FAQ

No, there are no nationality or citizenship requirements to be considered for your application.

Once your fellowship is granted, our team at the Welcome Centre will assist, for instance, with any visa arrangements or residence permits.

No.

Yes, you are eligible to apply to all PICAIS funding programs as an accepted postdoctoral fellow. We explicitly welcome applications from young scientists.

Relevant is § 3 sec. 3 of the University’s Basic Regulations:

„1 Personen, die an der Universität zur Promotion zugelassen oder als Habilitand oder Habilitandin angenommen sind, sind Mitglieder der Universität, auch wenn sie nicht zum Zwecke der Promotion immatrikuliert sind oder in keinem Beschäftigungsverhältnis zur Universität stehen. 2 Der Umfang der mitgliedschaftlichen Rechte und Pflichten ergibt sich aus Art. 17 Abs. 1 Satz 6 Halbsatz 2 BayHschG.“

Yes, there are no quotas for specific subjects; proposals are welcome from any academic discipline represented at the University of Passau.

Whilst there is no restriction on research topics, priority is given to topics that are related to one or more of our university’s three strategic guiding themes:

1. Europe and Global Transformation
2. Migration, Sustainable Development and Just Order
3. Digitalisation, Networked Society and (Internet) Cultures

Yes, the assessment of academic achievements is always made on an individual basis. Therefore, please specify all periods in which you have partially or completely interrupted academic activities after finishing a doctorate in order to raise children, to care for close relatives, to perform military or alternative service or due to long-term illness. Please note that job hunting, unemployment and non-academic employment do not count as career breaks.

The voluntary disclosure of private circumstances may help increase equal opportunities and a fairer assessment of academic achievements during the selection process.

Applicants with German citizenship can hand in their proposal, if they have been working abroad in an academic position for several years.

Please contact the PICAIS office, before you apply, so we can advise you.

Yes, as soon as we receive your proposal, we will notify you by e-mail.

The PICAIS office team will also notify you, if any important documents or information are missing from your proposal.

No.

Usually, the stay can begin four to six weeks after the decision has been made.

Although it should be noted that four to six weeks is a considerable short time to organize the trip to and the stay in Passau (for instance accommodation, visa, insurance, etc.).

PICAIS is committed to care for the special needs of our visiting fellows, striving to reduce obstacles to transnational mobility through a number of measures. Therefore, the working-language is English, all documents are available in English and the administrative and support staff can communicate effectively in English.

The Welcome Centre, in cooperation with the Language Centre, offers DaF (Deutsch als Fremdsprache – German as a Foreign Language) courses for international academics and doctoral students every semester that are voluntary and free of charge. The courses are adapted to your language level and are intended to fit any time constraints you might have. To overcome language barriers as fast as possible, the Welcome Centre offers small course groups, which allow for individual support. You can choose between the semester course(during winter and summer semester, respectively) which contains ten units with two blocks, each and the intensive course, which takes place in October during the University’s Orientation Week and lasts five days with each four course units.

Please also consider the regular course progamme of the Language Centre. Furthermore, you can take private courses at the Volkshochschule in Passau.

Feel free to contact the Welcome Centre anytime and they will inform you about the different possibilities to participate in German classes.

Passau is a university town and one often has to spend 40 percent of the monthly salary/fellowship on rent. Therefore, we recommend starting to look for a place to live in in due time ahead of your stay; a good rule of thumb is to start at least three months before the beginning of your stay. The University of Passau does not have guesthouses for interna­tional visiting academics. For a transi­tional phase, you can stay at a hotel or a boarding house.

Since it can be difficult to find accom­modation from overseas, the Welcome Centre is more than happy to advise and support you. You should also look for accommoda­tion by yourself. If you find accommodation on your own, the Welcome Centre will gladly support you regarding questions on the rental contract.

Fellows receive a full-time fellowship, paid as a lump sum to the fellow, which covers the cost of accommodation in Passau, travel costs/mobility allowance, and a contribution towards research costs.

The research contribution is not paid out to the fellow directly but administered by the PICAIS office and then settled by the Finance Division (University Budget Section) internally at the University.

For more details see the funding guidelines for PICAIS Research-in-Residence Fellowships here.

PICAIS fellows have an affiliate status at the University of Passau during their fellowship, full access to all University services, a fully equipped office space, access to the university computer network, and general access to the communal facilities and common room areas. The workspace will be on University grounds in near proximity to the respective hosting professor.

The PICAIS board generally does not accept any applications simultaneously filed with other institutions.

No, there are no nationality or citizenship requirements to be considered for your application.

Once your fellowship is granted, our team at the Welcome Centre will assist, for instance, with any visa arrangements or residence permits.

PICAIS issues calls in the funding programmes "Research-in-Residence Fellowships" and "PICAIS Events" in several selection rounds each year.

The current application deadlines and the respective funding guidelines can be found here.

We try to ensure as much flexibility and convenient planning for the fellowships as possible.
Therefore, we do not set or specify start and end dates. However, we recommend that you coordinate these with your host to ensure, e.g., good on-site support and regular exchanges.

Yes, joint work on a third-party funding proposal with one or more members of the University of Passau is funded in the fellowship program.

The fellowship applications must be endorsed by a member of the University of Passau, who will act as the host. The hosting professor has primary responsibility for assisting the PICAIS fellow during their visit. The PICAIS office provides assistance in all administrative matters, in organising events and miscellaneous matters during the fellowship.

The programme’s main objectives are to create a free working space, support joint research projects, enhance early career training and promote interaction between our invited fellows and local researchers. Therefore, fellowship applications must be endorsed by a member of the University of Passau, who will act as the host. Our goal is to enhance interdisciplinary cooperation and establish national and international networks.

In general, most professorial staff can act as the host – that means chair holders, professors or assistant professors or associate professors who hold a permanent position at the University of Passau – and, for the purposes of the PICAIS funding programmes, this can also be heads of research groups with temporary positions (even if they do not formally hold a professorial title). However, there are exceptions: interim professors and honorary professors cannot be hosts.

If you are considering asking a postdoctoral researcher (e.g. assistant professor) to be your host, an additional letter of support for the project must be obtained from the professor to whom he or she reports.

This means that your application must be accompanied by two letters: 1) the letter from the postdoc and 2) the letter from the professor in charge of the organisational unit (chair or professorship) to which the postdoc is assigned.

No, substitute professors are currently not eligible to host. If you have any queries on this matter, please contact the PICAIS Office.

The fellowship programme caters to internationally established academics as well as to promising junior researchers at the postdoctoral stage who are pursuing academically excellent, innovative research projects and are not currently members or employees of the University of Passau. It is open to applicants from all disciplines represented at our University, including the humanities, social sciences, business studies, economics, law, computer science and mathematics. Generally, these are the subjects we fund. Other disciplines are less likely to be funded but if there are sustainable cooperation possibilities with a host at the university, like a shared research project, which can be justified to be sensible and beneficial for the University of Passau, exceptions may be possible.

Funding will be provided for a visiting position of at least two months (preferably longer) and up to six months. It is applicable for researchers outside the University of Passau with a doctorate. The fellowship applications must be endorsed by a member of the University of Passau, who will act as the host.

For more details about PICAIS Research-in-Residence Fellowships see the funding guidelines here.

The PICAIS board generally does not accept any applications simultaneously filed with other institutions.

No, there are no nationality or citizenship requirements to be considered for your application.

Once your fellowship is granted, our team at the Welcome Centre will assist, for instance, with any visa arrangements or residence permits.

No.

Yes, you are eligible to apply to all PICAIS funding programs as an accepted postdoctoral fellow. We explicitly welcome applications from young scientists.

Relevant is § 3 sec. 3 of the University’s Basic Regulations:

„1 Personen, die an der Universität zur Promotion zugelassen oder als Habilitand oder Habilitandin angenommen sind, sind Mitglieder der Universität, auch wenn sie nicht zum Zwecke der Promotion immatrikuliert sind oder in keinem Beschäftigungsverhältnis zur Universität stehen. 2 Der Umfang der mitgliedschaftlichen Rechte und Pflichten ergibt sich aus Art. 17 Abs. 1 Satz 6 Halbsatz 2 BayHschG.“

The host letter is sufficient.

Please do not attach any further endorsements from third parties to your application.

Only the information provided by you in the proposal will be reviewed and evaluated, as stated in the call descriptions:

An application for the events funding programme should include: Applicant’s Details, as well as general information on the planned event, the event proposal, completed with research questions and cooperation partners, a list of invitees and preliminary programme, a budget estimate and a CV.

Your Application for the fellowship programme should include: Applicant’s Details, as well as general information on the research visit, the research programme proposal, a budget estimate, a CV, and a letter of endorsement from the host.

To make sure all applicants receive equal treatment, endorsements are not passed on to reviewers or decision-making bodies.

Further Information on can be found here in the funding guidelines.

Yes, you are eligible to apply if you are NOT a member of the University of Passau at the time of PICAIS funding.

If you are a visiting scholar at the University of Passau at the time of application, you are eligible to apply.

You may not claim any other visiting scholar funding at the University of Passau at the beginning of the PICAIS Fellowship funding, to ensure that double funding can be excluded.

The PICAIS event funding scheme permits to receive a fellowship funding at the same time.

No, you are only eligible to apply if you are not a member of the University of Passau at the time of PICAIS funding. If you are a visiting scholar at the University of Passau at the time of application, you are eligible to apply.

Applicants whose proposal is not approved are welcome to resubmit a revised version in future calls. This revised proposal, once received, will be treated as a new proposal.

Yes, this is possible in consultation with the PICAIS office.

A doctorate degree is mandatory in order to receive PICAIS funding.

While it is possible that you are still in the doctoral process at the time of your application, in the case of funding, your doctorate must be completed at the start of your fellowship funding.

Research and/or teaching activities as well as international publications cannot be credited as equivalent of a doctorate.

You can submit a proposal as soon as you have submitted your dissertation to the responsible examining body. In this case, please transfer your submitted dissertation electronically, as well as evidence that you have submitted your doctoral thesis. A statement from your supervisor must also be submitted  with the proposal. Proof of successful completion of the doctorate must be submitted as soon as possible. The fellowship will only be granted and paid, if the PICAIS office has received proof.