CERES Roadmap to Academia: A Guide for Early Career Researchers

You are interested in an academic career? Great! Below, you will find brief information regarding three main steps:

  1. The PhD – three ways to get your doctorate
  2. The postdoctoral phase – the first phase after your PhD
  3.  Academic jobs as an established postdoc

1. Steps to obtaining your PhD degree (German: Promotion)

Option 1: Doctoral student
Find your PhD topic, supervisor, and funding.

  1. Write a short research proposal outlining the research question, existing research on the topic, and how your project will expand existing research (including theories and methods). For instance, what kind of material would you like to work on? What phenomenon is relevant to explore and why? Have you noticed a problem within the current scientific discussion?
  2. Find a supervisor (Promotionsbetreuer*in)! The supervisor must be a professor (prof.), junior professor, Privatdozent (PD), or Doctor habilitatis (Dr. habil.). One of your supervisors must be co-opted by the university department that awards the PhD; at CERES, this is the Faculty for Philology (Fakultät für Philologie). The other supervisor (whom you preferably choose together with your first supervisor) can be from another department, university, or even from another country. The first and second supervisors typically cover different aspects of supervision (e.g. one expert on methods or theories, one expert on the material or research field). Depending on your supervisors’ assessment of your project idea, you may revise and further develop your proposal together.
  3. Get funding: a scholarship/stipend, a research position, an unrelated job “on the side”, or savings. You might receive funding only for three years or between four and six years until you have actually published your defended dissertation as a book.
  4. Get cracking on research and writing!

Pros: Because you selected your PhD topic yourself, your commitment to the project will help you get through difficult phases. If you do not like your academic environment, you can switch supervisors and take your research project with you, although you might lose valuable time.
Cons: It may take time to find a supervisor who is interested in your research topic. Funding depends on you and money will typically be sparse. And being a PhD student can be very lonely - it is up to you to create a network and find the motivation to continue your research (especially when you finance your PhD with a job unrelated to academia).

Option 2: Lecturer and doctoral student
Apply for a teaching-plus-PhD position (Qualifikationsstelle) at a university department, e.g. CERES. Always check for calls on the usual channels (mailing lists, academic jobs websites, etc). Depending on the call, steps include the following:

  1. Prepare your application by familiarizing yourself with the department’s focal points of research. Show how your training and expertise matches their needs.
  2. When writing up your application, don’t be intimidated by fancy-sounding calls. Few people will fit the call 100%. Rather show your interest and strengths.
  3. Include a short research proposal outlining the research question, existing research on the topic and how your project will expand existing research (including your theories and methods). For instance, what kind of material would you like to work on? What phenomenon is relevant to explore and why? Have you noticed a problem within the current scientific discussion?

Pros: If accepted, your funding is covered for a certain period. You might have some freedom to choose your PhD topic. You will become a member of a team and learn about university structures, research, and teaching. This will be helpful when looking for a postdoctoral project later. As a university employee, you will be entitled to social benefits, including health insurance, and possibly unemployment benefits if between jobs.
Cons: You will have to invest part of your time in teaching, which can be a pro (think creating synergies with your PhD topic). Depending on the setting, you will also be expected to contribute to administrative structures, e.g. by participating in departmental meetings (akademische Selbstverwaltung); again, this requires time, but is potentially a good CV builder.

Option 3: Researcher and doctoral student
Apply for a PhD position in an existing research project. For calls, check the usual channels, including email lists, university job opening pages, department and institute websites, and network so that people know of you and your abilities.

  1. Prepare your application by familiarizing yourself with the existing research project: topic, methodology, objectives, etc. Show how your training and expertise matches their needs.
  2. When writing up your application, don’t be intimidated by fancy-sounding calls. Few people will fit the call 100%. Rather show your interest and strengths.

Pros: If accepted, your funding is covered for a certain period (usually three years). You will be able to devote most of your time to your PhD project. You may become a member of a team or network and learn about related research. The network may be helpful when looking for a postdoctoral project later. As a university employee, you will be entitled to social benefits, including health insurance, and possibly unemployment benefits if between jobs.
Cons: The topic may not be the one you are most interested in, which can be frustrating if you face problems and are expected to continue working on it. You may be relatively dependent on your supervisor, who will likely be one of the project’s principal investigators. Changing supervision means quitting the project and starting all over again.

2. Becoming a postdoctoral researcher

This is the period after your PhD and before you become an experienced researcher. This period can last from one to several years.
In this period, you should sharpen your research profile by conducting research that departs significantly from the focus of your dissertation and publishing in high-quality outlets. Depending on the field of research, these are journals with a high impact factor, peer-reviewed journals and series, or prestigious publishing houses.
Use this time for networking, developing your academic skills, including publishing papers, applying for project grants, organizing conferences and workshops, heading a research group or network, supervising students, editing volumes, writing reviews, public relations, etc.
Some research fields prefer interdisciplinary profiles, others prefer focused expertise. International experience is usually considered an asset and can enhance your chances of winning a grant or succeeding in an application. However, sometimes they hardly comply with your career or family plans.

1. Applying for a scholarship or fellowship
In some countries, scholarships or fellowships are like any other third-party funding. For this case, see section 3 (Drittmittel) below. In other countries, this kind of funding differs from regular university employment e.g. by lacking social benefits. Nevertheless, you would ask a research facility of your choice (e.g. CERES) to accept you as a guest researcher. It increases your chances for a successful grant application, and you would benefit from the academic infrastructure.

2. Applying for a university position

3. Applying for third-party funding (Drittmittel)

Try to connect your various research applications thematically, e.g. the small grant for preparing a larger research project (it must have its own publishable results, however).

The 6 years + 6 years rule in Germany
In Germany, you are allowed to be employed in university-funded positions with the purpose of achieving the next higher degree (Qualifikationsstellen) for no more than 6 years. This means you have 6 years to obtain your PhD and another 6 years to obtain the highest university degree awarded in the German university system, the Habilitation. Exempt from this rule sometimes are positions that are funded by third parties (Drittmittelprojekte), such as project-related positions, and positions with responsibilities other than obtaining the next higher degree, such as coordinating positions. However, which positions count as Qualifikationsstellen and which do not is ultimately up to the university; there are no rules set in stone. So always make sure whether the 6 + 6 years rule applies to your current position and remember that if you take less than 6 years to complete your PhD, you might be able to add the amount remaining to the 6 years for the postdoctoral phase.

3. Getting an established academic position

  1. The super grant: There are some grants that are so prestigious that the university may offer a permanent position following the grant duration (e.g. grants by the European Research Council, ERC).
  2. The junior professorship: This rank was established to substitute the Habilitation. Junior professorships are limited but in some cases promote the holder to a full professor.
  3. Professorship: Most universities expect a Habilitation or something equivalent (e.g. a second book publication, large grants, a junior professor position). The selection process can take between one and two years. In the meantime, people can be invited as substitute professor (Vertretungsprofessur).
  4. Larger institutes also offer other permanent positions. Most of them are teaching positions (e.g. lecturer) with little time for research. Successful institutes may get their university to set up such a position to keep excellent researchers.
  5. And if all fails, apply for funding again and again and again...

Some facts:

Helpful links for information on third-party funding:

If you are interested in obtaining a PhD at CERES or have any questions, do not hesitate to get in touch!