DAAD Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds: PhD Fellowships 2025

The Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds offers doctoral fellowships to outstanding junior scientists who want to conduct an ambitious doctoral project in the field of basic biomedical research at an internationally leading laboratory. The financing includes a monthly stipend plus a country-dependent premium, and a fixed monthly amount for minor project-related costs. The fellowships are initially awarded for 2 years with the option to extend for up to 18 months. Moreover, participation in international scientific conferences and practice-oriented training courses is supported. Beside the financial support, fellows receive personal support, participate in seminars where they discuss their research projects with other fellows, and attend communication trainings designed especially for the needs of scientists.

Table of Content

• Summary
• Benefits
• Requirments
• Interview Process
• Application Documents
• Application Deadline
• How To Apply

Summary

• Application DeadlineOctober 1, 2025
• Study LevelPostdoctoral Fellowships
• SponsorDAAD
• Eligible CountryAll Countries

Benefits

• base amount of 1,650 EUR per month plus individual country allowance, i.e., of 300 EUR in Germany and 1,700 EUR in the USA
• allowance for accompanying spouses and children possible
• travel allowance possible
• attendance of tailored seminars for scientific research and networking during the fellowship and beyond
• communication training
• lifetime membership in the alumni network
• individual support by the foundation

Requirements

Outstanding European junior scientists who want to do research worldwide, and non-European scientists wishing to do research in Europe. Applicants must have obtained their first university entrance qualification (secondary school leaving certificate, A-levels, or entrance test for first university studies after finishing school) within 8 years (96 months) before the application deadline.

Academic Requirements

Natural scientists should have obtained their last university degree (BSc, diploma, MSc or equivalent) before starting their doctorate.
Please apply when you are starting your doctoral project or have just started, preliminary results are not expected. If you started your project more than 6 months before the deadline, you are no longer eligible to apply.
Eligible applicants meet the following criteria:

1. outstanding academic record,
2. research proposal of extraordinary scientific quality and
3. excellent scientific standard of the laboratory, in which the project is to be realised.

Interview Dates and Process

• What are the applicant's achievements?
• What is the quality of the PhD project?
• What is the scientific quality of the laboratory?

1. Pre-selection process

(completed approx. six weeks after deadline)

• Check of formal criteria (eligibility, topic, etc.) by the BIF's staff
• Peer-review of each application by two scientists of the BIF’s Board of Trustees
• Discussion of applications and shortlisting by the Board
• Notification of candidates regarding outcome.

2. Final selection process

(completed approx. five months after deadline)

• External experts in respective fields evaluate applications that passed pre-selection
• The BIF's staff interviews candidates, whenever possible face-to-face
• Two BIF Board members evaluate each application and the respective external expert review and interview report
• BIF Board meeting with final decision after panel discussion of candidates and their applications
• Notification of candidates regarding outcome.

Application Documents

Please order documents 1–7 for the PDF as follows

1. Title and summary of PhD project (max. 1,400 characters including spaces).
2. Project proposal: detailed presentation of PhD project containing the formulation of the problem, current status of research, applicant's own groundwork, objectives, experimental strategy including methods of investigation (at least 4–5 pages for strategy and methods), references (including all authors and full titles of cited papers), work schedule indicating anticipated duration of entire project, and individual steps.
3. Reasons for wishing to work with the proposed group.
4. Summary of final experimental thesis (e.g. bachelor, diploma, master thesis) preceding the PhD project; if none was performed, please provide the reason(s) in the field “Additional information” in the online application and provide a summary of your most important laboratory internship.
5. List of applicant’s publications (if applicable).
6. Scans of certificates of all academic qualifications (including grades) and certificates of professional education prior to university (if applicable); in chronological order, newest on top. If the language of certificates is other than English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, or Turkish, please provide a translation.
7. Scans of high school diploma/secondary school leaving certificate including grades (e.g. Abitur, Baccalaureate, A-Levels) and, additionally, where applicable, university entrance test (e.g. SAT/ACT, PAU, YGS/LYS, Joint Entrance Examination, etc.). If the language of certificates is other than English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, or Turkish, please provide a translation.
8. Letter(s) of recommendation emailed to us directly from the supervisors.

Letters are required from

• The supervisor of the PhD thesis
• The supervisor of the MSc or equivalent thesis (e.g. BSc, diploma), if different from PhD supervisor
• If no final experimental thesis was performed, from the supervisor of the most important laboratory internship.

Letters of recommendation must be in English, on official letterhead, and signed. They must be sent separately by the supervisors themselves via email as a PDF attachment named as follows: applicant’s last name_applicant’s first name_MSc/PhD/other (depending on who has written the letter of recommendation) to: PhD-recommendation[at]bifonds.de. (Example: smith_john_MSc.pdf)

Application Deadline

How To Apply

The application for a PhD fellowship of the Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds (BIF) consists of

• An application form on our online portal including a PDF copy containing documents 1–7
• Letter(s) of recommendation.

The application must be written in English by the applicants themselves.

For more information, kindly visit DAAD schoalrship portal.