Selection Procedure

Fellows are selected in a four-step procedure:

  1. Administrative eligibility check
  2. International peer review
  3. Structured interviews
  4. Approval by the university’s Executive Board

Each phase must be passed successfully to proceed to the next. 

Composition and Organization of Selection Committees/ Criteria and Method of Judging Merit

1.Eligibility Check

An eligibility check against the published eligibility criteria will be carried out by DRS. 

2. International peer review

The host research projects appoint two international peers per application. These experts are selected according to their professional experience and proven expertise in the relevant discipline or field. Wherever possible, gender parity is ensured in these appointments. The experts evaluate the applications using an evaluation form provided by the DRS. The criteria are weighted:

  • Quality, level of innovation and feasibility of the applicant’s project proposal within the context of the chosen host project; special significance (e.g. socio-political, regional, relevance of transferability) (40%)
  • Convincing statement of motivation with regard to the added value to conducting research at Freie Universitaet Berlin and the applicant’s career aspirations (20%)
  • Quality and level of innovation of the applicant’s doctoral dissertation, as evidenced by the abstract; extent of progression of proposed postdoctoral project beyond the dissertation (20%)
  • Academic or scientific excellence (in academia and/or industry): previous professional experience, peer-reviewed publications, inventions, patents, prizes and awards, distinctions, etc. (10%)
  • Previous international, inter-disciplinary and inter-sectoral mobility; engagement in knowledge transfer and public awareness activities (10%)

Special circumstances and personal commitments (especially family-related career breaks) that place applicants at a disadvantage may be considered. An additional 5% will be added to the score for each year of family-related interruption in an applicant’s career, up to a maximum of 25%. Part-time positions will be credited proportionally.

3. Structured interviews

As a result of the peer reviews, the 35 top-scoring applicants will be invited to the Postdoc Opportunities Days at Freie Universitaet Berlin in June/July 2017. During these days, structured interviews will be conducted by interdisciplinary panels made up of representatives of the host research projects. Criteria and their weighting are detailed below:

  • Quality, innovative aspects and feasibility of the applicant’s project proposal within the context of the chosen host project; special significance (e.g. socio-political, regional, relevance of transferability) (60%)
  • Convincing defence of motivation with regard to the added value to conducting research at Freie Universitaet Berlin, the applicant’s career aspirations and the potential for research collaborations, transfer of knowledge and dissemination of results (30%)
  • Ability to communicate his/her research vision to experts and non-experts (10%)
  • The research proposals will be checked for ethical issues (without grading)

Based on the interview scores, Dahlem Research School will rank the proposals in order of merit, for consideration by Freie Universitaet’s Executive Board. Should more than one candidate have achieved the same interview score, the peer review score will decide the ranking.

4. Competitive selection

Freie Universitaet’s Executive Board consisting of six persons: the President, 4 Vice Presidents and the Chancellor as Head of Administration

The Executive Board will discuss and confirm the top-listed candidates who will be successful. They will monitor the overall selection process and ensure fair treatment of all candidates, especially that special circumstances which may place candidates at a disadvantage have been taken into account. In addition, a reserve list will be compiled consisting of those proposals that might move up if budget becomes available (e.g. following withdrawal of successful candidates). The remaining proposals that attain all the thresholds but for which funding not is available will be rejected for budgetary reasons.

Redress procedure
If a candidate believes that there have been shortcomings in the handling of their proposal, and that these shortcomings jeopardise the outcome of the evaluation process, they are able to submit a request for redress. An internal redress committee will examine any complaints. This committee will not evaluate the proposal itself. It is possible however, that the committee will recommend a re-evaluation of all or part of the proposal.

Such requests for redress should be raised within one month of the date of the feedback on the outcome of the relevant selection phase provided by the Dahlem Research School, and should be sent by email to fellowship-drs@fu-berlin.de.