Due to the fact that women are underrepresented in the German research system and that structural discrimination against female researchers at management level persists, career development measures can currently  be financed for female researchers from the Standard Allowance for Equity and Diversity.

These measures are intended to support female researchers in pursuing their research career, offer them added value and support them in gaining qualifications for their further professional development. Based on this objective, additional project-related professional development and personal training can be financed which goes beyond the regular qualification programme offered as part of the research project.

Measures that can be financed from the Standard Allowance for Gender Equality Measures include the following:

• Mentoring programmes, with the purpose of promoting professional and personal support and development.
• Coaching which serves to impart and promote professional skills.
• Soft skills courses and workshops to broaden individual career prospects, for example through the development of skills in rhetoric, communication, time management, presentation, facilitation and negotiation.
• Additional events aimed at the regional/national/international expansion of female researchers’ networks, for example through attendance at women researchers’ conferences and congresses.
• Additional conference visits with the aim of establishing further beneficial collaborations or qualifications to support a female researcher’s career, thereby raising their visibility and promoting their career. Such conference visits must go beyond the conference visits already planned as part of the project or those that are customary and necessary from a subject-specific point of view. Regular conference visits are to be financed from the travel funds allocated for this purpose (for both female and male researchers). When funding additional conference visits for female researchers from the Standard Allowance for Gender Equality Measures, evidence is to be provided in the accounting documentation as follows: firstly it must be shown that the researcher has presented her work at conferences in the usual way and has engaged in networking (for example by providing a list of conferences funded from travel funds); secondly, additional conference visits must be shown to have been financed from the Standard Allowance for Gender Equality Measures, including a brief rationale of the career benefits in each case.
• Additional subject-specific training e.g. to acquire further subject-related theoretical and practical knowledge (courses on analytical methods, statistics, etc.). Such advanced training courses must go beyond the training courses already planned as part of the project or those that are customary and necessary from a subject-specific point of view. Documentation should follow the same pattern as for the additional conference visits (see above).
• Initial funding of positions for project leaders in Collaborative Research Centres: In consultation with the DFG Head Office, the employment of female researchers in early career phases, who newly take on the role of a project leader, can be initially or partially financed from the Standard Allowance for Equity and Diversity. Such a position can be funded for up to two years out of the Collaborative Research Centre’s budget (or proportionally longer in case of co-funding).
• The (proportional) funding of an office assistant or coordination office to organise equity measures for researchers within the research network. How the measure is related to the research project and the extent of the need for an office assistant or coordination office must be plausibly documented. However, under no circumstances should a large part of the allowance be spent on this measure.

Further Information and contacts: chancengleichheit@dfg.de

Further Information

• Funding at a Glance

Contact persons

Here you will find the right contacts at the DFG Head Office for various matters:

• Contact persons