Application Requirements

Intellectual curiosity, interest in disciplines other than one’s own, and readiness to discuss also beyond one’s own disciplinary interest are decisive preconditions for a fruitful Fellow residency. We regard researchers who reflect on and theoretically or conceptually work on the basic assumptions of their discipline as the ideal candidates for a fellowship. Creativity is an important asset; it should not, however, be achieved at the expense of thoroughness – or vice versa.

In general, candidates who apply with an academic/scientific project must have completed a doctorate. Knowledge of English is required. In addition, two articles in high-quality journals as first author or a monograph are the minimum requirements for an application.

The Fellows live and work on the Wissenschaftskolleg’s small campus in Grunewald district; this includes a common meal on weekdays. Research projects that require constant absence (in labs, archives, or other facilities outside Berlin) are thus unsuitable for a fellowship.

One aspect of the Wissenschaftskolleg’s mode of operation is to separate the invited researchers from their routines and accustomed surroundings and to expose them to new experiences. For this reason, researchers from Berlin research institutes or Institutes of higher learning are not considered for fellowships.

Applications must include the following documents:

• a current curriculum vitae with a list of publications;
• two recent articles (or – in the case of early-career applicants–- one recent article) that are characteristic of the applicant’s work and/or related to the proposed research topic; at least one of the articles should be in English, the second one can also be in German, French, or Spanish
• a description of the project to be pursued during the applicant’s stay in Berlin

The following additional points apply to tandem applications:

• The joint project description should clearly indicate which tandem partner is responsible for which part of the projectThe publication project should already have taken on concrete form, but not be too far advanced.
• The application must be accompanied by a plausible explanation why the joint project should be carried out at the Wissenschaftskolleg.
• If possible, the tandem partners should come from different disciplines.
• Ideally, the tandem partners should not belong to the same home institution, or at least not to the same faculty.

The two applications will be reviewed separately.

All applications outside of calls can be submitted here.