Financial Aid for Doctorates

There are three main avenues of financial aid available to doctorate candidates at Kaiserslautern University of Technology:

  • Grant application 
  • Third party funded projects
  • State employment

 

Grants

At TU Kaiserslautern, there are several, including some cross-departmental, graduate programs and doctorate programs that award grants in connection with the thesis subjects. If you are interested in seeking acceptance in such a graduate program, you can discuss it in confidence with the respective speaker or the professor involved. 

Additionally, you can submit grant applications as a talented junior researcher to the eleven organizations that operate as a public service to the advancement of junior researchers. More information is provided on the scholarship page or the internet pages of the individual organizations.

For additional questions, contact the "Stipendien-AG". You can also ask the responsible contact persons at the associated institutes on campus about possible grants and other support programs.

Third party funded projects

Generally, applications for third party funding to institutions that sponsor the advancement of research (e.g., DFG) are only open to experienced scientists with a Ph. D.  This is why the support person usually manages the application process for the doctorate candidate. 

The application for a research grant should reflect the subject area of the post-graduate thesis. Discuss this with the professors of your department. Be aware that new applications take several months to process from the time of submission to the approval of the grant; at DFG, approximately 6 months.

Frequently, there are third party funded projects already ongoing in a research work group and qualified candidates are sought through job announcements. Check the current announcements for TU Kaiserslautern.

State employment

The faculty positions or professorships at TU Kaiserslautern are assigned as individual state jobs. The positions funded by the state of Rheinland-Palatinate include the chance to obtain a doctorate degree, but are always linked to additional service by the person occupying the position (e.g., network administration, practical exercises, etc.). Read the announcements made by TU Kaiserslautern or contact the responsible office for your department.