The Stephan Klasen Fellowship

In 2019, the Faculty of Business and Economics, together with the Presidential Board of the University of Göttingen and the Faculty's Development Economics professorships, established the "Stephan Klasen Fellowship" on the occasion of the Farewell Lecture by Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Stephan Klasen, Ph.D. With this award, the Faculty honours the development economist's great commitment to young researchers and to development economics in Göttingen as a whole.

Stephan Klasen has significantly expanded development economics in Göttingen and, by establishing diverse and cross-faculty cooperations and networks, has enabled interdisciplinary research in this field. Today, Göttingen is Germany's largest and internationally most visible location for research on developing countries. In addition, he has created one of the first junior professorships at the Faculty of Business and Economics. As first reviewer he supervised 76 doctoral theses.

Starting in 2021, two postdoctoral fellows will be invited to Göttingen for a one-year scientific exchange each year (no teaching required). The fellowship will be advertised annually.

The fellowship period is usually from April 1st of one year to March 31st the following year. Fellows are expected to relocate to Göttingen for the period of the fellowship. The fellowship includes a monthly stipend and, if applicable, child and family allowances and a travel grant. The scholarship amount follows the guidelines for awarding scholarships at the University of Göttingen, which in turn are based on German Research Foundation (DFG) guidelines. They are regularly adjusted based on cost of living to ensure that scholarship holders can live comfortably in Göttingen. We refer candidates to the website of DFG for some orientation with respect to current amounts.

Who can apply?

Candidates from low- and middle-income countries according to the OECD DAC list are eligible to apply. Candidates are further required to hold a PhD in development economics (or similar) before the start date of the fellowship. At least one of the two fellowships will be awarded to a female candidate. Disabled persons with equivalent aptitude will be favored.

Application documents include an academic CV, one publication or working paper, contact details of at least two academic references and a two-page research statement. Applications should be submitted to bewerbungen@wiwi.uni-goettingen.de.