Published on October 24, 2024

With the motto “Risking Creativity,” the Institute for Advanced Study of the Technical University of Munich (TUM-IAS) serves as a flagship institute for top-level international research at TUM, and has supported to drive the university’s development into one of Germany’s top academic institutions under the auspices of its strategy, “TUM. The Entrepreneurial University”.

TUM-IAS awards Fellowships to distinguished researchers and gives them the necessary time and financial support to explore new venues, to develop novel research areas and to establish intensive international collaborations. To attract scholarly talent from around the globe TUM-IAS invites nominations for the prestigious

Hans Fischer Fellowship

Hans Fischer Senior Fellowship

Target Group

Up to 9 Hans Fischer (Senior) Fellowships will be awarded to outstanding international scientists from outside TUM who intend to explore innovative, high-risk topics in their research areas together with a TUM research group. Proposals related to the field of sustainability are encouraged and very welcomed. It is not possible to apply for the Fellowship on one's own, but a nomination must be made by a TUM professor who acts as a host and close collaboration partner at TUM. At the time of nomination, nominees should expect to remain employed at their home institution for the duration of their Fellowship. The proposal is to be submitted jointly by the nominee and the planned TUM host. Nominations are invited from all areas of the TUM research portfolio.

Objective

The Fellowships last three years, with the expectation that the Fellow will spend a total of at least nine months at TUM (which can be divided individually into several stays). In this way, TUM-IAS intends to further a lasting and productive connection on an international level.

Funding and Fellowship award

Hans Fischer (Senior) Fellows receive €50,000 for travel, accommodation and research-related costs, as well as support for one doctoral candidate at TUM (TV-L E 13 position (max. 75%) for three years).
In addition, Hans Fischer Fellows receive an award of €30,000. Hans Fischer Senior Fellows receive an award of €60,000.

Regional Fellowship (Eastern Europe / Latin America): To promote regional diversity, the TUM-IAS will award one of the Hans Fischer or Hans Fischer Senior Fellowships to a candidate from a home institution in Eastern Europe[1] or Latin America (all American countries with the exception of Canada and the US). Candidates for this Fellowship will undergo a separate evaluation, taking into account local evaluation factors. The Fellow will then receive the regular Hans Fischer (Senior) Fellowship benefits. For the Regional Fellowship, the tandem nomination rule (see below) does not apply.

Siemens funded Hans Fischer (Senior) Fellowship: TUM-IAS invites nominations for Hans Fischer (Senior) Fellowships that focus on the research fields of

• Web3 and Industrial Token Economy: Decentralized architecture guidelines, implementation strategies and incentive mechanisms for industrial metaverse use cases
• Autonomous Systems for Flexible Manufacturing and Logistics

Up to two Fellowships funded by the Siemens AG can be awarded in the course of this call.

TUM GNI funded Hans Fischer (Senior) Fellowship: TUM-IAS invites nominations for Hans Fischer (Senior) Fellowships that focus on the research field of Artificial Intelligence for the Built Environment. One Fellowship funded by the TUM Georg Nemetschek Institute on Artificial Intelligence for the Built World (TUM GNI) can be awarded in the course of this call. In your statement of purpose, please comment on how your proposal fits to the thematical focus of the TUM Georg Nemetschek Institute.

Tandem Nomination

Nominations for Hans Fischer and Hans Fischer Senior Fellowships (including the Siemens and GNI funded Fellowships, not including the Regional Fellowship) require a tandem nomination, i.e. each prospective host must nominate two potential Fellows, at least one of whom must be a female scientist. Both nominations will be evaluated individually according to our usual multi-stage evaluation procedure (please see the TUM-IAS Nomination Guidelines for further details). Tandem nominations can be for the same or for several Fellowship categories (options: Hans Fischer (Senior) Fellowship candidate plus Hans Fischer (Senior) Fellowship candidate, Hans Fischer (Senior) Fellowship candidate plus Dieter Schwarz Fellowship candidate or Hans Fischer (Senior) Fellowship candidate plus Rudolf Diesel Industry Fellowship candidate). From the proposed tandem, both nominees may be successful, or one, or none.

Conditions Hans Fischer Fellowship (Early-Career Researchers)

• Eligible candidates must have completed their doctorate within the last 12 years (allowance can be made for special circumstances, such as parental leave).
• Candidates may be asked to provide evidence of employment at their home institute for the duration of the Fellowship.

How to apply

Please submit the following application documents:

• a cover page (available for download),
• a nomination letter (1-2 pages) by a TUM professor (host), including a description of the facilities provided for the Fellow by the TUM host institute as well as a confirmation from the host that he/she expects to hold a professorship at TUM for the duration of the Fellowship (if not, please indicate an additional host who would then take over),
• a nomination letter (1-2 pages) by the dean of the hosting school or another member of the TUM Extended Board of Management (EHP) or TUM-IAS Board of Trustees,
• a CV (no more than 5 pages),
• a list of publications (please highlight the 3-5 most important publications of the past five years),
• a statement of purpose (no more than 5-10 pages) jointly signed by the nominee and the hosting professor, describing the state of the art of research and knowledge gaps in the relevant field, how the Fellowship would contribute to the innovation of the scientific or technological environment at TUM, and the specific goals to be achieved. The statement of purpose should also include the following elements:
  • an abstract,
  • a budget plan,
  • a time plan regarding the nominee’s projected periods of stay at TUM,
  • an identification of possible additional (interdisciplinary) collaboration partners both within TUM-IAS and within TUM as well as a short explanation as to why this collaboration would be beneficial for the outlined research project,
  • an outline for an international, ideally interdisciplinary workshop/colloquium, to be organized at the TUM-IAS during the active Fellowship period,
• a list of 4-6 international peer-reviewers without any conflict of interest (definition: please see here), - if applicable, also a list of persons who should be excluded from reviewing the proposal.

In terms of collaboration with China, we ask you to follow the recommendations of the TUM China Wiki.

For more details, please see the TUM-IAS Nomination Guidelines.

[1] For this purpose, Eastern Europe includes the following countries: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Ukraine.

TUM-IAS explicitly encourages nominations of and applications from women as well as from all others who would bring additional diversity dimensions to the university’s research and teaching strategies.

More information on TUM-IAS and the Hans Fischer (Senior) Fellowship is available on the TUM-IAS homepage: www.ias.tum.de

Questions can be directed to applications@ias.tum.de.