Humboldt Research Fellowship

Benefits & funding

• Monthly fellowship of €3,000 for postdocs and €3,600 for experienced researchers, plus additional benefits.
• Six to 24 months for postdocs and six to 18 months for experienced researchers; either can be divided into up to three separate stays within three years.
• A German language course of two to four months before the research stay begins, funded separately from the fellowship itself.
• Family allowances where a partner or children accompany the fellow for at least three months.
• Subsidies towards private health, liability and accident insurance.
• Travel expenses, with flights bookable through the foundation, plus a mobility allowance during the stay.
• A research cost subsidy paid monthly to the host institute: €800 in the natural sciences and engineering, €500 in the humanities and social sciences.
• Housing assistance, events during the research stay, and a personal contact at the foundation for the whole sponsorship period.
• Flexible start dates, the option of an extension, and additional benefits for fellows with a disability or chronic illness.

Eligibility

• A completed doctorate is required. Postdoc applicants must have finished it within the last four years, experienced-researcher applicants within the last twelve. Anyone who will complete the doctorate before the selection meeting may apply if they can already submit a written summary of their findings.
• Recognised career breaks — parenting, caring for close relatives, long-term illness, military or alternative service, or an institute closing during an epidemic lockdown — can extend those windows by up to six years. Job hunting, unemployment and non-academic employment do not count.
• Where a doctorate is not possible or not customary in the applicant’s field or country of origin, an application is possible up to 16 years after the master’s or other postgraduate degree, given a publication record matching the career level.
• Experienced-researcher applicants must also hold a leadership role appropriate to their career stage, such as assistant professor, lecturer or head of an independent research group.
• All applicants need publications in internationally reviewed journals or with academic publishers.
• Applicants must not be German nationals. Germans who have lived and worked abroad for more than ten years and intend to continue, or for more than five years with permanent employment, citizenship or permanent residence in their current country, may still apply.
• Applicants must not have stayed in Germany for more than 90 accumulated days in the 18 months before the application is received.
• A host actively working at a German university or research institution must agree in advance and submit a detailed statement plus confirmation that research facilities are available; no professorial rank is required of them. A spouse, civil partner, parent, sibling or child cannot host. Applicants who have already worked in Germany for twelve months or more are expected to move to a new academic environment, and applications returning to a doctoral supervisor or to the mentor of a longer postdoctoral stay are generally rejected.
• Two expert reviews are required, no more than twelve months old at the time of application. Postdocs normally name their doctoral supervisor and one other researcher, ideally outside their own institute; experienced researchers name collaborative partners or researchers, ideally outside their country of origin.
• Language: good German or English is enough in the natural sciences and engineering. In the humanities, social sciences and medicine, German is required where the research itself demands it, otherwise English is enough. Native speakers need no certificate.
• Anyone who has already received sponsorship directly from the Humboldt Foundation — a research fellowship or an award — cannot apply, and applications to several Humboldt fellowship programmes at the same time are not accepted.
• Open to all disciplines and, subject to the German-national rule above, to applicants of any nationality.

Application process

1. 1
   Find and approach a host at a German university or research institution, and settle the research outline with them before applying.
2. 2
   Line up two expert reviewers willing to upload their reviews into the protected area of the application portal.
3. 3
   Wait for a call to open — 15 March, 15 July or 15 November — and create the application online before that round reaches its cap of 800.
4. 4
   Upload the required documents: a curriculum vitae of no more than two pages, a research outline of no more than five pages, a complete publication list, a list of one to three key publications together with their full texts, the doctoral certificate or proof of completion, a German language certificate where the research requires German, and publisher confirmations for work not yet in print.
5. 5
   Submit. The host then uploads a detailed statement and the confirmation from the research facility, and the two reviewers upload their reviews separately.
6. 6
   Formal verification takes four to eight weeks, and peer review a further three to six months.
7. 7
   The selection committee decides at its next meeting. Applicant and host receive a letter with the outcome about five weeks after the decision, and grant documents follow roughly four weeks after the meeting.

Program timeline

1. 15 March 2026

   Call opens, for the November 2026 selection meeting and an earliest start in February 2027

2. 15 July 2026

   Call opens, for the March 2027 selection meeting and an earliest start in May 2027; this round closed early on reaching the 800-application cap

3. 15 November 2026

   Next call opens, for the July 2027 selection meeting and an earliest start in September 2027

4. 4 to 8 weeks after submission

   Formal verification

5. 3 to 6 months after submission

   Peer review

6. About 5 weeks after the decision

   Applicant and host informed of the outcome; grant documents about 4 weeks after the selection meeting