Helping Refugee Scholars
If you are a student, researcher, lecturer, or professor at Bamberg and would like to help Ukrainian students become part of our university community, here you’ll find important information on Ukrainian refugee aid and, most importantly, specific suggestions for how you can help.
A. Brief information on the general framework for refugees in Germany
When Ukrainian citizens leave their country because of the war and register as refugees in Germany, they receive
- access to health care
- assistance with finding a place to stay and with rent payments
- financial means to ensure a livelihood
- access to the labor market, i.e. regular employment is permitted.
Registering as a refugee is absolutely essential for getting access to these support measures.
Link to the page "What are the first steps - How does the registration work": https://www.regierung.oberfranken.bayern.de/presse/aktuelle_meldungen/2022/ukraine/
B. DFG supplementary applications - employing refugee doctoral candidates, postdocs, and established scholars as part of ongoing DFG projects
As a project leader of a DFG project that already receives funding, you can submit an informal and short supplemental proposal to integrate qualified refugees at any time (doctoral candidates, postdocs and established researchers).
Our Welcome Center helps refugee scholars to find matching partners at the University of Bamberg, and vice versa. Information can be obtained via the following email address: welcome.international(at)uni-bamberg.de
Further information on the DFG support to refugee scholars can be found here: https://www.dfg.de/en/research_funding/proposal_review_decision/refugee_researchers/index.html
Please contact – as early as possible: Department of Research Funding & Transfer, Dr. Julia Kinzler, eu-forschung.fft(at)uni-bamberg.de
C. DFG Walter Benjamin Programme – an option for refugee scholars who hold a PhD to get financing for a research project of their own
You are very welcome to encourage refugee scholars who hold a PhD to apply for the DFG Walter Benjamin Programme. The restriction of the target group to the early postdoc phase that otherwise exists under this programme does not apply to refugees. The programme provides funding for posts with a duration of up to two years.
Refugee researchers can submit a proposal for their own project to be carried out in Bamberg. It is not necessary to have a matching partner within the university in order to apply.
Further information on the DFG support to refugee scholars can be found here:https://www.dfg.de/en/research_funding/proposal_review_decision/refugee_researchers/index.html
Please, contact –as early as possible: Graduate Centre Trimberg Research Academy, academic career advice for postdocs, postdoc.trac(at)uni-bamberg.de
D. Joint Application to the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation / Philipp Schwartz Initiative for Refugee Scholars
If the research interests of Ukrainian scholars in Bamberg overlap with yours, you can also submit an application to the Philipp Schwartz Initiative.
Our Welcome Center helps refugee scholars to find matching partners at the University of Bamberg, and vice versa. Information can be obtained via the following email address: welcome.international(at)uni-bamberg.de
Information on the Philipp Schwartz Initiative can be found here: https://www.humboldt-foundation.de/en/apply/sponsorship-programmes/philipp-schwartz-initiative
Please contact – as early as possible: Department of Research Funding & Transfer, Dr. Julia Kinzler, eu-forschung.fft(at)uni-bamberg.de
E. Volkswagen Foundation: scholarships for doctoral students, postdocs and established researchers (closed)
The VW Foundation funds scholarships for Ukrainian researchers at all levels to continue their research at German university.
Our Welcome Center helps refugee scholars to find matching partners at the University of Bamberg, and vice versa. Information can be obtained via the following email address: welcome.international(at)uni-bamberg.de
Further information on the VW Foundation’s funding for refugee scholars from Ukraine can be found here: https://www.volkswagenstiftung.de/en/funding/our-funding-portfolio-at-a-glance/funding-for-refugee-scholars-and-scientists-from-ukraine
Please contact – as early as possible: Department of Research Funding & Transfer, Dr. Julia Kinzler, eu-forschung.fft(at)uni-bamberg.de
F. Nomination of doctoral candidates at risk for Students at Risk (Hilde-Domin-Program DAAD).
Doctoral candidates can be nominated to the DAAD for a scholarship (they cannot apply themselves) if they are (and can document) being formally or de facto denied the right to education in their country of origin on the basis of their ethnic, sexual, gender or religious identity or their political or civic involvement.
Formally, the nomination is then made by the university management, followed by a plausibility check by the DAAD, and the candidate's own application to the DAAD. In principle, there are two selections per year. The application periods are based on the start of the academic semesters.
Further information: https://www.daad.de/en/study-and-research-in-germany/scholarships/hilde-domin-programm/
Please contact: Welcome Center, Alexandra Wolf & Sandra Niemeier, welcome.international(at)uni-bamberg.de
G. Part-time teaching, guest lectures, guest professors
You can support Ukrainian researchers in Bamberg in a timely and flexible manner by awarding them part-time teaching positions (also for block seminars, co-teaching), guest or visiting lectureships, invitations to guest lectures, exchanges with junior researchers, with appropriate honoraria, etc..
This is especially useful
a) if the registration of the researcher as a refugee is not yet completed (this can take up to 4 weeks) and therefore they do not yet receive significant financial support;
b) if the monthly amount you pay to the researcher does not exceed the unfortunately very low "exempt amount" of about 185 Euros! Higher monthly "extra income" is completely deducted from the state benefits for refugees - so unfortunately it is not helpful. (For students registered as refugees, there is no excempt amount at all, i.e. they cannot earn anything in addition that will not be completely deducted from their state benefits for refugees).
If you have any questions about the "exempt amounts" and similar details, please contact welcome.international(at)uni-bamberg.dein advance.
You may have already been contacted by Ukrainian researchers from your own or a related academic discipline. If not, our Welcome Center will help you to find matching partners for refugee researchers at the University of Bamberg. Information about Ukrainian researchers in Bamberg can be obtained via the following e-mail address: welcome.international(at)uni-bamberg.de.