Fellowship and Stipend Programmes
The purpose of the fellowships and research stipends offered by the Leibniz Institute for Educational Media | Georg Eckert Institute is to provide both young and established academics, and textbook authors, with extensive access to the textbook collections in the Institute's library as well as the opportunity to take a comparative approach to their work and to consult and work closely with academic colleagues in Germany and abroad. Through these programmes the Institute enables its fellowship and stipend holders to suspend other commitments for the duration of their funding and thus dedicate themselves wholly to their research interests. The GEI's staff provide organisational and academic support to research fellows and stipend holders, enabling them to take advantage of the forum of lively academic discussion and international, interdisciplinary communication offered by the Institute.
- GEI Fellowship
The research library at the Georg Eckert Institute represents a unique tool for international textbook research. The Institute relies on permanent and close academic contact with domestic and foreign researchers and practitioners in the fulfilment of its important role. In order to promote the exchange of ideas internationally and to further develop international textbook research – with an emphasis on comparative approaches –, the Institute has developed a fellowship programme with the support of the Association of Friends of the Georg Eckert Institute.
Fellowships are designed to encourage:
- Individual research projects that focus on international understanding through education and schools; research aimed at reducing prejudice and identifying alternative perceptions as well as stereotyped and adversarial images in educational media, and their origins.
- International education and didactics research on the methods, content and objectives of teaching in the subject areas in which the Institute's library specialises; research into the governmental, institutional and social frameworks in which this teaching takes place.
- Academic research on issues of perception and reception in the fields of history, geography and social science.
- Studies on textbook development in the subjects in which the Institute specialises which aim to identify new paths for textbook production based on comparative international textbook research.
Details of the fellowship
- Length of fellowships: 2–4 weeks.
- Fellows receive a monthly stipend of 800 EUR.
- The fellowship includes accommodation in one of the Institute’s guest apartments.
- Applicants can also apply for a contribution towards travel costs. The decision to reimburse travel costs will be decided separately according to the availability of annual funds. PhD students will be given priority.
- Fellows are responsible for their own health insurance.
- Comprehensive introduction and access to the GEI’s library resources.
- Provision of an individual workspace within the library.
- Allocation of a mentor.
- Participation in the Institute’s research colloquia
Who can apply?
Applications are welcomed from researchers based internationally or in Germany and of any nationality. Candidates must fulfil the following requirements in order to be considered by the Institute for a fellowship position:
- Candidates for a fellowship should generally hold a university degree. We also welcome applications from people who are involved in the writing of textbooks or employed by textbook publishers, as well as those whose activities in the field of education are concerned with curricula and textbooks.
- The work to be undertaken during the fellowship must support the Institute's own work or projects in the field of international textbook research.
- The Institute may occasionally invite applications for fellowships attached to a specific topic.
How to apply
Applications for a fellowship to be taken up in a particular year should be submitted by the 30 September of the preceding year. A committee consisting of the Institute's director and academic staff will meet after the closing date for applications to award fellowships for the following year. Applicants will be informed about the decision before the end of the current year where possible.
Applications for a fellowship should include:
- The completed fellowship application form (cover letter).
- A short CV, containing details of the candidate's professional background and/or academic career to date, including information on his/her current position and language skills.
- A list of publications.
- A one- to three-page outline of the proposed research topic, describing its aims and methodology.
- A specific list of the literature that the candidate wishes to study at the Institute in order to illustrate the importance of a research stay at the GEI.
- A work schedule for the desired duration of the stay at the GEI.
Further conditions
- The period covered by the fellowship must be spent working at the Institute. The Institute’s specialist research library may be used by all fellowship holders.
- Fellowship holders are expected to discuss their research experiences and exchange academic ideas with colleagues at the Institute.
- Fellowship holders are required to submit a report (1-2 pages) detailing the work conducted after completion of their research.
- We also expect that felows send the GEI library a free printed copy of any work resulting from research at the institute, or provide the library with free access to the relevant open-access publication.
- Otto Bennemann Grant
The GEI awards the Otto Bennemann Grant to promote innovative studies in international textbook research. Otto Bennemann (1903-2003), after whom the grant was named, supported the work of the Institute when he was Mayor of Braunschweig and continued to do so as Lower Saxony's Minister of the Interior. The grant is financed by the foundation he established.
The aim of the stipend:
- The grant supports studies in international textbook research that take an innovative methodological approach.
- As its purpose is to fund research work conducted in Braunschweig, the recipient must spend the period covered by the grant working at the Leibniz Institute for Educational Media | Georg Eckert Institute.
- Applications are expected to be of a high standard. In their application, candidates should clearly detail the methodological approach taken by their research and explain why it is innovative and its relationship to textbook-specific discourses.
Who can apply?
Applications are welcomed from experienced academics from Germany or any other country.
How to apply
Applications for the Otto Bennemann Grant should be submitted using the application form by 30 September for the following year. A committee consisting of the Institute's director and academic staff will meet after the closing date for applications to decide the grant recipient for the following year. Candidates will be informed about the decision before the end of the current year where possible.
Applications should include:
- The completed fellowship application form (cover letter).
- A curriculum vitae including a list of the applicant’s most significant publications.
- A detailed description of the project to include comprehensive information on the subject of the proposed study.
- Information regarding the current status of (preliminary) work and the schedule of work planned during the recipient’s tenure at the Institute.
- A list of literature in GEI research library to be consulted during the recipient’s stay.
- Information on the expected final result of the work (monograph, post-doctoral thesis, etc.).
Details of the fellowship
- Length of fellowship: 1–2 months.
- The Otto Benneman Grant is for 2,000 EUR per month.
- The fellowship includes accommodation in one of the Institute’s guest apartments.
- Applicants can also apply for a contribution towards travel costs. The decision to reimburse travel costs will be decided separately according to the availability of annual funds.
- Fellows are responsible for their own health insurance.
- Comprehensive introduction and access to the GEI’s library resources.
- Provision of an individual workspace within the library.
- Allocation of a mentor.
- Participation in the Institute’s research colloquia.
Further details
- The period covered by the fellowship must be spent working at the Institute. The Institute’s specialist research library may be used by all fellowship holders.
- Fellowship holders are expected to discuss their research experiences and exchange academic ideas with colleagues at the Institute.
- The Otto Benneman grant holder is required to give a public lecture at the Leibniz Institute for Educational Media.
- Fellowship holders are required to submit a report (1-2 pages)detailing the work conducted after completion of their research.
- We also expect that fellows send the GEI library a free printed copy of any work resulting from research at the institute, or provide the library with free access to the relevant open-access publication.
- Möllgaard Fellowship
This fellowship programme, funded by an endowment from the Marga and Kurt Möllgaard Foundation, enables the Institute to support guest researchers from the Ukraine and neighbouring countries in central and Eastern Europe by providing a bursary to cover research stays at the GEI. The Institute has traditionally had a strong focus on this region, which has resulted in decades’ worth of accumulated Eastern European expertise.
The aim of the fellowship
The fellowship supports individual research projects by academics from the Ukraine and neighbouring countries in Central and Eastern Europe (post-Soviet states).
Who may apply?
Applications for the Möllgaard Fellowship are open to young researchers, established academics and educational practitioners from the Ukraine and its neighbouring countries (post-Soviet states).
How to apply?
Applications for the Möllgaard Fellowship should be submitted using the application form by 30 September for the following year. A committee consisting of the Institute's director and academic staff will meet after the closing date for applications to decide the grant recipient for the following year. Candidates will be informed about the decision before the end of the current year where possible.
Please note: We are currently accepting applications for the Möllgaard Fellowship all year round. If you are applying outside the application deadline (by 30 September of a given year for the following year), please submit your application in addition to the online form by e-mail as a pdf attachment to the Fellowship Team.
Applications should include:
- The completed fellowship application form (cover letter).
- A short CV, containing details of the candidate's professional background and/or academic career to date, including information on his/her current position and language skills.^
- A list of publications.
- A one- to three-page outline of the proposed research topic, describing its aims and methodology.
- A specific list of the literature that the candidate wishes to study at the Institute in order to illustrate the importance of a research stay at the GEI.
- A work schedule for the desired duration of the stay at the GEI.
Details of the fellowship
- Length of the fellowship: 1–3 months.
- Möllgaard-Fellows receive a monthly stipend of 1,000 EUR.
- The fellowship includes accommodation in one of the Institute’s guest apartments.
- A travel allowance in form of a lump sum determined by the institute.
- Fellows are responsible for their own health insurance.
- Comprehensive introduction and access to the GEI’s library resources.
- Provision of an individual workspace within the library.
- Allocation of a mentor.
- Participation in the Institute’s research colloquia.
Further details
- Fellowship holders are expected to discuss their research experiences and exchange academic ideas with colleagues at the Institute.
- Fellowship holders are required to submit a report (1-2 pages) detailing the work conducted after completion of their research.
- We also expect that fellows send the GEI library a free printed copy of any work resulting from research at the institute, or provide the library with free access to the relevant open-access publication.
If you have any questions about the application process, please contact the Fellowship Team.
You can find more answers to frequently asked questions on our FAQ page.
