Female Career Fund (FCF)

Within the iDiv funds, money has been allocated by the DFG to specifically promote the careers of female scientists. We want to support especially young women who want to stay in academia or just started as a group leader. Thus, doctoral researchers (PhD students), post-docs or young professors are encouraged to apply that are at iDiv or working in iDiv member groups.All female scientists within iDiv can apply for support irrespective of whom pays their salary.

The prime aim of the FCF should be to promote the careers of female scientist by increasing their scientific network and visibility in their field of research. It will not be enough to just give money to female scientist to attend a conference: many female scientists are attending conferences these days, and support for travel and conferences is relatively easy to obtain for young scientists.However, due to various factors, they are hardly visible (or audible).

This ‘invisibility’ inhibits the progression of female scientists in the scientific community.

What's funded by the FCF?

The FCF can be used to sponsor specific activities that are improving the visibility of (early career) female scientists in the scientific community, such as:

research visits to a female role model
organization of specific networking activities for female scientists at iDiv
attending/organizing specific courses that teach you how to network/increase your visibility
chairing and organizing sessions or workshops at an (inter)national conference
joining targeted workshops at important conferences in your field to improve (scientific) networking
activities to enhance visibility of the applicant’s research to the scientific community or society
and many more

What are the criteria for funding?

The main criteria on which the committee will base its decisions for funding are:

To which extent will the activity contribute to the visibility or the scientific network of the applicant?
To which extent will the activity enhance the career of the applicant?
Is the sum of money applied for reasonable in relation to the activity?
Have other sources of funding been applied for? If not, has it been sufficiently explained why?

Please note that your formal legal relationship with iDiv (e.g. work contract, granting period) must still be in place when deploying the activity for which you use the grant.

Detailled eligibility criteria of the funding can be found here.

How to apply to the FCF?

To apply for funding female scientists of iDiv or iDiv member groups (see iDiv website) must write a short proposal in which it is explicitly explained how the proposed activity will positively contribute to their career. Download the FCF Application Form - it is also sent via email when a new call is announced.

There will be two calls per year in which maximally half of the yearly fund volume will be allocated to applications. There is no maximal amount of money that can be applied for. However, the committee can decide to only partially fund the application depending on the justification of the budget and the number of other applicants in the same call.

Successful applicants might be asked to report back on their experience via a short presentation, for example during a get-together for female scientists at iDiv. In this way, more female scientists at iDiv will benefit from the experience gained by individual female scientists and the FCF will be brought to the attention of newcomers.