RUB Research School

Financing a Doctorate

About Doctoral Positions & Doctoral Scholarships

There are several ways to finance your doctorate at RUB:

You can be employed with a doctoral position at the chair of your supervisor. These positions are financed either by internal funds of the chair or by third-party funded research projects of your supervisor. Working contracts for doctoral positions are timely limited. In many cases, you will be involved in teaching. Your supervisor is responsible for awarding a doctoral position and knows if a position is available.

You can also finance your doctorate by applying for a doctoral scholarship. Doctoral scholarships are awarded for two to three years. You apply for a scholarship by yourself with the support of your supervisor - best at the beginning of your doctorate. You will be awarded with a scholarship directly by the scholarship organization (a scholarship is no working contract). Doctoral scholarships cover your living expenses with a fixed monthly allowance. They are awarded on the basis of individual applications in competitive selection processes.

We Help you Apply for a Doctoral Scholarship

We offer personal counseling to assist you when applying for a doctoral scholarship. We help you to map possible scholarship options, support you to recognize the most important requirements, processes and strategies for a scholarship application, and offer strategic advice for your application. We can also help with our network of scholarship holders. At our “Stipendientag” we provide all relevant information about doctoral scholarships at a glance:

RUB Research School & the Talentscouts RUB explain everything about scholarships for doctoral researchers & students:

Programme and registration

Funding Offers at RUB Research School

With the support of the Gesellschaft der Freunde der RUB e.V., we offer two funding opportunities: 1) the Wilhelm und Günter Esser scholarships for the completion of dissertations at RUB with a funding period between one and six months and 2) the GdF-Preis für hervorragende interdisziplinäre Dissertationen der RUB that is awarded to outstanding interdisciplinary dissertations integrating research questions and methods across disciplines and/or disciplinary boundaries:

The Wilhelm and Günter Esser Foundation awards scholarships to support the completion of dissertations at the RUB for doctoral researchers in particular financial need with a funding period of 1 - 6 months - detailed information.

Once a year, the "Gesellschaft der Freunde der Ruhr-Universität Bochum e.V." awards a dissertation prize for outstanding interdisciplinary dissertations that integrate research questions and methods across subjects and/or disciplines. The prize is awarded with 4.000,- € - more information.