We advise scholars and artists who are at risk and have to leave their country or who have already fled and are staying in Germany or Europe. We will discuss with you the possibilities of realising your research project or artistic project with external third-party funding at the UdK Berlin. For all these projects, it is necessary to find a professor at the university who has the appropriate expertise for your project and who will support you.

With our offer we address people from Ukraine as well as people from other non-European countries.

​​​​​​ We support scholars at risk  in the following areas

• in the search for a supervisor for a doctorate at the UdK Berlin,
• in the search for a mentor at the UdK Berlin for a postdoctoral research project
• as well as in the search for external funding for doctoral and postdoctoral research projects.

For the consultation, we require a curriculum vitae, information on your current life situation and a detailed synopsis of the intended doctoral or postdoctoral research project in German or English. A short version of 5 pages is sufficient for the first contact with a professor at the UdK Berlin.

To find a professor who is suitable for you as a mentor or supervisor, you can either look through the list of all professors from the UdK Berlin's list of persons.

Alternatively, you can find out more about the various institutes and degree programmes and their lecturers on the websites of the faculties and the Berlin Career College:

• College of Fine Arts
• College of Architecture, Media and Design
• College of Music
• College of Performing Arts
• Berlin Career College

You have to apply for an individual doctorate at the UdK Berlin. Here you will find information on the procedure for enrolment as a doctoral candidate and on doctoral studies at the various faculties.

The following external funding opportunities are available specifically for scholars at risk:

• DAAD, Funding for doctoral candidates from Ukraine
• DAAD, Hilde Domin Programme for students and doctoral candidates
• Einstein Foundation, Einstein Guest Researchers to foster academic freedom, next call in 2025
• DFG, Walter Benjamin Programme for postdocs, no deadline
• Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung: Philip-Schwartz-Initiative for postdocs, next call expected in summer 2024
• Federal Ministry of Education and Research / Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF): Cooperation between Germany and Ukraine, Text only available in German: Forschungs- und Entwicklungszusammenarbeit zwischen Deutschland und der Ukraine
• Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt: MOE Fellowship Special Program Ukraine
• Institute of International Education's Scholar Rescue Fund
• Academy in Exile

We support artists and cultural actors at risk 

• in their search for a mentor at the UdK Berlin and 
• in their research for external funding for scholarships or projects.

For the consultation, we require a curriculum vitae, information on the current life situation as well as a detailed exposé for the artistic project or cultural project that could be realised at the UdK Berlin.

The following external funding opportunities are available specifically for artists and cultural actors at risk:

• Martin Roth Initiative: funding enables cultural and civil society organisations to temporarily host artists and cultural actors, next deadline in autmn 2023
• Einstein Foundation, Einstein Guest Researchers to foster academic freedom, artists are also eligible to apply, next call in 2025
• European Cultural Foundation
• Artists at Risk

In addition, the ARTIST TRAINING programme at the UdK Berlin offers professional artists at risk a further training programme for qualification, counselling and networking of professional artists in exile. It supports orientation in the local cultural sector and teaches self-management skills as a freelancer. 

Contact person for the counselling of scholars, artists and cultural workers at risk:

Dr. Sabine Schöbel
sabine.schoebel_ @intra.udk-berlin.de / Department for Funding and Cooperation