Co-Funding for Research Stays – Incoming Doctoral Researchers

The programme provides doctoral researchers from other German and foreign universities/research institutes with the opportunity to conduct a research stay at the Cluster of Excellence “The Politics of Inequality” for 2 to 5 months. They benefit from its vibrant academic community and participate in its numerous activities such as different colloquia, training series on methods and early career development, and round table discussions. Incoming doctoral researchers are hosted by one of the Cluster’s PIs and integrated into their respective working group. The purpose of the programme is to foster academic exchange, especially among the Cluster and its network of partner institutions.

What is funded?
Funding is available to cover travel and accommodation expenses related to the applicant’s stay at the Cluster. Funding may be granted up to a maximum amount of 3.000 EUR per incoming doctoral researcher depending on the duration of the stay and the costs incurred.

Please note that the Cluster does not offer employment contracts for research stays. Incoming doctoral researchers need to use their own funding for their positions.

When applying for the programme, incoming doctoral researchers need one of the Cluster’s PIs to agree to act as their host during the research stay and to integrate the applicant into his/her working group. The University of Konstanz will provide a workspace and grant access to its IT and library services. The Welcome Centre of the University of Konstanz supports international incoming doctoral researchers in the organizational aspects of their stay in Konstanz.

Incoming doctoral researchers can enroll as visiting students at the University of Konstanz upon request. Application documents are to be submitted to the Welcome Centre. They may then participate in the courses offered within the Inequality Specialization of the Graduate School of the Social and Behavioural Sciences.

Applicants should be aware of the semester dates of the University of Konstanz. The winter term starts in October and lasts until March with lectures ending by mid-February. The summer term starts in April and lasts until September with lectures ending by the end of July.

Who can apply?
Doctoral researchers from other German or foreign universities/research institutes who are at least in their second year of doctoral studies when conducting their research stay at the Cluster.

How to apply
To apply, please submit the following documents:

• Letter of motivation explaining the project the applicant wants to work on during the research stay detailing how the project and the applicant as well as the Cluster would benefit from the applicant’s research stay and from the resulting collaboration.
• Confirmation letter of a Cluster PI that he*she supports the application and will integrate the applicant into his*her working group
• Updated CV
• Confirmation of applicant’s home supervisor that she*he supports the research stay
• Confirmation of financial means to finance the research stay
• Calculation of the expected costs of the research stay (travel and accommodation costs)

Please fill in the application form and submit your application documents as one PDF file along with it.

Deadline

We are looking forward to receiving your application for a research stay in 2025 until 30 November 2024.

Additional information
The Managing Office helps with any questions: application.inequality@uni-konstanz.de

The University of Konstanz is one of eleven Universities of Excellence in Germany. Since 2007 it has been successful in the German Excellence Initiative and its follow-up programme, the Excellence Strategy. The Cluster “The Politics of Inequality” includes researchers from political science, sociology, economics, linguistics, psychology, law, and education studies. They study how people perceive these inequalities, how they lead to collective mobilization, and how political actors respond to them.

This Call is funded by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft - DFG) under the Excellence Strategy of the German federal and state governments – EXC-2035/1 – 390681379 - and is in accordance with the Bylaws for the Cluster of Excellence “The Politics of Inequality: Perceptions, Participation and Policies” of the University of Konstanz.

For more information on the Cluster, please visit: http://inequality.uni.kn