GRADUATE

ACADEMY

The advanced postdoc phase can be associated with a junior research group leadership. The leadership of a junior research group is a self-funded third-party project that consists of a budget for your own position as well as for several doctoral or postdoctoral positions and material costs. As a junior research group leader, you decide on the direction and budget of the research project, take on leadership tasks and supervise doctoral researchers. Please note, in externally funded projects, there is no teaching obligation. Therefore, you should additionally look for teaching experience yourself.

The best-known programmes for obtaining a junior research group leadership position are the DFG's Emmy Noether Programme or the Starting Grants of the European Research Council (ERC). Other programmes at non-university research institutions are the following: the Max Planck Research Groups, the Helmholtz Young Investigators Groups, the Leibniz Junior Research Groups and Fraunhofer Attract. Topic-related calls for proposals can be found at the BMBF (German only).

Obtaining funding for your own junior research group is highly competitive. All funding bodies only approve a small number of junior research groups each year. At the same time, acquiring your own research group is a major career step on the (direct) path to a professorship.