Top PhD Degrees in Germany 2019

The International Max Planck Research School (IMPRS) for Neural Circuits was established in 2011 and offers around ten fully-paid positions every year for talented students holding a relevant Masters or Bachelors as their highest degree to perform research resulting in a Ph.D. The program is taught in English.

We offer a multidisciplinary program to excellent doctoral students with backgrounds in neuroscience, mathematics, physics, computer science, (bio) chemistry, biology, and medicine as well as research experience in the participating institutions of the Frankfurt Neuroscience community. Students will participate in a tailor-made educational program including research rotations and neuroscience courses but also in training in transferable skills as well as retreats, conferences and summer schools and lecture series. A special fast-track option is offered to students with a Bachelor’s as their highest degree.... [-]

As Europe’s only intergovernmental research organization in the life sciences and as a leading laboratory in molecular biology, EMBL is dedicated to promoting excellence in the molecular life sciences throughout Europe. One of the best ways to achieve this goal is by inspiring and fostering talented young scientists to turn them into skilled and creative future leaders.

The EMBL International Ph.D. Programme is Europe’s ‘best in class’ Ph.D. programme for the life sciences. 240 students from over 40 countries are carrying out Ph.D. research at EMBL at any time. Every year we admit an average of 60 new students, who belong to the top science graduates in their countries. They are carefully selected from a large multi-national pool of applicants that reached over 1700 applications in 2012.... [-]

PhD in Economics - with a full-time scholarship at DIW Graduate Center

Who we areThe German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin) is one of the leading economic research institutes in Germany. We are an independent, non-profit institute involved in economic research, service and policy advice. In addition to co-operating closely with universities in Berlin and Brandenburg, we are also active in international academic networks.

The goal of the DIW Graduate Center is to provide outstanding doctoral students with a research environment and a training structure that will develop their talents in an exemplary manner. It provides them with a deep understanding of economic and social processes while offering them the opportunity to apply their knowledge within the professional research environment of one of the leading economic think tanks in Germany.... [-]

QBM seeks to train a cohort of young scientists who, while firmly anchored in their home discipline, are well versed in multiple approaches and styles of thought. The goal is for the students to get comfortable in communicating across traditional boundaries, especially across the divide between experiment and quantitative theory – to become, in effect, scientifically bi- or multilingual. To this end, the school offers an integrated interdisciplinary Ph.D. program that consists of three main components:

The aim of the Hector Fellow Academy is to promote young researchers in the Hector Fellows' environment. The HFA Ph.D. students are given the opportunity to benefit from the wealth of experience and an outstanding expertise of their supervisor while building up a research network.

Every year, several Ph.D. positions are funded by the HFA. Master graduates from all over the world can apply with a very good degree. Ambitious young scientists have the opportunity to do their Ph.D. with a self-developed research project in the working group of a Hector Fellow.For this, an innovative, self-developed research topic has to be submitted, which the young scientist works on within the framework of the three-year doctoral phase at the institute of the supervising Hector Fellow. It must be included in the application which Hector Fellow qualifies as a supervisor for your research idea.Moreover, outstanding Master's graduates can also apply for advertised Ph.D. positions of a Hector Fellow. By becoming a member of the Hector Fellow Academy, the young scientists become part of an interdisciplinary network of top researchers.... [-]