Graduate School Forest and Agricultural Sciences Emergency Grant

The Graduate School Forest and Agricultural Sciences (GFA) is offering a stipend for PhD-students, whose PhD progress is delayed by at least one month due to circumstances beyond of their own control (e.g. the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in 2020), who require funding to complete their doctorate and for whom no alternative funding option is available.

Financial funds can be granted for a period of up to 3 months in order to finish your thesis offering 992 euros per month. Funds are related to the monthly requirements according the Federal Training Assistance Act (Bundesausbildungsförderungsgesetz). Child allowances are granted according to the Guidelines for Granting Stipends of the Georg-August-University ("Richtlinie zur Vergabe von Stipendien der Georg-August-Universität"). Those are about 400 euros with the first child and 100 euro for each additional child.

Requirements are

• Position as PhD student as member of the GFA and enrolment at the Georg-August-University
• The PhD thesis has to be close to finalisation. It has to be realistic to complete the thesis within the period of the grant. A submitted application for admission to the doctoral examination increases the chances of receiving a finishing grant.
• Participants of other programs that offer financial support for the final time may only apply in case their program cannot support them (please include statement).
• Funding ends latest on the date of the oral defense.
• The funding period of the PhD project, which you want to extend now, must have covered at least three years.
• The delay in the work progress is due to circumstances for which the PhD students are not responsible.
• No award will be granted directly following an employment contract at the university if this would extend an otherwise non-continuing employment contract.

Application (German or English) must include:

1. Curriculum vitae
2. Statement of need (eight pages maximum) that includes the following aspects:
1. Beginning of thesis research and financing until now
2. Title and table of contents of the dissertation that shows the current state of the working process (finished parts, parts that need to be reviewed, parts that are missing)
3. Work schedule for the period of financial funding
4. Reasons for the delay in the PhD work progress
5. Description of additional reasons (like residence permit status, need of assistance, family needs)
6. Description of additional academic reasons that speak for financial support (e.g. Cotutelle, award)
3. Statement of PhD supervisor (including contact data), which shows why and in which period a grant is necessary, the reasons for the delay in the work, why the department does not provide further funding or to what extent the department has already provided support, e.g. in the form of a contract extension, a scholarship or in the form of applications to other external funders. It also should clarify if and when the finalisation of the PhD thesis can be expected realistically.
4. Statement about your financial background: who else is financing you and your family (including your husband or wife and children) with which amount?
5. Proof of proper enrolment as PhD student at Goettingen University.