::: Early career support

The HU has made promoting young researchers one of its central concerns, and it has succeeded in becoming one of Germany's leading locations for educating young talent. The majority of doctoral students at the HU perform their research in an individual mentoring relationship where they receive support for their academic progress mainly from their supervisors. Within the departments, students are often members of working groups or collaborative projects. This strategy to support young researchers has been maintained and extended by the CRC with regard to PhD students affiliated to the CRC. The intense support of young researchers at different stages of their careers is one of the CRC's utmost concerns.

:::Doctoral students

The International Research Training Group (IRTG) 1792 "High Dimensional Non Stationary Time Series" offers outstanding young researchers a full-time, internationally competitive doctoral program with a unifying research focus and financial support in the form of scholarships. With its participating faculty, the IRTG represents all major academic institutions of statistics and economics in Berlin and Xiamen: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU), Xiamen University, Freie Universität Berlin (FU), WISE, WIAS and the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW). The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation) finances the scholarship and the overall IRTG program is part of its program "Graduiertenkolleg" (Research Training Groups). The IRTG works in close cooperation with the Berlin Doctoral Program in Economics and Management Science.

The Berlin Doctoral Program in Economics and Management Science (BDPEMS) was established in 2003 to provide young researchers with a structured doctoral education emphasizing the integration of economics and management science and the application of rigorous analytics and quantitative methods. The programme is based on a broad network of researchers from HU, FU, TU, European School for Management and Technology (ESMT), International Science Center (WZB) and the DIW. By pooling teaching resources from all of the major institutions in Berlin it has been possible to create the critical mass necessary for an internationally competitive doctoral education environment.

CRC 649 has proved to be the most important research network for the doctoral students of the IRTG 1792 and BDPEMS. The CRC has fostered the development of structured doctoral education by:

• Providing a large number of research positions for the best students of the doctoral program,

• Integrating young researchers into a large interdisciplinary research network,
• Sponsoring seminar series, which enable young researchers to interact with leading international scientists, namely Schumpeter Seminar, Economic Risk Seminar and Seminar on Mathematical Statistics,
• Providing young researchers with unprecedented access to data from the Research Data Center (RDC),
• Inviting guest lecturers, who were integrated into a schedule of the doctoral education,
• Providing financial assistance to young researchers to participate at international conferences.

In addition, there are some scholarships offered by the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin:

• The Humboldt Research Track Scholarship offers funding for the transition phase between the end of a Master's program and the beginning of PhD level research. The funding helps students prepare for their doctoral thesis (e.g. by applying within a structured PhD program or preparing an individual doctorate). Funding of € 800 per month is awarded for up to six months. Scholarship holders with children receive an additional € 400 a month for the first child, plus € 100 for each additional child. There are fixed application dates for the scholarship.


• The Caroline von Humboldt Grant Program consists of flexible scholarships for excellent female PhD or female graduate students. For the end phase of PhD studies students can apply for a completion grant. When a student's PhD studies are prolonged by family-related breaks or changed circumstances, the student can apply for a return or a transitional grant. With the International Research Award, students can apply for a six to nine month stay abroad. Students have the chance to expand their academic network and try out their skills at a renowned university outside Germany.

:::Postdoctoral researchers

The CRC 649 fosters all young postdoctoral researchers by providing a large interdisciplinary research network with unprecedented access to data via the Research Data Center (RDC). Furthermore, our postdoctoral researchers receive financial assistance to participate in international conferences.

All researchers are encouraged to attend and present their work at international events, like summer schools, workshops and conferences. These outside activities are essential for the start of an academic career as they help students to understand the scientific community and establish contact with people working on related fields.

To increase gender equality and implement a mentoring program the CRC 649 awards a Hilda Geiringer Postdoctoral Fellowship every year to a female CRC Postdoc and talented PhD students. It enables female researchers to carry out CRC research, while being free of teaching duties.

In addition, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin supports postdoctoral researchers by offering scholarships:

• The Humboldt Postdoctoral Scholarship funding line is designed to support 20 young researchers per year in taking the next step in their academic career after acquiring their PhD. The program offers funding for the transition phase between the end of a doctorate and the beginning of a postdoctoral research project. The call for proposals is aimed at excellent researchers who either already hold a PhD or are about to complete their doctorate at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and who wish to conduct a postdoctoral research project. The funding supports recipients as they prepare a project or an application for third-party funding.


• The Caroline von Humboldt Prize endowed with € 15,000 is awarded yearly to a female postdoctoral researchers from the home or foreign countries. Professors may nominate students for this prize.


• Professionalization for Women in Research and Teaching: Mentoring - Training - Networking (ProFiL) is a cooperation program by the three big Berlin universities (HU, FU, TU) and has been in existence since 2004. It is directed at highly qualified female postdoctoral researchers. Through mentoring, seminars and strategic networking the ProFiL program supports participants by further planning and the development of their careers and prepares them for future management roles. The CRC 649 supports its female postdoctoral researchers by providing the financial resources for the participation fee.