Preconditions

Focus-groups should be dedicated to addressing original issues that fall outside the parameters of individual disciplines. The group is free to choose its own orientation regarding content. This “experimental mode” especially benefits from heterogeneous constellations of different disciplines, cultures or generations.  Because the Kolleg has few applications from the natural and technical sciences, preference will be given to scientists from these disciplines when their group topic is at least of equal quality to other applications.

The decisive preconditions for a fruitful Fellow residency for focus group participants are the same as for individual Fellows: intellectual curiosity, interest in disciplines not one’s own, and readiness to discuss beyond the limits of one’s own specialized interest.

Scientists and scholars with a doctorate who have not yet held a full-year fellowship at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin are eligible to apply. Applicants may not be working together at the same institution or in an already funded joint project. As a rule, applicants must have published at least one monograph or several articles in prestigious journals. As with the individual fellowships, applications by young researchers are welcome. The same preconditions apply.

Research projects that require the constant absence of individual focus group participants (in labs, archives, or other facilities outside of Berlin) are not suitable for a focus group.

Reapplications are only possible with a new project and, at the earliest, five years after your last rejected application.

Researchers affiliated with Berlin institutions of higher learning cannot be considered for participation in focus groups.