DFG set up 19 new Graduiertenkollegs

In the autumn of 2001, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft will be setting up 19 new Graduiertenkollegs. The DFG's grants committee for this area took the decision at its meet-ing on the 5th April. Among the new colleges there are also three European Graduiertenkol-legs at which German junior scientists are to work and study together with researchers from the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, France and Poland. Taking the new grants into account, the DFG is currently funding a total of 283 colleges, including 20 European institutions and one transatlantic one.

From now on, German higher education institutions can also train doctoral candidates in collaboration with partners outside Europe in the framework of international Graduierten-kollegs. This is aimed at giving additional support to work with co-operation partners world-wide in the field of promoting junior scientists. And in future, it will be possible for Graduiertenkollegs to submit additional applications supplementing the international funding programme "Promotion an Hochschulen in Deutschland" (PHD), which is run jointly by the DFG and the DAAD. Applications for doctoral candidate and graduate grants could then be transmitted specially for junior scientists from abroad. Enabling students to participate in re-search activities within the colleges is a further new option. Funding is now being provided to the Graduiertenkollegs for this purpose as well.

Since 1990, the DFG has been supporting specially qualified doctoral candidates at the Graduiertenkollegs in all disciplines. Between 15 and 25 doctoral candidates work in the framework of a research and studies programme, usually with an interdisciplinary focus, un-der the supervision of professors who have earned themselves a special reputation in research and teaching. Currently, around ten percent of all doctoral candidates in Germany are doing their doctorate at Graduiertenkollegs. As a rule, graduates from Graduiertenkollegs can boast a more comprehensive qualification, and they are around two years younger than their fellow students on average.

The new Graduiertenkollegs in detail:
- Elementary particles in the TeV range, RWTH Aachen
- High energy physics and particle astrophysics, University of Karlsruhe
- On the way to the knowledge-centred society: Institutional and epistemological transformation of knowledge production and its societal repercussions, University of Bielefeld
- Material properties and concepts for quantum formation processing, University of Dortmund
- Stimuli, information, decision-making behaviour and allocation, University of Mannheim
- Spatial-temporal signalling processes in neurones and cellular biophysics, University of G�ttingen
- Development and plasticity of the nervous system: Molecular, synaptic and cellular mechanisms, University of Bochum
- Mucus pathogen-host interaction, Veterinary University and Medical University Hanover
- Vascular damage to the heart and the kidneys: Pathogenesis and diagnostics, University of Erlangen-N�rnberg
- Myocardial gene expression and function - myocardial hypertrophy, Humboldt Univer- sity, Berlin
- Mathematics and practice: Modelling, optimising, prognosis and controlling of technical, economic and medical systems, University of Kaiserslautern
- Postcolonial Studies, University of Munich
- Cultures of the lie, University of Regensburg
- Evolution and biodiversity in space and time, University of Bonn
- Using information technology methods to fine-tune protection of plants on land used for farming and gardening, University of Bonn
- Space and ritual: Function, significance and use of rooms and locations defined for sacral purposes, University of Mainz

European Graduiertenkollegs:
- Modern polymer materials, preparation, characterisation and use, Technical University
of Dresden, Karls University of Prague, Silesian University of Technology, Glivice
- Soft condensed matter, University of Constance, Universit� J. Fourier, Grenoble, Universit� Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg
- Proxies in Earth history, University of Bremen, Utrecht University and Vrije Universiteit

For further details, contact Dr. Robert Paul K�nigs (head of the Graduiertenkollegs group, promotion of junior scientists), Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Kennedyallee 40, 53 175 Bonn, Tel: ++49 (0) 228/885-2424, Email: [email protected].