Early-career researchers from all disciplines who intend to pursue a doctoral degree at a German higher education institution with the right to award doctorates can apply for Dissertation Plus.

No. If you are completing your doctorate abroad, you are not eligible to apply for Dissertation Plus.

No specific GPA is required. However, applicants are expected to have completed their studies with outstanding academic results.

In principle, doctoral projects from all disciplines are eligible for funding. However, doctoral degrees leading to a Dr. med. are explicitly excluded from Dissertation Plus.

No. You are not eligible to apply if you have already commenced your doctoral studies.

No. You do not need to submit an official letter of admission at the time of application. However, we assume that you will only apply for Dissertation Plus if you meet the formal requirements of the university at which you intend to pursue your doctoral project (cf. the relevant doctoral regulations) and that admission is imminent.

No. Applicants who already hold a doctoral degree are not eligible to apply for Dissertation Plus.

No. If you have a secured income covering your living expenses—for example through an employment contract at your university or another scholarship—you are not eligible to apply. Limited additional employment alongside the scholarship may be possible within the applicable guidelines and subject to individual agreement.

Your supervisor must confirm their support of your project within the framework of the scholarship Dissertation Plus in an informal written statement. This includes a willingness to participate in monthly supervisory assessments and to sign a supervision agreement. The confirmation may be included in the academic reference or sent directly by email to schwarz@claussen-simon-stiftung.de. The monthly assessment entails only a very limited time commitment for the supervisor.

No, there are no templates.

References may either be uploaded by you via the application portal or sent directly by email to schwarz@claussen-simon-stiftung.de.

No, we do not provide templates. All documents must be prepared independently by the applicant.

The financial plan should present your monthly income and expenses in a tabular format. Please use an appropriate program (e.g., Excel) and upload the document as a PDF via the application portal.

We do not specify a fixed funding amount, as it is determined on the basis of your individual financial plan.

Yes. Very good German language skills (at least B1 level) are required and must be documented by an official certificate (e.g., DSH, TestDaF, a university language course, an adult education center (VHS) course, or a Goethe-Institut certificate).

During the application periods, our digital application portal is open. You will create an applicant account and upload all required documents there.

First, please check whether you are attempting to access the portal within the application period, as it is only active during this time.

If problems persist, try using a different browser (e.g., Chrome or Safari).

Please also ensure that selected documents are actually uploaded: after selecting a file in the browser pop-up window, you must click the “Upload starten” button. Only then will the document be saved on the application server.

If you encounter further technical issues, please contact our team.
 

Sollten Sie andere technische Probleme haben, wenden Sie sich bitte an unser Team.

Within the application period, please upload the following documents as PDFs in the designated sections of the application portal:
•    University degree certificates
•    Curriculum vitae in tabular form (signed)
•    Financial needs statement: a tabular overview of living costs, expenses, and income
•    Exposé of the research project, including a timetable of the individual research steps (maximum 15 pages, including bibliography)
•    Confirmation of supervision from your professor (may also be included in the academic reference or sent by email to schwarz@claussen-simon-stiftung.de)
•    Two academic references from professors/instructors (may also be sent confidentially by email to schwarz@claussen-simon-stiftung.de)
•    Letter of motivation
•    If already available: formal admission to doctoral studies by the doctoral committee

Yes. Application documents may also be submitted in English.

Funding is provided for two years. Subject to positive progress of the doctoral project and a successful application for extension, funding may be extended to a third year.

As a rule, twice a year: in spring and in autumn.