Research partner in the Software Campus
The Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the companies (“industry partners”) are funding the program in equal shares. Participation in the program is free of charge for academic institutions, which send their most talented doctoral researchers to the selection process and administer the funding provided by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research at their institutes.
Long-standing, so-called permanent research partners are involved athe Software Campus. However, since 2023, Ph.D. students in computer science and computer science-related subjects at universities, colleges, and universities of applied sciences, as well as university and non-university research institutions that are not (yet) permanent partners at the Software Campus, are welcome to apply for the program.
For these new research partners counts:
Each institution from which Ph.D. students are promoted by the Software Campus joins the program for the duration of the project via the framework agreement and cooperation agreement.
The grants are awarded as individual projects on the basis of an application on a expenses or cost base (AZAP/ AZK) and a project description (Vorhabenbeschreibung).
For each person accepted into the program, their academic institution receives up to €115,000 in funding as a grant or allocation of funds from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). These grants are tied to the participant’s funded project and cannot be transferred. The budget is requested from the institution at which the team will be employed.
Additionally, the universities receive 20% of the funding amount as a project lump sum (max. €23,000).
Recipients of this funding under the frame of Software Campus are required to submit an annual written report to the DLR project executing organization as well as a final report at the end of the project.