Scholarships

The private scholarship organizations are a major component of the educational and scientific scholarship landscape in Germany. These organizations have made it their cause to promote talented graduate students and doctoral candidates and to provide them with idealistic as well as materialistic support. In Germany, although this activity is not state run and centrally organized, it is strongly supported through the Federal Ministry of Science and Research.

Public Sector Funding

• German National Academic Foundation 
• Hanns-Seidel Foundation
• Friedrich-Naumann Foundation
• Rosa-Luxemburg Foundation
• Firedrich-Ebert Foundation
• Heinrich-Böll Foundation
• Konrad-Adenauer Foundation
• Foundation for German Business - Klaus Murmann Fellowship
• Hans-Böckler Foundation
• Protestant Scholarship Fund, Villigst
• Cusanuswerk, Catholic Scholarship Fund
  
  

Postdoc and Mobility Programs

• DAAD scholarship programs
• DAAD - research grants for scientists and college teachers
• Feodor Lynen Post-Doc Fellowship of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (abroad)
• Fulbright Program
• Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz Foundation: "Science and Research Abroad"
• DFG Junior researcher grants 
• Thyssen Foundation Post-Doc Grants 
  
  

More Aid Possibilities

• Boehringer Ingelheim Fund for Biotechnology and Medical Research (Summary)
• CERN Fellowship Program for Physicists, Computer Scientists, and Engineers
• Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt – Scholarship program: Doctoral grants related to environmental issues (all faculties)
• German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) – Scholarship database for support outside of Germany
• German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) – Scholarship database for support in Germany
• Dr. Hilmer Foundation, member of the Association of donors to German Science, offers doctoral grants for research within the pharmaceutical field
• Fazit Foundation doctoral grants in all faculties (preference given to candidates in financial need)
• Friedrich Flick Foundation scholarships and travel expense supplements in economic sciences and technology
• Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz Foundation scholarships for funding start-up research visits abroad 
• Haniel Foundation scholarships for obtaining additional qualifications from studies abroad (e.g., business and engineering)
• Minerva Foundation to promote German-Israeli scientific cooperation

Additional, often subject-specific scholarships are available from a host of other foundations. The Index of German Foundations provides more information and can be searched for specific foundations and their focus subjects.