Travels and Grants

The IMPRS offers each of its doctoral students 1500 Eur allowance to be used for registration fees, travel and/or accommodation to conference attendance as deemed necessary by the student (and discussed with direct supervisor). As soon as you have decided how and when to use the allowance, you must request this in advance with the coordinator.

e. g. conference participation or learning methods in foreign lab. A detailed email needs be sent to the IMPRS office explaining, where, when and how much. Keep in mind, if early bird deadline or membership is required. You will need to wait for a reply, (dis)approval before proceeding, to be informed about how much remains, if you have started to spend it.

Keep in mind that if you are planning a private trip joined to the start or the end of the business trip, this cannot extend beyond five working days or else the IMPRS will not be able to refund you. Furthermore, proof that the actual cost of the travel tickets has to be the same or below the amount, if only the working period tickets would be purchased.

Method of payment: if only Pay-Pal or credit card are available then you need to make the payment in advance and request a refund. However, an elegant solution not to have to pay yourselves in advance is to put in a request with the Travel-Team for them to book your tickets/registration fees directly avoiding completely, the hassle of the refund process and the wait for the refund! Note that, if you travel abroad your refund process will likely take 3-4 months.

The Travel Team will of course require before any purchasing can be made: 

travel authorization, IMPRS authorization fund, itinerary (starting point and destination in full detail- time of day), when does the event start, passport copy or full name, tel # and email address :-)

Depending on where you have your contract (MPI or Un KN) will affect with whom you apply for your application for travel authorization and get this signed by your supervisors. Even to receive a refund from the IMPRS these needs to be received.

Note that the completion of TAC meetings and subsequent submission of the TAC forms to the coordinator’s office is required to occur in a timely fashion to be granted travel allowance.

Travel authorization forms:

Travel MPIAB (Intranet) / Travel form (university) / IMPRS-QBEE funding authorization

The essential preparation of „Business travel authorization forms“ are required when you are planning, e.g. fieldwork, attending conferences and seminars, meeting collaborateurs etc.

For insurance purposes, you have to fill in a ‚Business travel authorization form‘ before travel (link leads to document in MPIAB intranet) send it to your MPI-AB Department’s assistant (Sabine, Dago, Katrin) whether you are travelling for business purposes abroad or within Germany. No such form is needed when travelling between the institute’s premises of Konstanz and Radolfzell. 

If you are employed by the Uni KN, then you will need to fill in this travel authorization and submit it to the IMPRS travel support team to receive a refund (or before they are able to purchase your travel tickets).

When filling in the Uni KN form, make sure to tick the box for  “Dienstreise ohne Reisekostenvergütung" -Business trip without travel allowance and "sonstigen Mitteln"- other funds and add from IMPRS-QBEE graduate school.

In the case, if your own research group covers the cost of the daily allowance, then you could tick both boxes of Project-funding (add the IMPRS-QBEE) and `sonstigen Mitteln´- other funding and write `nur für Tagesgeld von hier zu belasten´ only for daily allowance to be paid and add the research groups’ account detail. -recommend to ask your supervisor about daily allowance option.

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When using an institute’s vehicle from the MPI-AB (only for employees) for a business purpose trip only, a business travel authorization form‘ signed by the supervisor is required as well. 

The Business travel authorization is required to:

*inform your supervisor who also has to sign for your financial reimbursement,

*to make sure you are properly insured,

*to prepare your official deployment abroad (Entsendung) which is taken care of by Human Resources (HR).

Bridge funding is another form of support available from the IMPRS-QBEE for our doctoral students only.

OBJECTIVE

The IMPRS bridge funding aims to enable IMPRS doctoral students without funding to finish their doctoral project. The IMPRS funding may be approved upon application for a maximum of 6 months and only covers salary (contract based on TVöD 13, 65%) but no travel, fees, equipment. This additional funding through IMPRS will only be possible after the 3^rd year, preferably during the 4^th year. Applications should be submitted to the IMPRS coordinator, ideally three months before the start of the requested funding period.

APPLICATION PROCEDURE-call deadlines 15^thof May and 15^th of September. 

• application form,
• statement from supervisor on why they cannot assume the requested funding,
• academic CV of the doctoral student, including info on residence status – (do you require a visa to stay in Germany?)
• family status, for IMPRS students that have special circumstances such as having started a family, or needs to support an elderly or ill person, especial priority for funding is available,
• an explanation by the doctoral candidate on why they need the funding and how they plan to finish within the requested period,
• copies of the TAC meeting minutes specifying the development of the project and financial schedule and, when required, respective actions. Reasons for potential non-fulfillment of the TAC meeting requirements should be explained and argued by the applicant.

EVALUATION PROCEDURE 

There are two calls for the funding each year. Any non-awarded funds will be transferred to the following year’s budget.

The IMPRS board will evaluate all applications within each call, based on the criteria scheme. To apply for the IMPRS funding see application form and apply accordingly.

The application will be checked for eligibility by the coordinator.

Other forms of IMPRS funding exist, such as top-up support for those students that receive a scholarship. Please contact the coordinator if your supervisor is unable to support you in this regard, priority is provided to direct supervisors that are junior IMPRS faculty members. 

The average score of all the board members will be the score used to distribute the funding. These scores will not be released to the student body.

OBJECTIVE

The Post-Doctoral Award is an award for the best IMPRS doctoral students. To enable them to finalize their research work and expand academically and professionally. This is meant to allow recent graduates to submit unpublished chapters of their thesis for peer review and/or finish side projects they started during their doctorate, while applying for fellowships and other job opportunities. The award comes with a 6-month post-doc contract (salary TVöD, E13, 100%, no extras), that can start as early as the doctoral thesis has been defended and passed. As part of the equal opportunity measures, we ask candidates that require a visa or that have started (or will start) a family during the award period to include this information in the application.

To be eligible to apply for the Post-Doctoral Award the applicant must:

• submit their doctoral thesis and defend it before they can receive the post-doc award, if their application is successful.
• conduct the post-Doc. award phase within the research group of their doctoral supervisor or with someone that was involved in at least one of the projects of their doctorate in Germany.
• have no other employment or funding during the requested period of IMPRS support.
• prove the achievements and outstanding quality of the doctoral project (publications, awards, etc.).
• describe the expected outcomes of the post-doc phase within these 6-months.

APPLICATION PROCEDURE

Call deadlines are 15^th of June and 15^th of October

There will be three calls each year, applications should be submitted to the IMPRS coordinator office.

Funds that are not awarded, roll-over into the next round/year.

To apply, use the application form and submit:

• academic CV, containing a publication list, awards, etc.
• a written statement by the doctoral student demonstrating the achievements and quality of the doctoral project and the expected outcomes of the post-Doc award.
• two recommendation letters (one by the supervisor confirming their willingness to host the applicant, one by an external scientist such as a TAC member or a collaborator involved in the doctoral project.

If you or a group of IMPRS doctoral students would like financial support for an event, please put together a mini-application for the funds addressed to the IMPRS board. For any questions and to process your proposal please get in touch with the IMPRS coordinator. 

Within this proposal make sure to include the following:

• Application for event sponsorship:
• Background info:
• Who is organizing:
• Where /When:
• How would this be advantageous for our program and Universität Konstanz in general?
• Budget: including
• Who do you have providing other sponsorship?
• How active you have been to find other sources of funding?
• Diversity statement
• Deadline September/October of the year before the funding is required for large event applications
• for smaller project grants, please apply by 15^th February, 15^th of June and 15^th of October

What can be purchased with these funds?

MPG-IMPRS funds can only be used for what falls under „individual qualification purposes“. This means the IMPRS doctoral students cannot use the money to „donate“ it to their field partners or pay for staff at the field station or contribute to any other running costs of a fieldsite. Likewise, the purchase of material (drone, camera, diving material etc.) doesn’t qualify as „individual qualification“. Material should always be provided by MPIAB/UniKN scientific budget.

If while staying at the fieldsite abroad the IMPRS funds, if granted additionally through the small grant application scheme can be used for such purposes: travel, accommodation, training/workshops, medical costs (diving certificate) at the fieldsite.

Note that you have to apply for the grant beforehand and be awarded it before the payments can be covered.