Attractive career paths for junior academics
LMU places a special emphasis on the comprehensive and individual promotion of its junior academics – from undergraduate studies to a professorship.
Scientific training at an early stage
For LMU, high-quality academic teaching consists primarily in imparting scientifically sound judgment on the basis of excellent research. Thus, in order to draw students' interest to research at an early stage and lay the foundations for an academic career, LMU pursues the concept of research-oriented teaching at all stages of academic training.
LMU Academic Career Program
Using its LMU Academic Career Program, LMU has been successful for more than ten years in creating excellent research and training conditions for outstanding junior academics at all stages of their academic careers – from the doctoral phase to a professorship.
LMU uses its funding as University of Excellence to further develop the Academic Career Program, with a particular focus on the career development of postdoctoral researchers.
For the individual support of career development, an additional funding line in the Junior Researcher Fund has been introduced and the new Knowledge Transfer Fund has been established.
At faculty level, the Postdoc Support Fund provides funding to LMU’s faculties to promote recruitment of international postdocs, to facilitate the continuation of scientific activity for postdocs, e.g. following periods of parental leave or care for relatives (re-entry funding), and to support postdocs’ networking as well as open-access publishing activities.
With these funding measures, LMU continues to support junior academics in developing competitive research profiles, with an additional focus on the compatibility of career and family as well as on specific funding needs across individual subject cultures. At the same time, the measures are designed to open up additional networking opportunities and career paths to junior academics, both within and outside of academia.
Doctoral phase
The GraduateCenter is the central coordination, advice and service unit for doctoral studies at LMU. Its Doctoral Research Training program offers funding for events for doctoral candidates. During the final phase of their doctorate, doctoral candidates may also apply for Completion Grants.
Postdoc phase
The Junior Researcher Fund promotes the individual career development of junior academics (who have gained no more than six years of professional academic experience since having completed their doctorate) by providing support for the independent procurement of externally funded and peer-reviewed research projects, particularly of prestigious research prizes and awards directed at junior academics.
The Postdoc Support Fund provides additional resources to LMU’s individual faculties in order to facilitate flexible, subject-specific promotion of postdoctoral researchers, particularly for the recruitment of international postdocs, for international mobility and networking activities, for promoting the resumption of research activities and promoting the continued pursuit of an academic career following periods of parental leave or care for relatives (re-entry funding), as well as for open-access publishing activities.
The Junior Researchers in Residence program of the Center for Advanced Studies (CAS) offers members of academic staff as well fellows of LMU an opportunity to spend one semester at CAS.
The Young Center of the Center for Advanced Studies (CAS) gathers together outstanding LMU junior academics. These include holders of prestigious research funding awards and fellowships (e.g. ERC Starting Grants or DFG Heisenberg Fellowships) as well as LMU Research Fellows.
The Knowledge Transfer Fund provides seed funding for projects aimed at the further development of basic research into technological, social or economic innovations.
The LMUMentoring program offers excellent junior academics an opportunity to receive career advice from mentors individually chosen as "role models" by themselves as well as to benefit from subject-specific support measures.
The LMU Research Fellowships are directed at outstanding postdoctoral researchers from all fields of research. Since 2017, the Program has been supported by the European Commission’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie COFUND Action.
Tenure Track phase
The Investment Fund provides seed funding for the procurement of large-scale third-party funding projects directed at innovative research ideas and the establishment of new research fields.
The Junior Researcher Fund promotes the individual career development of junior academics (who have gained no more than six years of professional academic experience since having completed their doctorate) by providing support for the independent procurement of externally funded and peer-reviewed research projects, particularly of prestigious research prizes and awards directed at junior academics.
More than fifteen years ago, LMU was one of the first universities in Germany to implement a Tenure Track Model, offering a predictable career path to a permanent professorship.
The success of LMU’s model has been confirmed, for instance, by additional funding for twenty tenure-track professorships awarded to the University as part of the Joint Federal Government-Länder Programme for Junior Academics (WISNA).
The Young Center of the Center for Advanced Studies (CAS) gathers together outstanding LMU junior academics. These include holders of prestigious research funding awards and fellowships (e.g. ERC Starting Grants or DFG Heisenberg Fellowships) as well as LMU Research Fellows.
The Adele Hartman Program provides additional support for appointments of women to W2 professorships.