Doctoral researchers to earn doctorates in topics such as globalization, nanostructures and civil security applications in structured programs

To further promote young researchers in Germany, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) is establishing 14 new Research Training Groups. This has just been approved by the responsible Grants Committee of the DFG in Bonn. The new Research Training Groups offer doctoral researchers the opportunity to earn their doctorates in a structured research and qualification programme at a high level of subject specialisation and under outstanding conditions.

The new Research Training Groups are focused on, among other topics, innovative applications for fluorine in chemistry, the institutional transition in East Asia and tensions between religious conformity and nonconformity. Other topics include frequency effects in linguistics as well as improved civil security applications and data protection. In one of the new Research Training Groups , which focuses on the development of new instruction processes in schools, teachers with practical experience and graduates of the education sciences and psychology will, for the first time, work towards their doctorates together. Four of the new institutions are International Research Training Groups in which the funding recipients work closely together with foreign universities - including, for the first time, universities in Estonia, Mexico and New Zealand. Other cooperative partners are Swedish and Czech universities.

In the first funding period, which spans four and a half years, the new doctoral programmes will be funded by the DFG with a total of approximately 39.3 million euros. In addition to the 14 new institutions, the Grants Committee also agreed to extend 23 Research Training Groups for an additional period. The DFG currently funds 229 Research Training Groups, of which 58 are international groups.

Furthermore, it was decided that Research Training Groups may, from now on, apply for start-up funding. This is intended to provide researchers who have just successfully completed their doctorate with support in defining and developing a research topic of their own that could serve as the basis for an independent project proposal. The objective of this measure is to encourage promising researchers to pursue a career in research upon completion of their doctorates.

The new Research Training Groups (listed alphabetically by host university):

The International Research Training Group "Entre Espacios – Movimientos, Actores y Representaciones de la Globalizacion" of the Free University Berlin is working in close cooperation with three Mexican research institutions in the area of social and cultural globalisation research. One area of special focus is the movement between different regions of the world and the new spaces that resulted during the three phases of globalisation - the colonial period, the late 19th and early 20th century and in contemporary history. (Host university: Free University in Berlin; spokesperson: Professor Dr. Stefan Rinke; cooperation partners: Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social, Colegio de México, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de México)