Center for Chemical Biology

Particularly good opportunities for international doctoral researchers

Further DAAD scholarships approved for the Konstanz Research School Chemical Biology at the University of Konstanz

The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD - Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst) has once more awarded the Konstanz Research School Chemical Biology (KRSCB) four research grants for international doctoral candidates from its Graduate School Scholarship Programme (GSSP). Two places can be filled in 2017 and 2018 respectively, each for a period of up to four years. The successful applicants will receive a monthly grant as well as travel expenses, a contribution towards insurance, study and research allowances as well as rent subsidy and family supplements.

“We are very pleased that our concept for raising the percentage of international doctoral researchers has been rewarded. DAAD grants are much sought-after amongst foreign students and will draw further attention to our calls for applications”, says Dr. Heike Brandstädter, director of the KRSCB. “In addition, these grants already today make an important contribution to the continuation of the graduate school beyond its existing funding in the framework of the Excellence Initiative.”

One of the objectives of the GSSP is to increase the percentage of foreign researchers in German doctoral programmes. Award criteria are the academic excellence of the applicants and their research background, the quality of the doctoral programme in terms of subject content, concepts for the recruitment, selection and supervision of the doctoral researchers as well as an internationalization strategy. Thanks to its international focus and recruitment strategy, the graduate school was able to convince the DAAD: Its calls for applications, which are staged twice a year, are advertised worldwide and have to date attracted applications from over 80 countries. In order to reach outstanding candidates from emerging countries, the graduate school is represented at the most important career fairs. It was already able to secure two scholarships for 2015 and 2016 in the preceding round of the GSSP programme in 2014. With the current funding, the number of DAAD scholarships acquired has risen to eight.

The Konstanz Research School Chemical Biology, which is the joint responsibility of the Biology, Chemistry, and Computer and Information Science departments of the University of Konstanz, was successful in both phases of the German Excellence Initiative. It was approved for two funding periods from 2007 to 2017 and will now continue until October 2019 following a recent resolution by the Federal State Premiers' Conference. The graduate school has over 200 doctoral researchers: 105 are working on ongoing projects, 95 former KRSCB researchers are meanwhile working in the areas of science, business and consulting.

Further information under: www.chembiol.uni-konstanz.de