The Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS) is the international research college of the University of Freiburg. It brings together scholars from Freiburg and around the world, offering temporary fellowships that allow researchers to focus entirely on their projects within a vibrant community of diverse cultural and academic backgrounds. FRIAS provides exceptional support to help fellows succeed

For the academic year 2027/28, FRIAS is offering individual Early Career Fellowships to researchers from any nationality and discipline based in Freiburg, Germany and abroad.

ELIGIBILITY:

Fellowships are available to researchers from any nationality based in Freiburg, Germany, and abroad.

Fellowships can last for 4 to 10 months between 1 September 2027 and 31 August 2028.

Depending on their circumstances, selected applicants will either receive a fellowship contract with the University of Freiburg or alternative compensation (for details see “Financial Aspects” in the application manual).

Fellowships will allow researchers to conduct their own research projects. Since one of the aims of FRIAS is to foster cross-disciplinary communication, full-time presence at FRIAS is mandatory. Fieldwork conducted outside Freiburg cannot be funded during the fellowship period.

Criteria:

Applicants must hold a completed doctoral degree plus a maximum of eight years of post-doctoral experience.

Applicants must have had 4 peer-reviewed publications since 1 January 2022.

Applicants must have at least six months’ research or study experience at academic institution(s) in a country different from the country of their first academic degree by the time of application.

Fellowships will be awarded to individuals with challenging and innovative research projects of top academic quality through a highly competitive, strictly merit-based selection process (expected success rate: ~5% of eligible applications).

Applications are welcome from any discipline that can be supported at the University of Freiburg. FRIAS encourages applicants to learn more about the University of Freiburg’s  research strengths and areas of focus.

Applicants must provide contact information for 2 evaluators personally known to them and willing to provide an evaluation of the candidate. Additionally, the following attachments are required to be uploaded to the application portal:

Project proposal (max. 3000 words including footnotes, headers, footers, and bibliographical references, 4 graphs) (PDF, for mandatory structure refer to the application manual)

CV in tabular form (PDF, mandatory template available in the application portal)

Publication list (PDF): Applicants must provide a list of publications that may not exceed 8 publications in total. 4 of those publications must be published after 1 January 2022 and must be peer-reviewed (PDF, mandatory template available in the application portal).

Copy of the PhD diploma (PDF)

Letter of support (PDF): identifying a host laboratory in Freiburg where the research project can be carried out; only applicable to experimental scientists

Experiment sketch and timetable (PDF): only applicable to experimental scientists, who are required to submit a sketch and timetable of the experiments they wish to conduct in Freiburg

For further information about the programme and the application requirements, please consult the application manual.

BENEFIT:

Fellows receive a research cost contribution and travel costs for the inbound and the outbound journeys