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General questions
 

► Who can apply for a bridging grant?
► What is meant by "bridging grant"?
► When should I apply?
► How high is the grant?
► How high is the child benefit and what do I have to do in order to receive it?
► When does the bridging grant begin and for how many months will I receive it?
► I was employed at Heidelberg University (not including the University Hospital) in the 3 months before the beginning of the completion grant. How does this effect the receipt of a grant?
► Can I receive funding through an employment contract or another grant while I am receiving the bridging grant?
► What deadlines do I have to meet if my application is approved?
► How do I know if the Graduate Academy has received my application?
► When will I be notified of the decision regarding my application?
► Can I interrupt the grant?

Questions about the application forms

► What do I need to consider when filling out the application form?
► Do I need to submit any additional documents (e.g. publication lists, CV etc.)?
► What is meant by "external funding"?
► Who can issue the evaluation form for my application?

 

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General questions

 

Who can apply for a bridging grant?

The bridging grants are only open to doctoral candidates who have been officially ad­mit­ted to the Faculty of Modern Languages at Heidelberg University.

 

What is meant by "bridging grant"?

The bridging grant is intended to financially support the final phase of your doctoral studies or the beginning of your postdoc phase. It will be awarded for a maximum of 6 months for the completion of your dissertation and/or to bridge the time until you begin your subsequent postdoc position.

Please note the application deadlines given below and the corresponding dates for the start of funding. If you are to receive funding after your thesis defense, you must submit your application at the latest by the application deadline that is no more than three months after your defense.

Note: The funding is awarded in the form of grants. The award of a grant does not establish an employment relationship between Heidelberg University and the recipient. The recipient of the grant may not be obligated to perform any specific academic service or employment activity in connection with the grant.

 

When should I apply?

Applications can be submitted at any time.

The applications will be collected as a group after the deadlines indicated below. 
        

Deadlines	Start of funding
January 10	March 1 until May 1 of the same year
April 10	June 1 until August 1 of the same year
July 10	September 1 until November 1 of the same year
October 10	December 1 of the same year until February 1 of the following year

 

Please take note of the deadlines and corresponding funding periods. The awards notifications will be sent out about 8 weeks after each deadline.
 

Important:

• Grants cannot be approved retroactively.
• Incomplete applications will not be considered.
   

How high is the grant?

The grant is max. 1,000 Euro per month and will be awarded for a maximum of 6 months. The grant is paid out monthly. If you have a child, you can apply for the child benefit.

 

How high is the child benefit and what do I have to do in order to receive it?

The monthly child benefit is 400 Euro for one child and 100 Euro for each additional child. In order to receive the child benefit, you must submit the application form that is sent out with the approvals notice after the grants have been awarded. Therefore, please indicate in the online registration form whether you have children and if so, how many.

Please note the following conditions for receiving the child benefit. You can apply if

• you or your spouse has been granted child allowance payments (Kindergeld) for a common child under the Income Tax Act or the Federal Child Allowance Act,
• you, as a single parent, receive child allowance payments (Kindergeld) for a child under the Income Tax Act or the Federal Child Allowance Act,
• you, due to your non-German citizenship, have no legal claim to child allowance payments under the Income Tax Act or the Federal Child Allowance Act but can prove with a certificate from the local residents‘ office (Einwohnermeldeamt) that your child lives in your household.

 

 

When does the bridging grant begin and for how many months will I receive it?

The grant will be paid out for a maximum of 6 months. You can determine the starting point and duration of your grant according to your needs, taking into account the deadlines and the corresponding time periods. The grant can begin only at the beginning of a month and ends at the end of a month. Please indicate the time period during which you would like to receive the grant on the online registration form.

 

I was employed at Heidelberg University (not including the University Hospital) in the 3 months before the beginning of the completion grant. How does this effect the receipt of a grant?

It is not possible to receive the grant if the following conditions apply to you:

• you were employed as a Mitarbeiter/in nach TV-L or a wissenschaftliche Hilfskraft at Heidelberg University (not including the University Hospital) in the three months before the start of the funding AND
• your employment consisted of a contact of more than 25% of a full-time position AND
• the work you did has a direct connection to your doctoral project (this means that through this contract you earned income for doing the research that makes up your doctoral project).

If this describes your funding situation, please contact the Graduate Academy (ga-docs@uni-heidelberg.de).

 

Can I receive funding through an employment contract or another grant while I am receiving the bridging grant?

The bridging grant is intended to help you to quickly and successfully complete the final phase of your doctoral studies and/or to begin your postdoc phase. Therefore, while receiving the grant you should devote yourself exclusively to completing your doctoral studies and/or to planning your subsequent postdoc project. Additionally, this grant is aimed at financially supporting doctoral candidates who have no or very little income. If you plan to have employment income or another fellowship while receiving this grant, you must justify this clearly in your application.

Please note: If you have an employment contract with Heidelberg University (e.q. as student assistant or a research assistant in the TV-L system), please be aware that there must be no connection in terms of time, place or content between the activity supported by the completion grant and the work carried out within the employement contract. This does not exclude a relationship to the subject area of your doctoral studies.

Important: If there are changes to your income while receiving the grant, please contact the Graduate Academy immediately (ga-docs@uni-heidelberg.de).

 

What deadlines do I have to meet if my application is approved?

You must send a notification of the successful completion of the project as outlined in your application to the Graduate Academy no later than 3 months after your funding ends.

If your project is not completed within 3 months of the end of your funding, you must at this time submit an interim report on the status of your project (incl. a detailed explanation of the delay) and a schedule for its completion as well as a short evaluation by your supervisor to the Graduate Academy.

The Graduate Academy reserves the right to completely or partially revoke your grant if these documents are not received by the Graduate Academy within the three month deadline as outlined above.

 

How do I know if the Graduate Academy has received my application?

Unfortunately, it is not possible for us to automatically notify each applicant that their application has been received. If you want to check on the status of your application, please send an email to: ga-docs@uni-heidelberg.de.

Please note that incomplete applications will not be considered.

 

When will I be notified of the decision regarding my application?

The awards notifications are sent out after the entire evaluation process is completed; this process takes about 8 weeks after each application deadline. It is not possible to inform you about the results of your application before all evaluations are completed.

 

Can I interrupt the grant?

Yes. It is possible in exceptional cases (for example illness, pregnancy, family reasons) to interrupt the grant for up to 12 months, as long as your doctoral supervisor confirms that the completion of your project is not jeopardized by the interruption. Please contact the Graduate Academy immediately if you think that you will need to interrupt your grant (ga-docs@uni-heidelberg.de).  

 

 

 

Questions about the application forms

 

What do I need to consider when filling out the application form?

Please fill out the application form (see » Application procedure and forms) electronically; do not handwrite your application. In order to ensure that the electronic forms work with all versions of the Adobe software, we strongly recommend that you first download and save the empty application form on your computer and then fill the form out and save it again.

Please use an Apple or Windows operating system to fill out the forms. The forms are not compatible with a Linux system.

Please use only the space provided in the existing fields on the application forms. The evaluators will not be able to read any text that extends beyond the existing limits of the fields.

Please do not change the formatting of the fields on the application forms.

 

Do I need to submit any additional documents (e.g. publication lists, CV etc.)?

The application procedure and required application documents are indicated in detail here. No additional documents that are not listed on the website such as publication lists, literature lists, or CVs will be sent to the evaluators.

 

What is meant by "external funding"?

“External funding” refers to funds that you have received from an external funding organization for your doctoral/post-doc project in general or for another research project.

 

Who can issue the evaluation form for my application?

The evaluation form for your application must be issued and submitted to the Graduate Academy by your doctoral supervisor. Please note that the evaluation is to be treated confidentially by your supervisor and must be sent by your supervisor directly to the Graduate Academy: ga-docs@uni-heidelberg.de

Please be aware that the application deadlines also pertain to the receipt of the evaluation form.

If it is not possible for your first supervisor to fill out the evaluation form for you (e.g. due to illness, parental leave etc.), you can ask another professor in your subject area who is familiar with your project to evaluate your application and complete the form for you.