New Fellowships for Researchers under Political Pressure
Freiburg, 29/09/2025
Up to 14 highly qualified early career researchers who are under political pressure in the USA on account of their work can continue their research in Freiburg, Tübingen, and Konstanz in the future.
The Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Science, Research, and the Arts (MWK) has agreed to provide a total of 3.6 million euros to support the Global Fellowship Programme, offered by internationally oriented institutes for advanced studies (IAS) at the three universities. This was announced by the MWK on 23 September 2025. The programme goes back to a joint project initiated in early 2025 by the IAS directors Prof. Dr. Ralf von den Hoff (Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies, FRIAS), Prof. Dr. Giovanni Galizia (Zukunftskolleg, University of Konstanz), and PD Dr. Niels Weidtmann (College of Fellows, University of Tübingen).
The fellowship is targeted at both American researchers and researchers of other nationalities who cannot conduct their work in the USA on account of political restrictions – such as travel restrictions or cancelled funding. The aim is to give postdoctoral researchers time and space for their research and open up international prospects for their future career. Areas particularly affected at present in the USA are research fields of high societal or political relevance, such as biomedicine, climate and environmental sciences, or migration, political, and human rights research.
“Freedom and pluralism in science and research are essential pillars of scholarly work as well as democratic culture. The University of Freiburg is emphatically committed to these ideals and welcomes this initiative also against this background.“
Prof. Dr. Kerstin Krieglstein
Rector, University of Freiburg
‘Freedom and pluralism in science and research are essential pillars of scholarly work as well as democratic culture. The University of Freiburg is emphatically committed to these ideals and welcomes this initiative also against this background’, says Rector Prof. Dr. Kerstin Krieglstein. The University attaches special importance to promoting talented academics at early and middle career stages and to strengthening international cooperation. Ralf von den Hoff stresses: ‘The programme allows us to meet our global responsibility for science and research.’ FRIAS offers outstanding conditions for this: ‘The fellowships are thematically open, so fellows can continue their research independently and under optimal conditions.’
“The programme allows us to meet our global responsibility for science and research. The fellowships are thematically open, so fellows can continue their research independently and under optimal conditions.“
Prof. Dr. Ralf von den Hoff
Director of FRIAS, University of Freiburg
A special feature of the programme is that the fellows can decide for themselves which of the three institutes to take up their work at, while also profiting from a supporting programme featuring continuing education courses, workshops, and language courses at all three locations. The fellowships run for up to two years and open up new prospects for researchers in the national and European research area as members of a university in Baden-Württemberg. The application process will be conducted jointly and independently by the three IASs and is to begin as soon as possible. Fellows could take up their work in Freiburg, Konstanz, and Tübingen as early as spring 2026.
Freedom, flexibility, non-bureaucratic processes
Institutes for advanced studies are places of academic freedom and top-level interdisciplinary research, explains Ralf von den Hoff: ‘They take up researchers for a fixed term, offer them peace and freedom for research and debate, organizational flexibility, and non-bureaucratic admission processes.’ The postdoctoral stage is a particularly vulnerable career stage between the doctorate and the professorship or a position outside of academia. Not being able to continue work on account of political restrictions can have drastic consequences for one’s subsequent career path. In addition, postdoctoral researchers make important contributions with research that is often interdisciplinary and provide fresh impetus for the further development of research and teaching at the universities.
Other programmes for safeguarding academic freedom
The University of Freiburg is also participating in other initiatives for safeguarding academic freedom and supporting international careers – including the Baden-Württemberg Foundation’s special programme for international academic freedom, the Humboldt Foundation’s Philipp Schwartz Initiative, and the German Research Foundation’s Walter Benjamin Programme, as well as a programme for researchers from Ukraine at FRIAS.
More information on the three institutes of advanced studies
FRIAS at the University of Freiburg
FRIAS is the University of Freiburg’s international research college. It has supported outstanding researchers of all disciplines from around the world, as well as from Freiburg and Germany, since 2008 in fellowship programmes. FRIAS offers its fellows space, time, and freedom for their research – and for engaging in stimulating debates across disciplinary boundaries – in periods of between several months and one to two years. In addition, the institute supports interdisciplinary research groups and opens up research for societal debates. With the Freiburg Postdoctoral Academy, it offers special opportunities for early career researchers, thus also strengthening the University of Freiburg’s research foci.
Zukunftskolleg at the University of Konstanz
The Zukunftskolleg at the University of Konstanz has been supporting researchers in their careers before they attain a professorship since 2007. Research groups, short-term fellows, and fellows at risk constitute an interdisciplinary, international, intergenerational, and independent group that meets each week to exchange ideas. Funding in the form of seed money helps researchers to present their research to an international audience at conferences and to get new research projects off the ground before applying for external funding.
College of Fellows at the University of Tübingen
The College of Fellows (CoF) at the University of Tübingen is open to all international research fellows nominated centrally by the university, as well as those invited by the faculties or financed by third-party funds. Fellows can participate in interdisciplinary working groups (focus groups) or initiate them themselves. The CoF aims to unite the innovative potential of the many outstanding academics from all over the world at the University of Tübingen and their different perspectives to create a place where questions of global social relevance can be discussed and make the internationality of the academics at the University of Tübingen visible.