Funding Possibilities

Admission to the Bonn International Graduate School of Mathematics does not automatically include a scholarship, teaching position or research position. However, there are many possibilities for the funding of PhD students. See the hints and comments below. When evaluating your application, we will screen all our possibilities mentioned below.

Independently of our efforts to support you if needed, every applicant should consider all possible sources for funding him/herself. It is advisible to start these considerations as early as possible, even before you write your application, by investigating all possibilities of grants from your home country. As soon as a possible supervisor is found, the supervisor, BIGS and the applicant will investigate the possiblities of grants from research projects or teaching assistantships.

Family allowance

Income is adjusted for families. We will support families with advice and assistance with regards to settling in Bonn, finding day-care and dealing with the administrative issues. The students’ society offers day-care starting from an infant age.

Hausdorff Doctoral Positions

• For a select group of 25 PhD students  Hausdorff doctoral positions of over 1700,00 EUR/month net for three years can be awarded. Nomination for such a position depends on an outstanding academic record.
• There are qualifying grants of 800 Euro per month for a maximum of 1 year. These are scholarships for very promising students who need one more year to start their PhD work.

DAAD Graduate School Scholarship Program

BIGS participates in the Graduate School Scholarship Program (GSSP) of the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD - German Academic Exchange Service), which awards fellowships to PhD students with foreign nationality. BIGS automatically screens all its applications for eligibility for the GSSP program, and makes nominations to DAAD. 

IMPRS Moduli spaces

The International Max Planck Research School (IMPRS) "Moduli spaces" at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics offers PhD grants in various areas of pure mathematics. BIGS automatically screens all its applications for eligibility for the IMPRS "Moduli spaces".

Teaching Assistantships

Teaching assistantships are available from the mathematical institutes. Since teaching is a way of learning, this highly responsible work with students in exercise groups or seminars is very sought after.

Research Positions

Several research projects in Bonn like the Collaborative Research Center Sonderforschungsbereich SFB/TR 45 and the Collaborative Research Center Sonderforschungsbereich 1060 offer research positions.

Individual Scholarships

Many institutions in Germany or in other countries give individual grants to PhD students. For highly gifted students from Germany there is e.g. the Studienstiftung. For foreign students the most important organisation supporting studies in Germany is the Deutscher Akademische Austauschdienst (DAAD - German Academic Exchange Service). It has offices in Cairo, Hanoi, Jakarta, London, Mexico City, Moskow, Nairobi, New Delhi, New York, Paris, Peking, Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo and Warsaw. Governments of many countries provide grants which are awarded in collaboration with the DAAD. Please, see the respective web-pages of these institutions, as well the very comprehensive database of other scholarships on the DAAD website.