DFG Walter Benjamin Programme
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation, DFG)
A postdoctoral fellowship built around mobility: an early-career researcher takes their own project to a new institution, either abroad on a monthly fellowship or within Germany on a funded postdoctoral position. Beyond salary or stipend it covers direct project costs, travel, publication costs and, where relevant, foreign and cost-of-living allowances and child benefits — the practical details that decide whether a fellowship is actually takeable by someone with dependents. Submission is rolling, so it can be timed to a doctoral defence rather than a call cycle.
- Indicative award
- Amount not published (stipend)No stipend or salary figure is published on the programme overview page; the award is a monthly fellowship (abroad) or a funded postdoctoral position (in Germany) plus direct project, travel and publication costs and, where applicable, foreign, cost-of-living, travel and child allowances. No amount
- Timing
- Rolling / openNo specific published date recorded. This funder publishes a cycle rather than a date, and this database does not invent one.Proposals may be submitted at any time; there is no call deadline. Funding runs up to two years.
- Who can apply
- Postdoctoral, Early-career faculty
- Eligibility
- For postdoctoral researchers in the early career phase; a change of research institution is generally required. Projects cannot be based at for-profit entities. Applicants seeking to go abroad must have worked in the German research system for at least three continuous years during their doctoral or postdoctoral phase — the programme's real gate is prior anchoring in German research, not citizenship.
- SSWR clusters
- Topics
- postdoctoral mobility · independent early-career project
- Apply at
- https://www.dfg.de/en/research-funding/funding-opportunities/programmes/individual/walter-benjamin
- This entry
- Curated by the working group. Written 2026-08-07. The funder link has not yet been machine-checked.
Amounts and dates on this page are indicative and are maintained by people rather than scraped. Funders change ceilings, windows and eligibility without notice; confirm all details at the source above before applying.
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