Appointment Accelerator
The program provides top-up funds for German universities to expedite their appointment negotiations with scholars from around the world.
Objective
Wübben Stiftung Wissenschaft’s Appointment Accelerator program supports German universities in appointing international researchers to tenure track professorships and W2 and W3 professorships. The Foundation provides the universities with top-up funding for staff and material resources and onboarding measures so that they can successfully conclude appointment negotiations with researchers in the R3 career stage (Tenure Track) and the R4 career stage (Advanced).
The "R1 to R4" career stages describe a common European framework for researchers, where R1 is a First Stage Researcher (up to PhD), R2 is a Recognized Researcher (PhD holders or equivalent), R3 is an Established Researcher with developing independence, and R4 is a Leading Researcher with significant leadership in their field.
Funding
Universities can apply for funding of up to €400,000 (Tenure Track) or up to €800,000 (Advanced) to successfully conclude appointments. The need for additional funding must be justified in the application. The amount of funding may not exceed the cost of the resources provided by the university exclusively for this professorship. Third-party funding from other providers can also be counted as part of the university’s contribution. Universities are free to use the Foundation’s funds for personnel expenditure for the research group and for material expenses and investments, as well as onboarding and dual career measures, during the tenure-track period (five or six years, respectively) (Tenure Track) / within three years (Advanced).
Who is eligible?
All German universities are eligible to apply. Each university may submit one application in each program variant per call. The application may be submitted for an existing professorship (to fill a vacancy or in anticipation of an upcoming vacancy), or for a new professorship.
In the Tenure Track variant, the university must create a permanent W2 or W3 professorship if the evaluation is successful. Applications may also be submitted to appoint leaders of junior research groups, provided a professorship appointment is envisaged following a positive final evaluation.
Candidates must have been working outside of Germany for at least three years at the time of application. In the Tenure Track variant, candidates must not return to the institution where they obtained their doctorate. To be eligible to apply, the university must have completed an internal selection procedure or be planning a direct appointment. Universities that have already made an offer of a professorship may still apply, provided the offer has not yet been accepted.
Application procedure
Application
University leadership teams can submit applications in English via the Foundation’s application portal. The application consists of three sections (Sections A–C) and a budget plan (Section D).
Section A consists of the following:
- A statement explaining the candidate’s relevance for the institution’s strategy. Here, the university should outline how it expects the candidate’s appointment to align with the university’s research focus, teaching, and internationalization strategy. This section sets out how the university plans to integrate the candidate into the relevant institute, faculty, and any collaborative research programs.
- A statement of the material and personnel resources, premises, other resources, and research infrastructure provided by the university for the professorship.
- A justification of the funding applied for and why it is needed to secure the candidate’s appointment.
Section B comprises all reviews obtained as part of the appointment process, and the candidate’s CV as submitted with the application.
Section C deals with the onboarding plans for the candidate. This section comprises:
- A statement by the candidate of their onboarding and dual career requirements.
- The relevant components of the university’s existing onboarding program for international researchers and an explanation of how these will be used to integrate the candidate into the university, city, and German society.
- A description of the additional set of ad personam measures and dual career offers for which funds are being requested.
Section D of the application consists of a budget plan with explanations of the individual budget items.
