FRIAS Early Career and Senior Fellowships 2027/28 at Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Freiburg, Germany (Funded)

The Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS) is the international research college of the University of Freiburg, based at Albertstr. 19, 79104 Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany. FRIAS describes its fellowship programmes as providing a setting for researchers from all disciplines to focus fully on their projects within an international community, and the fellowships are open to early-career and senior researchers from Freiburg, from Germany and from all over the world.

The University of Freiburg was founded in 1457. The call pages describe it as one of the oldest and most renowned universities in Germany, with eleven faculties, around 240 degree programmes, 453 full professorships and 28 junior professorships.

FRIAS fellowships are residential, and the obligation attached to that is a hard one. All three call pages state it in the same words: "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." The application manuals add that fellows are expected to actively contribute to the institute's community and regularly participate in scheduled events, and that short-term leave such as attending a conference, visiting a collaborator or a short archive visit is permitted in consultation with the directorate. FRIAS provides fully furnished offices in double occupancy and, wherever possible, single occupancy, along with library access and other University of Freiburg resources.

The institute is headed by Prof. Dr. Ralf von den Hoff as FRIAS Director. Selection is supervised by the FRIAS Scientific Advisory Board (SAB), which the manuals describe as comprised of renowned senior scientists from outside the University of Freiburg.

FRIAS has opened its call for applications for the 2027/28 fellowship year. Three strands are running in this round, all closing on 18 September 2026 at 13:00 CET, and all to be taken up within the window 1 September 2027 to 31 August 2028:

• Call for Applications: FRIAS Early Career Fellowship Programme 2027/28
• Call for Applications: FRIAS Senior Fellowship Programme 2027/28
• Call for Applications: FRIAS Sustainable Governance Senior Fellowship Programme for Researchers from Africa 2027/28

A note on the third name. The call page and the application manual both style it as a Senior fellowship, which matches its requirement of a minimum of eight years of post-doctoral experience. The FRIAS Fellowship Programmes overview page uses the shorter form "FRIAS Sustainable Governance Fellowship Programme for Researchers from Africa" for the same strand.

On disciplines, both the Early Career and the Senior calls state that applications are welcome from any discipline that can be supported at the University of Freiburg, and that the fellowships are available to researchers of any nationality and discipline based in Freiburg, Germany and abroad. Law falls squarely inside that scope. The University of Freiburg has a Faculty of Law, and the FRIAS current fellows listing carries fellows under the discipline labels Law, Public Law and European and International Law. Legal scholars working on constitutional law, criminal justice, international and European law, technology regulation, governance and allied fields are therefore within scope for the Early Career and Senior strands. The Sustainable Governance Senior strand is narrower: only Humanities and Social Sciences disciplines with a thematic focus on sustainable governance are considered.

Both the Early Career and Senior calls tell applicants to read up before framing a proposal: "FRIAS encourages applicants to learn more about the University of Freiburg's research strengths and areas of focus." That page is linked under Important Links below. All three manuals add that projects of an open nature, such as preliminary work meant to lead to a larger third-party grant, and projects of a concluding nature, such as a period of leave to write up research gathered earlier, can both be supported, and that the project should not be of local interest only but should have sufficient potential for international transfer.

Duration: 4 to 10 months, to be conducted between 1 September 2027 and 31 August 2028.

Formal eligibility criteria, from the Early Career application manual:

• A completed doctoral degree plus a maximum of eight years of post-doctoral experience. Time off for family, medical reasons or non-academic professional activities is not counted as part of the relevant period.
• At least six months of research or study experience at academic institutions in a country different from the country of the first academic degree, by the time of application. Short stays such as holidays, conferences or summer schools are not considered.
• A research project that can be supported at the University of Freiburg in terms of infrastructural, technical and laboratory requirements. Experimental scientists are required to identify a host laboratory in Freiburg and submit a Letter of Support.
• The research project must not involve topics excluded from funding due to ethical issues.
• FRIAS offers residential fellowships, so fieldwork conducted outside Freiburg cannot be funded during the fellowship period.
• Applications exceeding the word count and page limits will not be considered, and incomplete or late applications will not be considered.
• Contact information for two evaluators who know the applicant personally and are willing to provide an assessment of their qualifications. The manual states these evaluators "must not be in a current professional collaboration or active supervisory relationship with the applicant, nor may they be affiliated with the same university or research institute". An institutional email address must be given for each. FRIAS contacts the persons named only after the basic eligibility check is passed, and supplies a mandatory template so the evaluations are comparable. Individual recommendation letters will not be accepted.

Basic academic quality criterion: 4 peer-reviewed publications since 1 January 2022. There is no age limit for applying, although the manual says the candidate's achievements should be in line with their "academic age".

Both clocks can be extended for documented leave, not just the post-doctoral one. The Early Career FAQ states: "The time period of the basic academic criteria regarding publications can be extended, if the applicant has a documented time off due to family or medical reasons. Likewise, the time period of the formal eligibility criteria that applicants must have a maximum of eight years' post-doctoral research experience after their PhD can be extended if the applicant has a documented time off due to family or medical reasons." Maternity time off is calculated at 18 months per child; for paternal or medical time off, the documented timeframe is what counts. The time off must have been accrued during the period relevant to the eligibility criteria.

Duration: 3 to 8 months, to be conducted between 1 September 2027 and 31 August 2028.

Formal eligibility criteria, from the Senior application manual:

• A completed doctoral degree plus a minimum of eight years of post-doctoral experience.
• At least six months of research or study experience at academic institutions in a country different from the country of the first academic degree, by the time of application. Short stays such as holidays, conferences or summer schools are not considered.
• A research project that can be supported at the University of Freiburg in terms of infrastructural, technical and laboratory requirements. Experimental scientists are required to identify a host laboratory in Freiburg and enclose a Letter of Support.
• The research project must not involve topics excluded from funding due to ethical issues.
• Fieldwork conducted outside Freiburg cannot be funded during the fellowship period.
• Applications that exceed word count or page limits, and incomplete or late applications, will not be considered.

Basic academic quality criterion: 10 peer-reviewed publications since 1 January 2020. The Senior manual is also the only one of the three that asks for a funding history: "Applicants are asked to provide a list of previously received grants and funding." That sentence does not appear in the Early Career manual or in the Sustainable Governance manual, so treat it as a Senior-strand requirement.

The Senior FAQ carries the same leave rule for the publication window as the other strands: the time period of the basic academic criteria regarding publications can be extended if the applicant has documented time off due to family or medical reasons, with maternity calculated at 18 months per child and paternal or medical time off counted as documented.

Duration: 6 months, to be conducted between 1 September 2027 and 31 August 2028.

This third strand is restricted by place of work rather than by nationality. Applicants can be of any nationality but must be based in an African country, so a researcher based outside Africa does not qualify for it whatever their passport. Its criteria are:

• A completed doctoral degree plus a minimum of eight years of post-doctoral experience.
• At least six months of research or study experience at academic institutions in a country different from the country of the first academic degree by the time of application, AND a Master's or PhD received in an African country.
• Applicants can be of any nationality but must be based in an African country.
• Only applications from disciplines in the Humanities and Social Sciences with a thematic focus on sustainable governance will be considered.
• A Letter of Cooperation from an academic partner at the University of Freiburg who will support the project during the applicant's stay in Freiburg. The academic partner must hold the title of a professor.
• The project must not involve topics excluded from funding due to ethical issues; fieldwork outside Freiburg cannot be funded; applications over the word count or page limits, and incomplete or late applications, will not be considered.

Basic academic quality criterion, stated the same way in the call page and the manual: "5 peer-reviewed publications since 1 January 2017, including at least one with or as a co-author". The co-author condition is repeated in the publication-list rule, which also caps the list: the list may not exceed 8 publications in total, and 5 of them must be published after 1 January 2017 and be peer-reviewed, including at least one with or as a co-author.

The manual defines the thematic scope under a heading of its own, "Sustainable Governance at FRIAS". Governance is understood there as a spectrum of formalised and informal rules that regulate public life, encompassing political, social, economic and cultural practices, so that an academic understanding of governance inspects the rules of the game and the interplay of actors. Research projects in sustainable governance are said to include dimensions of political acceptance, reproduction, multi-scalar application and global interconnectedness as well as temporality and historical experiences, and to focus on sustainability-related matters such as social and human rights, acceptance, cost-efficiency, the environment, local and global entanglements, climate change or other topics touching on the relation to resources and future developments in a broader sense, including past performances as a basis for actual and future governance.

There is a hard formatting duty attached to that scope: "The applicants must explain how their work connects to this general understanding of sustainable governance in the abstract (max. two sentences) and in the project proposal." Two sentences in the abstract, and a fuller treatment in the proposal.

Queries on this strand go to susgovafrica.fellowships@frias.uni-freiburg.de rather than to the general fellowships address.

All three call pages put the funding in the same conditional form: depending on their situation or circumstances, selected applicants will either receive a fellowship contract with the University of Freiburg or other compensation, with details in the "Financial Aspects" section of the relevant application manual. Fellows receive a research cost contribution and travel costs for the inbound and outbound journey to Freiburg, where applicable. The manuals then set out what that means strand by strand.

Early Career. Early Career Fellowships include a full-time employment contract with the University of Freiburg, valid for the duration of the fellowship. The manual states that an Early Career researcher receives approximately 5,300 euros per month pre-tax and pre-social-security contribution. For fellows who hold an employment contract at their home institution, reimbursement of teaching replacement costs throughout the fellowship is possible.

Senior. Fellows with an employment contract at their home institution receive a mobility allowance, where applicable, to compensate for the extra costs of the stay in Freiburg, and reimbursement of teaching replacement costs throughout the fellowship up to the level of a W2 professorship is possible. Fellows without an employment contract at their home institution obtain a salary at W2 (100%) level, on the condition of receiving no other income during the fellowship. Where a home institution continues to pay a reduced salary, or where there is alternative income, individual arrangements are subject to negotiation.

Sustainable Governance Senior. The fellowship includes a full-time employment contract with the University of Freiburg at W2 (100%) for the duration of the fellowship, on the same no-other-income condition, with the same negotiation clause for reduced home salary or alternative income.

The FRIAS Fellowship Programmes overview page states more generally that fellows receive a monthly living allowance, with additional funding for accommodation and a mobility allowance to cover travel costs, and that office spaces, library access and tailored support for specific needs may also be provided, with further information on the specific programme pages.

The FRIAS fellow service team assists families in finding suitable accommodation in the Freiburg area considering price, size and location. Together with the University of Freiburg Family Service it provides information on the German system of childcare and schools, and fellows are supported in finding appropriate childcare facilities and in enrolling their children at day-care centres, kindergarten and schools.

Candidates apply exclusively via the online application portal. All three manuals say the same thing: "We do not accept applications submitted by other ways of communication." After final submission, applicants receive an acknowledgement of receipt. All materials must be in English, all required documents must be in PDF format, page and word limits may not be exceeded, and formal structure requirements must be fulfilled.

What goes into the online form itself. The Early Career and Senior manuals both list: information on the candidate and project, comprising the abstract, a Layman's abstract to communicate the research project to a general public, the ethical issue table and a motivation statement. Early Career applicants must additionally enter the contact information for their two evaluators. The Senior manual alone adds the list of previously received grants and funding.

For the Sustainable Governance strand the two official sources do not agree, so check with FRIAS before you rely on either. The Sustainable Governance application manual lists only "abstract, Layman's abstract to communicate the research project to a general public, ethical issue table" and does not mention a motivation statement anywhere. The Sustainable Governance call page, in its Application Requirements section, does include it: "Information on the candidate and project (abstract, Layman's abstract to communicate the research project to a general public, ethical issue table, motivation statement) must be filled into the online application form". The safe course is to prepare one.

Attachments to be uploaded:

• Project proposal, maximum 3,000 words including footnotes, headers, footers and bibliographical references, plus 4 graphs. The mandatory structure, identical in all three manuals, is: (1) research field, title and short abstract of the research project; (2) aims, theoretical framework and methodology of the project; (3) work plan and feasibility with a time schedule; (4) innovative potential, originality and relevance of the project; (5) issues concerning research ethics; (6) bibliographical references. The manuals warn that "the word count includes ALL words in the file sent, e.g. headers and footers, footnotes and bibliographical references". Sustainable Governance applicants must additionally clarify in the proposal how the research project connects to sustainability governance.
• CV in tabular form, maximum 2 pages, on the mandatory template available for download in the application portal.
• Publication list on the mandatory template available in the application portal. Early Career: maximum 8 publications in total, of which 4 must be published after 1 January 2022 and be peer-reviewed. Senior: maximum 15 publications in total, of which 10 must be published after 1 January 2020 and be peer-reviewed. Sustainable Governance Senior: maximum 8 publications in total, of which 5 must be published after 1 January 2017 and be peer-reviewed, including at least one with or as a co-author.
• Copy of the PhD diploma. If the writing system or script used in the diploma is not Latin, for instance Cyrillic or Chinese, an official translation is requested.
• Letter of Support identifying a host laboratory in Freiburg where the research project can be carried out, for experimental scientists only (Early Career and Senior).
• Experiment sketch and timetable, for experimental scientists only (Early Career and Senior).
• Letter of Cooperation from a University of Freiburg professor, for Sustainable Governance Senior applicants only.

How publications are counted, in wording identical across all three manuals. Publications can appear in different media such as books, journals, repositories or websites, and in different formats: monographs count as three publications, and journal articles, articles on preprint servers and contributions to anthologies and collections of essays all count. The manuals ask, "If available, please also provide a persistent identifier (e.g. DOI/ Digital Object Identifier)." Manuscripts not published before the application deadline, along with textbooks, reprints, translations, book reviews and editorial publications, are not taken into consideration, except that a paper already accepted for publication counts if the editor's confirmation of acceptance is enclosed. Details of quantitative metrics such as impact factors and h-indices are neither required nor considered as part of the review.

Use of AI systems must be disclosed in the application portal in a manner appropriate to academic standards. All three manuals define disclosure the same way: specifying which generative models were used, for what purpose and to what extent, for example in summarising the state of research, developing a research method, analysing data or generating hypotheses. AI tools that do not affect the content of the proposal, such as grammar, style or spell checks and translation tools, need not be disclosed.

All three manuals carry the same Ethical Issues section, and it is not a formality. Every applicant is required to fill in the "Ethical Issues Table" provided on the application platform, and to explain in detail in the project outline any ethical issues arising from the proposed research and how these will be addressed. A preliminary screening during the eligibility check also scrutinises potential ethical issues even if the applicant did not point them out, and the external experts in the peer-review procedure are asked to indicate relevant ethical issues raised by the proposal.

There is then a binding referral step the applicant should know about before submitting. In the manuals' words: "If the application successfully passes through the formal selection procedure, the project proposal is referred to the University's Ethics Committee (EC) in case any potential ethical issues are identified. The same procedure applies if ethical issues arise during work on a given project. The EC issues a decision that may include requirements and restrictions. This decision is binding under the employment contract and different laws. As soon as the decision is issued and if it does not impede the project, the fellowship is offered to the applicant. If the requirements and restrictions are extraordinarily difficult to fulfil, the SAB has the authority to turn down an application on these grounds."

Based on the European Commission's Code of Ethics for Researchers, the following fields of research cannot be funded:

• Research activities directed at human cloning for reproductive purposes.
• Research activities intended to modify the genetic make-up of human beings that could make such changes heritable, apart from research relating to cancer treatment of the gonads, which may be funded.
• Research activities intended to create human embryos solely for the purposes of research or stem cell procurement, including the technique of somatic cell nuclear transfer.
• Research that leads to the death of human embryos.

Research integrity is treated as part of the same head, with consequences attached: "Ethical issues also include the avoidance of any breach of research integrity, which means, in particular, avoiding fabrication, falsification, plagiarism or other kinds of research misconduct. In grave instances and after due process has established wrongdoings, fellowship offers can be retracted and current fellowships can be revoked."

Selection is strictly merit-based and highly competitive. The expected success rate differs by strand: the Early Career and Senior calls and manuals both state approximately 5% of all eligible applications, while the Sustainable Governance Senior call page and manual both state approximately 10% of eligible applications. It runs in three steps.

Step 1: eligibility and basic quality check. Carried out by the FRIAS Board of Directors under the supervision of the Scientific Advisory Board. Applicants are informed whether they have passed the basic eligibility check.

Step 2: international peer review by external experts. Eligible proposals go to external experts who review and provide a written assessment of the applicant's research project and CV. The experts are selected on criteria defined by the German Research Foundation (DFG): no formal affiliation to the applicant's university, familiarity with the area of research, distance from the applicant for non-bias, a broad overview of the research landscape, experience as a referee and international expertise. The evaluation is weighted as academic excellence of the applicant 40%, excellence of the proposed project 40%, and experience and capability of the applicant 20%. Reviewers give a clear final rating on a five-point scale: Excellent (relevant criteria fully met and exceeded), Very good (fully met), Good (met, but with shortcomings), Fair (met, but weaknesses clearly visible) and Clearly below average (not sufficiently met).

Step 3: final selection by the Scientific Advisory Board. For the Early Career and Senior strands the SAB creates the final ranking list directly from the original proposals and the expert reviews. For the Sustainable Governance strand there is an extra body in between: "Based on the original proposals and the expert reviews, a preliminary ranking is first made by a board of Africa Centre for Transregional Research (ACT) members, before the SAB makes its final decision." In all three strands the top candidates are directly selected for funding and offered a fellowship, a waiting list fills any positions not accepted by an initially selected applicant, and where two candidates are equally suitable priority is given based on enhancing diversity and inclusion.

Published calendar of implementation for this round: publication of the call for applications July 2026; submission deadline for applications 18 September 2026; basic eligibility check September 2026; submission deadline for Statements of Evaluation 9 October 2026 for Early Career applicants, whose evaluators should expect to be contacted between 28 September and 2 October 2026; peer review October 2026 to January 2027; final selection by the SAB February 2027; notification of selected fellows March 2027; start of fellowships 1 September 2027.

Redress: complaints or a formal redress can be sent either to the FRIAS Director or to the University of Freiburg's Representative for Academic Self-Regulation at any stage of the application or selection process, within 14 days after the notification of the result has been sent. The manuals add that, in general, the referee reports and decisions of independent experts are not overruled. The Representative is described as an official and independent position working on the basis of an official university statute, bound to strict confidentiality, who investigates the concreteness and significance of the allegations against plausibility criteria and informs the responsible governing bodies if further action is needed.

Apply online through the FRIAS mobility portal, using the entry point for the relevant strand. The Early Career, Senior and Sustainable Governance portals are separate; all three are linked under Important Links below, alongside the individual call pages and the official application manuals.

The manuals put it this way: "Applicants must complete and submit the online application form by 18 September 2026, 13:00 H CET. After registration you can edit the application form, upload the required annexes, and complete the ethical issues questionnaire. It is highly recommended to start the application early enough to become familiar with the technical processing." Incomplete or late applications will not be considered.

On the closing time, plan conservatively. FRIAS writes the cut-off as 13:00 CET on all three call pages and all three manual covers. Freiburg is on Central European Summer Time (UTC+2) in September, which puts 13:00 local at 16:30 IST; read strictly as CET (UTC+1) it would be 17:30 IST. This board stores the earlier of the two so that no reader is told they have more time than they do. Submit well before 16:30 IST on 18 September 2026.

General queries and difficulties with the online application site go to fellowships@frias.uni-freiburg.de for the Early Career and Senior strands, and to susgovafrica.fellowships@frias.uni-freiburg.de for the Sustainable Governance Senior strand.

On hosts: the Early Career and Senior manuals both say that in general applicants do not need an academic host at the University of Freiburg, but experimental scientists are required to identify a host laboratory in Freiburg, including a Letter of Support, prior to submission. Sustainable Governance applicants must identify an academic partner at the University of Freiburg, who must hold the title of a professor, and obtain a Letter of Cooperation prior to submission. The Early Career and Senior FAQs both confirm that the location of the home institution is not a bar: "Applicants from around the world are invited to apply. This also includes applicants who are based in Germany or are currently working at the University of Freiburg."