24 May 2012, No. 16/2012 Humboldt Fellowships to become more lucrative First rise in fellowship rates in 10 years The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation is increasing its fellowship rates for research fellows coming to Germany. From 1 December, postdocs will receive 2,650 EUR instead of 2,250 EUR a month, and experienced scientists and scholars 3,150 EUR instead of 2,450 EUR a month. In all, the average fellowship rates for researchers from abroad will rise by approximately 18% and 29% respectively. There will also be new allowances for families; single parents, for example, will receive 400 EUR a month for the first and 100 EUR for each additional child.

This first increase in fellowship rates in ten years is necessary, according to Secretary General Enno Aufderheide, in order to remain internationally competitive. “A Humboldt Fellowship is highly respected internationally, and reputation is ultimately money in academia. But our renown alone can no longer make up for the difference between ours and the higher offers of other countries”, said Aufderheide. “We are also pleased that we will be able to give our fellows more money for childcare in the future. Work-life balance and equal opportunities are also important in academia, and matter greatly to us. Unfortunately, the Ministries have only approved part of what we would have liked to do in this respect.”

The fellowships are funded by the Federal Foreign Office as the leading institutional funding provider, and from fellowship funds of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. However, the Foundation will not receive correspondingly higher funding, but will have to fund the higher rates from its current budget. It is therefore reducing the number of fellowships by approximately 70 annually.

“The Foundation will have to live with the fact that this overdue increase could only be achieved at the price of ‘cost neutrality’”, said the president of the Foundation, Helmut Schwarz. “But we are in danger of wasting a great opportunity. Interest in research stays in Germany is increasing worldwide. We are having to reject more and more outstanding applications and are thus missing the opportunity to enable these people to work here with us and connect them to German research for life through our network. I can therefore only recommend that the number of fellowships be increased significantly again in the near future”, said Schwarz.