Zukunftskolleg

The Zukunftskolleg is an Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) for Junior Researchers. It is an institution of the University of Konstanz and is considered a pioneering model and best practice example in the field of promoting young scientists.

task

The core concern of the Zukunftskolleg is to promote the early independence of young academics by awarding fellowships and offering various funding instruments. International researchers from all disciplines come together here to pursue their own research projects. While in most of the IAS only professors do research, what is special about the Zukunftskolleg is that the fellowships are explicitly aimed at researchers who have already completed a doctorate but do not yet have a permanent position in a scientific institution. The Zukunftskolleg awards two-year posts (Postdoctoral Fellowships) to those who are in an early academic career and five-year posts (Research Fellowships) to those who are more advanced and can set up their own research group. Since 2007, the Zukunftskolleg has awarded a total of 107 fellowships, 59% of them to scholars from abroad.

The Zukunftskolleg pursues a 5i strategy: Early independence with simultaneous connection to the respective department or to a cluster (intrauniversity) in a cross-generational (intergenerational) and international (international) community with scientists from all research directions (interdisciplinary). In this way, it offers young academics an alternative path to professorship, as the Science Council has recognized: "The Strategy Commission sees the Zukunftskolleg as a new culture of promoting young academics that combines early scientific independence with a strong involvement in the scientific community."

history

On the initiative of the then rector of the University of Konstanz, Gerhart von Graevenitz , the “Center for Young Scientists” (ZWN) was established on February 14, 2001. As part of the Excellence Initiative I in 2007, the ZWN was transferred to the Zukunftskolleg. The University of Konstanz was also able to assert itself as a university of excellence as part of the Excellence Initiative II in 2012.
In the same year, the Zukunftskolleg obtained co-financing of the EU program Marie Curie Actions Cofund in the amount of 6.24 million euros. This enabled it to supplement the existing fellowship program with a “Zukunftskolleg Incoming Fellowship Program” (ZIF-Marie-Curie-Program).
The Zukunftskolleg has been located in a new building on the campus of the University of Konstanz since 2010.

Web links

Internet presence of the Zukunftskolleg (English)
DFG moves: Zukunftskolleg Universität Konstanz on YouTube , accessed on July 24, 2018.

literature

Giovanni Galizia, Sigrid Elmer: Bridges of the Future - The Zukunftskolleg as a successful model in the postdoc phase. In: Hanna Kaufhaus (ed.): The German science system and its postdocs. Perspectives for shaping the qualification phase after the doctorate. UVW, Bielefeld 2013, ISBN 978-3-937026-88-6 . Pp. 115-121. ( limited preview in Google Book search)
Giovanni Galizia: The Future College of the University of Konstanz. In: Austrian Science Council (ed.): Scientific career and participation: ways and wrong ways. Conference proceedings, Vienna 2011. pp. 117–128

Individual evidence

↑ Mirjam Müller: Acquisition of skills for postdocs - promotion of skills on the job and off the job using the example of Zukunftskolleg and Academic Staff Development at the University of Konstanz. In: Isolde von Bülow (ed.): Promotion of young talent in science. Best practice models for doctoral studies - strategies, concepts, structures. Springer, Berlin / Heidelberg 2014, ISBN 978-3-642-41256-1 , pp. 137–154. ( limited preview in Google Book search)
↑ Mittelstrass, Jürgen (2011): Where Are Young Scientists Going? An introduction. In: Jürgen Mittelstrass, Ulrich Rüdiger (Hg): How welcome are the next generation? New models for promoting young researchers. Constance: UVK, University Press Constance. ISBN 978-3-87940-830-6
↑ Österreichischer Wissenschaftsrat (Ed.) (2011): Scientific career and participation: ways, wrong ways, ways out.
^ Hanna Kaufhaus (ed.): The German science system and its postdocs. Perspectives for shaping the qualification phase after the doctorate. UVW, Bielefeld 2013, ISBN 978-3-937026-88-6 .
↑ Science Council, German Research Foundation (2015). Report of the Joint Commission on the Excellence Initiative to the Joint Science Conference, p. 49

[1] Mirjam Müller: Acquisition of skills for postdocs - promotion of skills on the job and off the job using the example of Zukunftskolleg and Academic Staff Development at the University of Konstanz. In: Isolde von Bülow (ed.): Promotion of young talent in science. Best practice models for doctoral studies - strategies, concepts, structures. Springer, Berlin / Heidelberg 2014, ISBN 978-3-642-41256-1 , pp. 137–154. ( limited preview in Google Book search)

[2] Mittelstrass, Jürgen (2011): Where Are Young Scientists Going? An introduction. In: Jürgen Mittelstrass, Ulrich Rüdiger (Hg): How welcome are the next generation? New models for promoting young researchers. Constance: UVK, University Press Constance. ISBN 978-3-87940-830-6

[3] Österreichischer Wissenschaftsrat (Ed.) (2011): Scientific career and participation: ways, wrong ways, ways out.

[4] Hanna Kaufhaus (ed.): The German science system and its postdocs. Perspectives for shaping the qualification phase after the doctorate. UVW, Bielefeld 2013, ISBN 978-3-937026-88-6 .

[5] Science Council, German Research Foundation (2015). Report of the Joint Commission on the Excellence Initiative to the Joint Science Conference, p. 49