mind when deciding on potential applicants.
• The fellowship requires the host to co-fund 20% of the fellowship. The exact amount of the fellowship depends on the fellow’s family situation and – in the case of a successful application – will be calculated on the basis of the fellow’s current family situation. This means that a host would need to cover total costs between ca. 14 500 € for a single fellow  (~ 600 € per month) and ca. 18 800 € if a fellow has a partner and two children (~780 € per month) for the two-year period. Please note: No Haushaltsmittel or Planstellen can be used for the payment of the fellowship. Payment can come from e.g. overhead and free third-party funding.
• The fellowship covers the researcher’s living costs. Additional payments for consumables and conferences are not included and may be covered by the host.
• Applicants need a letter of recommendation from their TUM host in English as not all reviewers speak German. The applicant can upload the letter of recommendation in the application portal. Alternatively, the applicant can send you a link via the application portal, with which you can upload the letter of recommendation yourself. Please keep in mind that the letter then has to be submitted by 19th of November. Otherwise the application may not be considered.
• The letter of recommendation must have an official letter head and must be signed by you. Besides evaluating the candidate’s qualification and the project, you need to confirm the following:

1. If the application is successful, you provide the fellow with sufficient working and lab place to conduct the project.
2. If the application is successful, you agree to cover 20% of the costs of the fellowship.

• The fellowship can be started within one year in the period from April 1, 2024 - April 1, 2025. The fellows receive a fellowship contract which the Senor Vice President of Research and Innovation will sign on behalf of TUM. The fellows will receive a scholarship, which means that they will not be employed but will have the status of a “guest researcher” from an administrative point of view.

All information relevant for hosts – including details about the required 20% co-financing – have been summarized in a “Guide for Hosts” which can be downloaded here (TUM ID required). 

Additional Funding and Support

TUM Global Postdoc Fellows will be supported to apply for third party funding during the time of their fellowship. The TUM Talent Factory offers for instance individual advice on funding possibilities or upskilling events to which the fellows are preferably invited.

TUM further expects fellows to hand in at least one application for third party funding at one of the main funding bodies for postdoc fellowships (e.g. AvH, MSCA, DFG) during their first 12 months of the fellowship. Many or those programs are only open to researchers during their first year in Germany due to mobility rules.

At the beginning of the fellowship, the fellow and the host set up a goal and training plan in which they define the fellow’s aims and the steps to be taken accordingly. After the first year, the fellow hands in an interim report on what has been realised and achieved so far.

Besides the TUM Talent Factory, there are other central services at TUM supporting postdocs during their time at TUM such as TUM Welcome Services, TUM Gender and Diversity, TUM Family Service or the TUM Institute for LongLife Learning.

Get to know our fellows

Who are the TUM Global Postdoc Fellows (TGPF) ? Find out more about the fellows and their projects, as well as the recipients of the TUM University Foundation Fellowship (2013–2020).