There are two types:
1. KLU basic scholarship.
In line with the 11 largest German scholarship foundations, the KLU basic scholarship includes a tax-free monthly stipend of €1,150 and a tax-free monthly allowance of €100.
Unlike the 11 largest German scholarship foundations, which provide three-year scholarships only, KLU grants its PhD candidates scholarships for an additional fourth year and a generous annual research budget of €5,000. The additional time and financial resources are intended to help the candidates to fully focus on their research so they ultimately have better chances in the academic job market.
A KLU basic scholarship can also be used as bridge funding after graduation, allowing candidates to write their research proposals and submit them for review to an external scholarship foundation. If they are successful and receive external scholarships, the candidates switch to the KLU top-up scholarship (see option 2).
2. KLU top-up scholarship.
The KLU top-up scholarship is designed for PhD candidates who have a supervisor at KLU and have already secured a scholarship for a minimum of two years on their own or have used a KLU basic scholarship to secure an external scholarship. If these conditions are met, KLU will supplement the external scholarship by €400 per month, tax-free. KLU will also secure the candidates’ overall monthly funding for a fourth year of doctoral studies and provide a personal research budget of €5,000 per remaining doctoral study year.
The top-up scholarship was created to encourage proactivity among PhD candidates. In addition to benefiting from the prestige of the external scholarship, the PhD candidates also have a higher monthly stipend.
We expect all PhD candidates who are KLU scholarship recipients to work on their dissertations full-time. Limited teaching or research jobs may also be available to them.