Overview: Freigeist Fellowships
General	Program name	Freigeist Fellowships
	Funds for	Postdoctoral fellowships
	Funding agency	Volkswagen Foundation
	Scope	International
	Fields of science	All fields of Science
	Duration	5+3 years or 6+2 years
	Program web site	http://www.volkswagenstiftung.de/nc/en/funding/persons-and-structures/freigeist-fellowships.html
	Number of calls per year	Normally 1
Eligibility	EU-Life institution	MDC
	Applicant's Level of Experience (years after PhD)	PhD degree; ≤ 4 years
	Applicant's Nationality	Any
	Other Important Requirements	The Fellowship must from the outset be integrated within a university or an extra-mural research institution in Germany. Highly innovative risk-taking research in projects located at the boundaries of established fields of research. Candidates must already have changed their academic environment and moved to a new location at the latest when starting the Fellowship. A return to the working context of the doctorate will only be accepted under exceptional circumstances.
Funding type & amounts	Fellowship (net salary, exempt of national taxes)	n/a
	Working contract (gross salary)	The Fellow’s position (salary scale TV-L 15 or W1-junior professorship)
	Other allowances	- Positions for scientific personnel (doctoral students, PostDocs) - Non-personnel costs relevant to the project (e. g. consumables, travel expenses, equipment) The maximum amount applied for should not exceed 1.8 million for the first funding period. Extra-mural research institutions such as Helmholtz Centers are to contribute 50 per-cent of the total amount of the project costs (only project-specific costs, overheads may not be in-cluded in the calculation).
Next deadline	Oct. 10, 2019, 11:59 p.m.
Past submissions outcomes
Year	Available fellowships	Success rates
2019	10-15 per year