To make Germany more attractive for international researchers, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation has improved the conditions of its sponsorship and reformed all its programmes.

At the heart of the reforms is a career stage model which replaces the previous age limits. The new system offers more flexibility and targeted opportunities for each individual group of applicants or nominees, tailored to their particular career situation.

As the President of the Humboldt Foundation, Professor Wolfgang Frühwald, states in the DIE ZEIT (30 August), the reforms are the Foundation's reaction to increasing international competition. "Other countries spend incredible amounts of money on bringing the best researchers into the country. In the past, we only had to compete with the USA, Australia and some other parts of the western world; nowadays, China, India, Taiwan, Korea or Singapore are right at the forefront, too. Our competitors buy researchers just like they do footballers. Financially, they are right out of our league but we can change the conditions for our fellows so that Germany continues to be attractive."

In the new model post-docs will be granted longer-term fellowships in order to be able to plan their research projects with greater certainty. Experienced academics will profit from greater flexibility, allowing them to divide up their fellowships into as many as three blocks. In this way, independent research group leaders or newly-appointed professors will be able to build up international collaborations with partners in Germany without having to give up their own positions or be reliant on generous leave of absence regulations at their own institutions. Another innovation are return fellowships for researchers from developing countries as well as for junior researchers returning to Germany.

Furthermore, at the beginning of the year, an additional allowance for research costs was introduced amounting to as much as 800 EUR per month. It contributes to creating optimum conditions for cooperation between fellows and their academic hosts in Germany. Every year, approximately six million EUR will be provided for this purpose. The funding may be used for items such as financing essential research equipment or enabling fellows to participate in conferences.

The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation annually enables more than 1800 researchers from all over the world to spend time researching in Germany. The Foundation maintains a network of some 22,000 Humboldtians from all disciplines in 130 countries worldwide - including 40 Nobel Prize winners.

Further information: www.avh.de