Modern and Excellent: Qualification for a Professorship
At KIT, there are several equivalent paths leading to a professorship: the traditional post-doctoral lecture qualification (habilitation), experience as a junior research group leader, a junior professor, or through a position in industry.
KIT offers the following framework conditions for a successful path to a professorship:
- Within the Young Investigator Group Preparation Program (YIG Prep Pro), excellent postdoctoral scientists receive extensive support and mentorship while preparing a proposal for a junior research group.
- Junior research group leaders can obtain official recognition as an independent "KIT-Nachwuchsgruppe" of KIT. This status is supposed to counteract the inflationary use of the term junior research group and thus serves the purpose of quality assurance and protection of junior research group leaders.
- The KIT Associate Fellow status enables junior research group leaders to supervise and examine doctoral students.
- In order to increase the predictability of the scientific career, KIT is continuously increasing the number of tenure track professorships.
- A central strategic element of support is the Young Investigator Network (YIN), the independent network of all junior research group leaders at KIT, which has already gained international recognition.
The Research Office of KIT provides information on specific funding instruments and offers support on your individual career path, especially with establishing an independent junior research group. A large number of other KIT staff members are committed to offering you excellent research conditions and development opportunities, be it through individually tailored further education offers, the dual career service, or measures towards the compatibility of work and family.
