Information for hosts

Become a host for a Humboldt Research Fellow

The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation’s Humboldt Research Fellows require academic support and a point of contact at their host institution during their stay in Germany. If you are a researcher actively working at a research institution in Germany, you can act as a host for outstandingly qualified researchers in all disciplines coming to Germany from abroad.

If a fellowship is granted, the Humboldt Foundation will provide your institution with a monthly subsidy of €500 (humanities and social sciences) or €800 (natural sciences and engineering) towards research costs.

Please refer to our website or the Humboldt Research Fellowship programme information to find out exactly what is required of applicants.

• Humboldt Research Fellowship – website
• Programme information (PDF, 88 KB)
• Frequently asked questions from hosts about the subsidy towards research costs

The research proposal

First, applicants must coordinate their independently developed research proposal with you. The proposal outline should come to approximately five pages in total (including bibliography) and cover the following questions:

• What is the current state of research (evidenced by approx. five relevant publications from the research area; one page max)?
• What questions are to be examined? What is the significance of these questions for the advancement of the research area?
• What scientific methods are to be used to achieve the objectives of the proposal (substantiated by references, where applicable)?

Alongside the applicant’s previous academic career, the quality of their key publications and their prospects for the future, a further criterion that plays a crucial role in the independent peer reviewers’ and Selection Committee’s evaluation of an application is the originality of the research proposal. It is therefore important that the applicant has developed the research proposal her- or himself.

Your statement

Your statement is crucial to the review process and very important to the Selection Committee. Your expertise should focus on the applicant’s creative potential and the innovative idea underlying the intended research.

In drawing up your assessment please refer to the list of questions for the statement by the host (PDF) and answer these questions in the order given, where possible. To enable you to provide a meaningful host’s statement on the research project and the applicant’s qualifications, you will be given access to their application package. You will receive a link to these documents as soon as the applicant has submitted their application. Then upload your statement and complete the online form including confirmation of research facilities and support. 

Please note: If you will not be employed at the intended host institute for the entire duration of the requested sponsorship period (e.g. temporary post ending before the expiry of the requested funding, retirement), please include a confirmation from the institute’s management authorising you to provide the applicant with research facilities and the required equipment, devices and consumables. Without this confirmation, the application will be rejected on formal reasons.

Your statement will, of course, be treated as confidential.

Please note: If the applicant intends to spend their research stay at two host institutes, separate host’s statements and confirmations of research facilities are required. In the case of two hosts working at the same institute, a single statement signed by both is sufficient, but each host must submit a separate confirmation of research facilities and data privacy statement.

Please note

The application will not be transferred to the Humboldt Foundation until you have submitted your form with the required documents and declarations. 

Please only accept applications that you fully support and consider competitive in light of the applicant’s previous research opportunities.

If, after reviewing the documents, you conclude that the application has no realistic prospects of succeeding in the face of the strong competition, or if you are not fully supportive of the application for other reasons, we would be grateful if you could communicate this to the applicant as openly as possible. Neither a confirmation of research facilities or support nor a detailed host statement are required in this case.

If you are unable to communicate openly with the applicant, you have the option of sharing your concerns with us in your confidential statement.

Deadlines

Corresponding to the three selection rounds per year, there will be three calls for applications annually, each opening approximately eight months before the respective selection meeting. Once a call has reached the maximum number of currently 800 applications, the application round will be closed. Applicants who have already started their application at that time will be able to save and continue working on it but will not be able to submit  until the next call opens.  

If you as a host receive the application before the portal closes, you can continue to work on and submit your online form while the portal is closed. Depending on the time this takes you, a decision on the application may however be postponed to the following selection meeting.

Calls schedule:

After the selection meeting we will inform you of the outcome as quickly as possible by email.

If the application is unsuccessful, we may provide you with reasons for our decision. Please request this information informally by email. You and the applicant will receive a letter with the outcome of the application approximately five weeks after the decision has been made. General information on the selection procedure can be found in the Timeline of Selection procedure.

When integrating your guest researcher into your working group you undertake to

• abide by the Principles of Scientific Ethics
• comply with the Rules of Good Scientific Practice
• observe the regulations relating to the prevention of arms-relevant technology transfer
• stay alert to the danger of illegal or undesired knowledge transfer.

• Rules of Good Scientific Practice (PDF, 122 KB)
• Guidelines on handling security-relevant research in international research collaborations