Financial Support

Our goal is to create excellent conditions for every doctoral researcher working within the framework of the IMPRS-SPCE. In the current hiring period, all newly recruited PhD students will receive a 65 percent public service contract.

Please note that our doctoral school is a cooperation of three partner institutions: the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies (MPIfG), the University of Cologne, and the University of Duisburg-Essen.

Applicants to the IMPRS-SPCE are asked to identify a faculty member as first advisor according to thematic fit. The place of work for doctoral researchers is determined by where the advisor of their choice is based, which is either at one of the universities or at the MPIfG.

Different legal conditions apply to the cooperating institutions: the remuneration structures of the federal government (TVöD) to the MPIfG; those of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (TV-L) to the two universities. Health insurance and social benefits like unemployment and pension contributions are included in both types of employment contracts (either TVöD 13 or TV-L 13). The Capacity Ordinance applies to universities, which means that contracts are bound to teaching obligations. Teaching is not mandatory for doctoral researchers at the MPIfG, but they can teach on a voluntary basis.

Further funds are available for fieldwork trips, stays abroad, and conference travel. These funds are allocated according to project-specific agreements with your advisor and the respective regulations of the institution financing your contract/scholarship – either the Max Planck Institute, the University of Cologne, or the University of Duisburg-Essen.