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 cannot be financed from the Standard Allowance for Equity and Diversity but are nonetheless desirable in terms of equity and diversity can often be financed from other approved project funds.

Measures that can be financed from the Standard Allowance for Equity and Diversity include the following:

• Mentoring programmes, with the purpose of promoting professional support and development.
• Travel expenses in connection with mentoring, for example where mentoring is provided by a renowned professor at another institution.
• 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 female 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 additional conference visits for female researchers are financed from the Standard Allowance for Equity and Diversity, the approved travel funds must first have been spent or already budgeted for specific conference visits before the Standard Allowance for Equity and Diversity can be used. Please provide a table in the accounting documentation that plausibly demonstrates this. The table should also show that the researcher already presents her research at conferences to the extent normally expected, thereby raising her profile and engaging with other researchers. The additional conference visits financed from the Standard Allowance for Equity and Diversity should likewise be listed and documented, with a brief explanation of their added value for the researcher’s career.
• Additional subject-specific training e.g. to acquire further theoretical and practical knowledge relating to the subject (courses on analytical methods, statistics, etc.).
• 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 longer in the case of proportional funding).
• In Clinical Research Units: Incorporation of physicians engaged in research and researchers returning from parental leave in the project management team in order to enable them to submit a regular proposal for the funding of an individual project.
• Measures to support dual careers in research: For information on this subject, please see the second dropdown box on the website Dual Careers in Research(interner Link).
• The (proportional) funding of an office assistant or coordination office to organise equity and diversity measures for researchers within the research network in accordance with the additional needs arising from the equity and diversity measures within the DFG-funded project. The relevance to the project and the extent of the need for an office assistant or coordination office must be plausibly documented. For example, a summary list may be retained of the tasks to be performed by the office assistant or coordination office (e.g. advice/arrangements, organising measures), together with an estimate of the working time required. Under no circumstances should the majority of the allowance be spent on this measure. Sufficient funds must always remain available for specific equity and diversity measures to support researchers in the network.

Further Information

Further information regarding Funding at a Glance(interner Link) is available here.

Contact persons

Here you will find the right contacts(interner Link) at the DFG Head Office for various matters.