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Travel Assistance
MArburg University Research Academy (MARA) generally awards travel assistance twice a year to its doctoral candidate members and postdocs. For example, you may apply for travel to conferences, field visits, and visits to archives if no other funding opportunities are available.
Our resources are unfortunately limited, so there are a number of formal restrictions on the application conditions, which are explained in detail below.
Application Conditions
It is important to note that there is only a small budget available for travel allowances each year and that we are therefore unfortunately unable to fund all applications. We ask for your understanding. For this reason, our funding program is designed as a so-called emergency fund or failure funding. This means that MARA only supports scientific trips if no other funding is possible. For you, this means that you must first apply for funding elsewhere (e.g. your department, the DAAD, a foundation, a specialist society, etc.).
We ask Begabtenförderungswerke scholarship recipients to inquire with their Begabtenförderungswerk about fixed travel allowances and/or additional assistance for international travel. If your application is rejected there or if there is no funding opportunity at all elsewhere for your specific travel project, you have the option of applying to MARA.
Special regulations apply to the possibility of funding stays abroad via DAAD programmes:
If a suitable DAAD programme exists (see in particular the DAAD conference and lecture travel programme as well as the programme for short-term scholarships for doctoral candidates), it is expected that an application is first submitted to the DAAD; proof of this must be provided. Particularly relevant in this context is the reference to the DAAD conference travel programme, for which applications must be received no later than 4 months (120 days) before the start of the event.If you would like to attend a conference abroad, you should definitely apply to DAAD in good time. By submitting an abstract for an international conference, you simply apply directly to the DAAD. This is possible at any time. Your abstract does not have to be accepted yet! The DAAD only requires a completed application form, your CV with a list of publications, the abstract and an academic transcript. Everything else can be submitted later.
You are then welcome to apply in parallel to the current call for applications at MARA. Applications to MARA for trips abroad are inadmissible if a possible DAAD application is not submitted, is not formally correct or is submitted late. These applications will be rejected.
Please note that if you personally miss an application deadline at the DAAD, this cannot be recognized by MARA as a reason for application. The same applies if the DAAD has rejected an application for formal reasons.
What can be promoted?
Your travel must be related to your respective doctoral or research project. A travel assistance is then available for
A) International travel:
- Travel to conferences (only if applicant is contributing to the conference)
- Travel for academic collaboration (also summer schools and similar formats in the interest of academic discourse and not exclusively continuing education)
- Field research (archive, library, monuments, etc.)
B) Domestic Travel:
- Travel to national conferences (only if applicant is contributing to the conference)
- Travel to international conferences (only if applicant is contributing to the conference)
- Field research (archive, library, monuments, etc.)
As part of the travel assistance offered by MARA, travel expenses, accommodation expenses, and other expenses such as conference fees can be covered at their actual value.
What cannot be promoted?
Costs for food, including a daily allowance, and costs for books cannot be covered by MARA.
In principle, all PhD students and post-docs at Philipps University can apply. There is an exception in the case of doctoral candidates in the field of medicine: Medical students obtaining a Dr. med. and dent. degree are eligible to apply from the second year of the doctorate (the date of enrollment at the department applies here).
Only one trip per person and call will be sponsored. If you have already received two travel grants from MARA during your doctoral or post-doctoral phase, it is no longer possible to apply.
Travel from abroad to Germany is not eligible for funding.
Once an application for a travel allowance has been declined, it cannot be submitted a second time.
It is obligatory that no travel warning has been issued by the Federal Foreign Office or the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for the destination of the planned journey. As a result of the Russian attack on Ukraine, Philipps-Universität Marburg and MARA are not promoting any travel to Russia. We are aware of the consequences of these measures and at the same time deeply regret this.
How is travel promoted?
Please note that the planning and execution of your trip is not carried out by MARA, but by yourself. This may also apply to the submission of a business trip application.
The costs of the trip will be reimbursed retroactively on the basis of actual expenses.
Fundig is available in the amount of 2,000 EUR per applicant and 1,500 EUR per trip during the doctoral and postdoc phase. Only one application for a travel grant can be submitted per person per call.
The Members Committee for Travel Assistance and conference Organization meets shortly after the application deadline to decide on the allocation of travel allowances. Travel grants are not awarded on a first-come, first-served basis. We collect all applications up to the specified application deadline and subject them to a thorough review. The documents are then submitted to the committee and the decision is made at the general meeting.
Further Funding Opportunities
Below you can find links and references to other funding opportunities for your travel and meeting expenses.
Databases for funding opportunities:
∗ Stipendiendatenbank des Deutschen Akademischen Austauschdienstes
focus on scholarships from German organizations, search by discipline and destination country
∗ Conference funding programme DAAD
∗ Lecture tour programme DAAD
∗ ELFI – Servicestelle für Elektronische ForschungsförderInformationen
comprehensive database, funding opportunities also for projects abroadInterdisciplinary funding opportunities:
∗ Alexander von Humboldt Foundation: Feodor Lynen Research Fellowship
Postdocs, funding for research abroad (6-24 months)
∗ DAAD: Postdoctoral Researchers International Mobility Experience (P.R.I.M.E.)
Postdocs of all disciplines, 12 months research trip abroad plus 6 months integration phase in Germany.
∗ Deutscher Akademikerinnenbund e.V.
Female Doctoral students and postdocs - travel grants to meetings and conferences
∗ ERASMUS+ at Philipps Universität Marburg
Research trips to a foreign university or research institution or a bi-national doctorate
∗ FAZIT-Foundation
travel grants in the context of doctoral studiesFunding opportunities for certain disciplines:
∗ DStatG Reisekostenzuschuss für Nachwuchswissenschaftlerinnen und Nachwuchswissenschaftler
Funding for members of the Society for International Statistics Conferences
∗ MOVE European Mobility Fellowship
for doctoral candidates and postdocs of German Society for Extracellular Vesicles (GSEV), travel grants for EU countries (1-3 months)
∗ Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds (BIF)
Travel grants of up to three months to doctoral and postdoctoral students from around the world pursuing experimental projects in basic biomedical research
∗ Here too, ELFI – Servicestelle für Elektronische ForschungsförderInformation
has listed various funding opportunities.Current Calls for Application
Travel Assistance is currently not open for applications. Further calls for applications will be announced via the university's email distribution lists.
Applications are only possible for current calls for applications. If the travel grants are advertised, you will find the exact application deadline, the documents to be submitted and all other information relating to the current call for applications here.
Contact
Dr. Jan-Paul Klünder
MArburg University Research Academy (MARA)
Funding
Tel.: +49 (0)6421 28 21299
E-mail: mara.foerderungen@uni-marburg.de