Selection Criteria for Focus Groups

Applications for focus groups can be submitted in response to the annual public call for applications.

Interested scholars are asked to hand in a preliminary application. After an initial selection round, successful applicants are invited to submit a full proposal. The merits of each proposal are then discussed by a review panel which takes external expertise into account. The proposals that have passed the preselection process are subsequently presented to the Wissenschaftskolleg’s Academic Advisory Board, and the final decision is rendered by the Kolleg’s Rector.

Essential for the selection procedure are the comparative weighing and evaluations of the candidacies in terms of discipline-specific selection criteria and the composition of the Fellow “class”.

The qualitative judgment comprises considerations of research achievements, the evaluation of the stringency and originality of the submitted overarching project and of the individual projects, and careful reading of the selected publications.

All persons taking part in the selection of candidates are requested to reveal any possible conflict of interest in the decision-making process. This is based on the rules passed in 2018 to avoid conflicts of interest.

Criteria of conflict of interest for the selection process of the Wissenschaftskolleg