Postdoctoral Fellowships are designed for scholars holding a doctorate whose PhD was awarded no longer than ten years ago. Scholars based outside Germany and scholars currently working at a non-German university or research institution are eligible to apply. The postdoctoral fellowship is designed to help scholars enhance their qualifications and research profile. During their stay, Postdoctoral Fellows work on their own independent projects within the framework of the research being pursued at the department or research group that hosts them. They can benefit from the full spectrum of lectures, seminars, and workshops on offer at the Institute and from the chance to initiate and organize scholarly events themselves. In addition, all Postdoctoral Fellows receive extensive support for research visits to archives and libraries and to participate in conferences and specialist forums outside the Institute.

Postdoctoral fellowships are mostly offered for periods of between three months and 12 months. In the phase after completing your PhD, a longer  stay offers you the chance to continue your research in an international environment and to develop new research projects in dialogue with the Institute’s other fellows and research scholars. During their stay, Postdoctoral Fellows agree to devote their time fully to the project for which the stipend was awarded. They are not bound by instructions and not subject to social insurance contributions.

In order to take up your stipend as a Postdoctoral Fellow, you must already have defended your PhD dissertation, though the actual certificate can be submitted later. In other words, you do not need to have achieved postdoctoral status at the time when you apply. However, if you have not, please demonstrate that your doctoral studies are nearing completion by including in your application a letter from your university or—preferably—your principal advisor. Please also mention the situation in your covering letter.

A further prerequisite for a successful application is that your project must be closely connected with one of the thematic focal points named in the advertisement (or, in the case of applications without a specific advertisement, with the thematic focal points of the department or research group to which you wish to apply).

Please note that, for legal reasons, this type of fellowship may be awarded only to scholars holding a PhD who can demonstrate that their main place of residence is outside Germany.

The stipend for Postdoctoral Fellows after their PhD is €2,500 per month. For Postdoctoral Fellows who have a strong research profile and a position as Assistant Professor or leader of an early-career research group, the stipend is €3,000 per month. The stipend cannot be paid if the fellow receives any other non-negligible income of their own during the period of the stipend. For this reason, when you apply for a fellowship, please check your likely income for the period of your planned stay with us; we will need to ask you for this information.

Postdoctoral Fellows must have private health insurance that demonstrably reaches the same standard as the German statutory health insurance “full tariff.” You will need to supply proof of this within 14 days of the start of the award; if you do not, the stipend will be deemed not to have been awarded.

The Postdoctoral Fellow will receive a monthly health insurance subsidy of up to €100. Please note: you can only receive the subsidy if you present written confirmation that your private insurance tariff is equivalent to German statutory health insurance—that it complies with the German Social Code Book V, § 257 para. 2 a (SGB V) (https://www.sozialgesetzbuch-sgb.de/sgbv/257.html). It is important to check this with the insurance company in advance and ask them to issue the relevant confirmation document. For insurance providers outside Germany, the confirmation must be provided in English or German.

The health insurance provider MAWISTA offers suitable insurance cover (as of October 2023).

Predoctoral Fellowships are designed for scholars from Germany or outside Germany who have not yet completed their PhD and wish to spend a period of three to six months at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science as Predoctoral Fellows.

One of the core tasks of the MPIWG is to foster the new generation of scholars in the history of science and related disciplines and help them to enhance their qualifications. During their doctoral studies, all PhD candidates are closely integrated into the Institute’s research environment and benefit from a wide range of qualifying and promotion opportunities. They collaborate in the research projects of the three departments or belong to one of the independent research groups.

Max Planck institutes are purely research institutions, and as such they cannot award doctorates. Doctoral candidates working at the MPIWG are usually registered as PhD students at a university in Germany or abroad. The PhD regulations of the faculty or department of that university apply; details of the regulations are supplied by the universities. Predoctoral fellowships are offered for periods of between three months and six months.

The Institute offers specified predoctoral fellowships at irregular intervals. These special fellowships (e.g., “First Research Article” fellowships for doctoral students based at Asian, African, or Latin American institutions) are for periods of three to six months, and are advertised on the Careers page and online.

A predoctoral fellowship consists of a basic stipend payment of €1,365 per month. Recipients agree to devote themselves fully to the fellowship purpose for the duration of their funding. They are not bound by instruction (that is, they do not have a direct superior) and they are not subject to social insurance contributions.For all predoctoral fellowships, stipend payments can only be made if the recipient does not receive income of their own from another source above a specified threshold for the duration of the planned fellowship. When you apply for a fellowship, we therefore ask you to check your potential income in the period of your stay with us; we will need to ask you for that information.

Predoctoral Fellows must have private health insurance that demonstrably reaches the same standard as the German statutory health insurance “full tariff.” You will need to supply proof of this within 14 days of the start of the award; if you do not, the stipend will be deemed not to have been awarded.

The Predoctoral Fellow will receive a monthly health insurance subsidy of up to €100. Please note: you can only receive the subsidy if you present written confirmation that your private insurance tariff is equivalent to German statutory health insurance—that it complies with the German Social Code Book V, § 257 para. 2 a (SGB V) (https://www.sozialgesetzbuch-sgb.de/sgbv/257.html). It is important to check this with the insurance company in advance and ask them to issue the relevant confirmation document. For insurance providers outside Germany, the confirmation must be provided in English or German.

The health insurance provider MAWISTA offers suitable insurance cover (as of October 2023).

All Predoctoral Fellows at the MPIWG are cordially invited to attend the regular activities arranged by the Institute’s predoctoral community and of the International Max Planck Research School (IMPRS) “Knowledge and Its Resources: Historical Reciprocities,” which is based at the Institute.

Contact person for all doctoral students is the Academic Coordinator, Sophie Schwarzmaier (sschwarzmaier@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de)

A Senior Research Fellowship usually lasting between one month and 12 months offers established scholars the opportunity to advance their own research project as a guest at the Institute and to discuss their findings with other international fellows and scholars. Senior Research Fellowships are designed for scholars who completed their PhD more than ten years ago and are acknowledged experts in their own field of study. Senior Research Fellows agree to devote all their time to the project objective for the duration of the fellowship. They are not bound by instructions and not subject to social insurance contributions.

Scholars based outside Germany and scholars currently working at a non-German university or research institution are eligible to apply.

Successful applicants will be proposing a research project that is closely connected with one of the thematic focal points named in the advertisement (or, in the case of applications without a specific advertisement, with the thematic focal points of the department or research group to which you wish to apply).

The stipend of the fellowship is generally €3,600 per month. Payment of the stipend is only possible if you do not receive any payments from your home institution (salary, sabbatical payments, etc.) or a third-party grant during your planned stay at the MPIWG. If no stipend is possible for the entire research stay, the MPIWG can compensate you for a period of up to three months in the form of a per diem allowance and/or a contribution to the cost of your accommodation.