Are you an expert in your field who wants to share their work with the rest of the academic world? Consider a research stay in Bavaria to develop your networks and research. Our universities and research centers are international hubs of knowledge. With state-of-the-art equipment and extensive library collections, they are well worth a visit.
Where to Start Your Search
In order to become a visiting scholar at a Bavarian university, you simply need to reach out to colleagues at the institution you wish to visit. If you already have a department or institute in mind where you would like to spend a short research stay, send your Bavarian colleagues an email. If you don’t have Bavarian contacts yet, we encourage you to explore our database of research institutions and the projects featured in our Research Panorama.
You can reach out to the university’s Welcome Center or International Office first if you would prefer to gather more information before contacting your colleagues. They can tell you about existing partnership programs and give you tips on how to formalize new ones. The International University Centers are also an excellent point of contact.
Short-Term Stays
There are real advantages to a short-term research stay in Bavaria. A visit could introduce you to new contacts and to ideas, methods, and techniques that you can apply to your own research. If you are a PhD candidate or postdoc thinking about long-term studies or employment, you will get first-hand experience of what it would be like to study or work at one of our universities. Professors interested in teaching exchanges can give courses by invitation from a Bavarian university.
Support for PhD Candidates and Postdocs
Most research visits are made possible through a contact between the supervisor at your home university and a professor at a Bavarian university. However, you can also arrange a visit on your own initiative. In this case, it usually helps to have secured your own funding. We have listed the most common funding programs for both career stages.
University chairs sometimes reserve funds for guest visitors. They can also nominate you to be funded through programs of the Bavarian International University Centers.
Opportunities for Professors and Experienced Researchers
Bavarian universities all have visiting professor programs that allow them to invite visiting scholars to share and develop their research. Depending on the program, research stays can be as short as a few days or last as long as a year.
Teaching exchanges are a common component of visiting professor programs. Universities often offer compact, intensive courses or summer and winter schools—perfect if you can only stay for a few weeks. With the growing number of English courses on offer at most universities, you might even be able to teach your course in English if German isn’t one of your languages. The individual universities can decide which areas and topics they want to prioritize in order to enrich education and research at their institution, and to strengthen international partnerships.
Becoming a Visiting Professor at a University of Applied Sciences
If your research has clear practical applications or you work regularly with partners in industry, you would make a great visiting professor at one of Bavaria’s universities of applied sciences. They are eager to invite experts to teach as visiting professors.
Some universities of applied sciences have defined programs for visiting professors. These generally cover funding and accommodation, and often even provide language courses, cultural programs, and family support.
Reach out to the International Office or faculty at the university you are interested in and inquire about the possibility of a short- or long-term research stay. They will be able to assist you with the relevant details and can advise you on funding options, accommodation, etc.
International and Project-Based Partnerships and Networks
Bavaria is deeply invested in facilitating international partnerships. Formal partnerships between universities further the exchange of scientific knowledge and offer researchers a range of opportunities. The German Rectors’ Conference (HRK) has a database of international partnerships between German universities and foreign partner institutions. You can search partnership agreements of any university you are interested in.
The Bavarian Research Alliance (BayFOR) provides assistance in forming new international partnerships in all corners of the globe. There are even special funds available for initiating new partnerships in Bavaria. Universities here can apply for funds within the Bavarian Funding Program for the Initiation of International Projects (BayIntAn) to promote new collaborations with their international partners.
In addition, six university centers for different regions of the globe help universities and researchers in Bavaria connect with their colleagues in the respective region.
