German Thesis Award, funded by the Körber Foundation

Doctoral Researchers, Postdocs | Prizes/Awards | Staying |Deadline: March 1, 2026 | Live Calendar Upcoming Calls Prizes/Awards Groups: https://go.fzj.de/funding-calendar-pa | FZJ Contact: Dr. Katharina Klein, email: k.klein@fz-juelich.de

Career status

Doctoral Researchers, Postdocs

Mobility

Staying

Upcoming Call/Deadline

Deadline: March 1, 2026

Every year, Körber-Stiftung presents the German Thesis Award to the best of young German researchers. You are eligible if you have completed your PhD defense in 2022 at a German university or, as a German citizen, at a foreign university. They award prizes totalling more than €135,000 for significant and innovative research in three sections. In each section, one of them is natural and technical sciences, there is a top prize of €25,000 and two second prizes of €10,000 each. This makes the German Thesis Award one of the most highly endowed prizes awarded to young scientists in the country. The competition is held under the auspices of Bundestag President Bärbel Bas. In addition to academic excellence, the German Thesis Award particularly focuses on the broader social relevance of a particular piece of research. As such, the award encourages young scientists to underscore the value of their research to society and to discuss their work in public.

Knowledge of the German language is obligatory to apply for the German Thesis Award. The application essay as well as a presentation before the jury are in German.

_{Please note: The dates of calls might change throughout the year. When you save them to your calendar, your calendar will not show the changed dates. Please visit the funding calendar regularly or use our Live Funding Calendar to check for any changes. You can also find the link to our Live Calendar in the summary of the downloaded call.}