Bringing top researchers to Freiburg
The FRIAS Co-Fund Fellowship Programme gives leading researchers from all disciplines the opportunity to study at Freiburg, helping them broaden their experience and build networks that can support future projects. The FCFP programme is designed to support international researchers and help them build their careers in the academic sector, as Dr Katrin Brandt and Professor Bernd Kortmann explain. The opportunity to
collaborate with peers and exchange ideas is highly beneficial for academics, exposing them to new perspectives that can potentially lead to fresh insights, while also helping researchers establish a network to support future projects. The FRIAS (Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies) Co-Fund Fellowship Programme – or FCFP – gives 15 top researchers a year the chance to conduct research at Freiburg for between 3-12 months, supporting their career development and so encouraging them to advance in research. “We offer 12-month fellowships to junior fellows, so post-docs who have completed their PhD within the last six years. The senior fellows can choose from between 3-10 months,” outlines Dr Katrin Brandt, project manager and leader of the Fellow Service team at FRIAS. The fellowships are open to applicants from all disciplines, from the humanities and the social sciences to medicine and engineering. “FRIAS covers the entire spectrum of disciplines, which is fairly unusual for an Institute of Advanced Studies,” says Professor Bernd Kortmann, executive director of FRIAS.
FCFP Fellows This breadth is reflected in the current group of FCFP fellows, which includes researchers addressing topics as diverse as criminal
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law, chemical physics and anthropological linguistics. The selection process for the fellowships is extremely rigorous, with about 250 researchers from different disciplines competing with each other. “Theologians compete with archaeologists, and with biomedical physicists for example. It’s very competitive,” explains Professor Kortmann. The programme attracts applicants from all over the world, and Professor Kortmann says
and senior fellows to mix, which can stimulate interesting debate and discussion, even amongst researchers from seemingly very different disciplines and research cultures. An open mindset is an essential pre-requisite for an FCFP fellow, and while fellows work on their own specific research projects during their time at FRIAS, Professor Kortmann says they are also exposed to ideas and new developments from other disciplines. “We
This can then lead to interesting new avenues of interdisciplinary investigation. For instance, over the last few years researchers at FRIAS have been investigating various applications of artificial intelligence, teaming up under the rubric of ‘Responsible AI’. “We’ve had a human rights law professor collaborating with a philosopher of technology, as well as with a neurologist and a roboticist. They discussed, for example, the legal frameworks governing the use of brain data, autonomous weapons and self-driving cars,” Professr Kortmann outlines. This group had numerous FCFP-funded international fellows and guest researchers joining them, and they are all still working together now, even after their time as FRIAS fellows has ended. This demonstrates how FCFP can lead to fruitful collaboration over the longer-term, something which Professor Kortmann is keen to encourage. “We have implemented an alumni programme, so that quite a few fellows come back to Freiburg on a regular basis to continue their collaborations,” he says. “The contacts that are created through FCFP can be sustained over the long-term, which is hugely positive for all parties involved.”
Research relationships The FCFP fellows may also encourage others in their network to apply, which can then strengthen and enhance the research environment at Freiburg. This is very much in line with the wider goals of the entire Marie Curie fellowship programme, which is designed to bring European scholars from outside the continent back to the European Research Area. “It’s about reversing the brain drain, and bringing top people to, or back to, Europe,” outlines Professor Kortmann.
We’ve had a law professor collaborating with a philosopher of technology, a neurologist and a roboticist. They discussed the legal frameworks governing the use of brain data, autonomous weapons and selfdriving cars. Responsible AI is the specifically European way to go! great care is taken to support the fellows when they arrive at FRIAS, both academically and socially. “It’s important to provide junior fellows with networking opportunities, both with other FCFP fellows, and also other people who are working in their field here at Freiburg,” he continues. “Our institute has a very interdisciplinary and social character. The idea is really to create a community of fellows during a given academic year, even if people only come for a short period.” Events like joint lunches encourage junior
FRIAS COFUND Fellowship Programme for Junior and Senior Researchers - FCFP Project Objectives
The Marie Skłodowska-Curie FRIAS COFUND Fellowship Programme (FCFP) offers about 15 fellows per year (juniors and seniors) from all disciplines, regardless of their nationality, the opportunity of spending three to twelve months working on their own research project at the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS), the international research college of the University of Freiburg.
Project Funding
This project receives funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skolodwska-Curie grant agreement Nº754340.
Contact Details
Max Bolze Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies FRIAS University of Freiburg Albertstr. 19 D-79104 Freiburg Germany T: +49 761 203 97407 E: max.bolze@frias.uni-freiburg.de W: www.frias.uni-freiburg.de
Katrin Brandt
Bernd Kortmann
Prof. Bernd Kortmann holds a chair in English Linguistics at U Freiburg and is an elected member of the Academia Europaea. From 10/2013 until 9/2022 he served as Director Humanities and (from 10/2015) as Executive Director of FRIAS. Dr. Katrin Brandt has a PhD in Physical Chemistry. As team leader at FRIAS, she is responsible for the Fellow Service and the Funding Programmes. She has been in charge of the FRIAS COFUND Fellowship Programme since 2013.
make sure that the fellows are confronted with research from disciplines they would never normally be in touch with,” he stresses. This benefits both the presenter and the audience, who often bring a new perspective to the subject under discussion: “A presenter has to learn how to present their research to people from outside their own discipline, while the audience may ask questions that the presenter has never been asked before. They are trying to understand how this discipline works.”
EU Research
The FCFP is playing a key part in this, not just by providing a stimulating academic environment but also by taking the social needs of the fellows into account. “We don’t think of the fellows solely as researchers who need resources for their investigations. That’s of course important, but once they are here, they are also people who have a family life and social interests,” says Professor Kortmann. “As soon as people get an offer of an FCFP fellowship from FRIAS, Katrin and her team get in touch to enquire about their requirements, whether that’s nursery places or taking care of the family dog.” This holistic approach helps fellows settle in quickly once they arrive at Freiburg, so they can enjoy their time at FRIAS and participate fully in life at the Institute. This means not just working on their own research, but also attending other events like the regular lunch lectures. “Here we present the results of research conducted at FRIAS to the University public. We also have a series of outreach events for the general public, called the Freiburg Horizons, where we bring together outstanding people to discuss issues of high societal importance,” says Professor Kortmann. At one recent event the difficulty of taking bold decisions in politics in times of crises was discussed, while other topics of debate have included academic freedom under pressure and resource efficiency, which is a prominent issue in the context of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and possible restrictions to energy supplies over the coming winter. “We invited the Minister for the Environment in our State to the event, and she willingly gave an in-presence keynote lecture to the city public,” continues Professor Kortmann.
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