Klaus Tschira Boost Fund

A joint program of GSO and Klaus Tschira Foundation offering flexible funding and career development for Researchers in the Natural Sciences, Mathematics, and Computer Science.

Contact

Dr. Birte Seffert
GSO e. V.
Friedrichstrasse 60
10117 Berlin

Phone: +49 (0) 30 2067 9967
ktboost(at)gsonet.org

Application

We will inform you on the next call in our newsletter and via social media.

Idea

Through the Klaus Tschira Boost Fund, we promote excellent researchers by providing 

  • flexible funding to create scope for independent, higher risk, interdisciplinary projects,
  • support in building (international) collaborations and networks,
  • targeted mentoring and advice on professional and personal development.

The objective is to give (young) researchers greater flexibility in shaping their career paths, accelerate their careers, and promote early independence.

Additional information for applicants from 2023 


Webinar presentation

»How to apply for the KT Boost Fund and other grants«

Program Information

It is possible to apply for funding of up to € 80,000 for a period of up to 24 months. In principle, funding can be used for all types of costs; no more than 75% may be used to cover (parts of) the fellow’s own salary.

In addition, fellows are eligible to become members of the alumni network AlumNode  which focuses on the following:

  • Leadership & Career Development
  • Science Communication & Advocacy
  • Projects & Collaborations

The network offers access to intensive knowledge transfer and sharing, the promotion of independent projects, peer mentoring as well as various advisory and professional development opportunities.

The program was developed by GSO that is also responsible for the management of the program. The program funding stems from the Klaus Tschira Foundation. More information: www.klaus-tschira-stiftung.de

The program addresses Postdoctoral Researchers who :

  • are employed at a public higher education institution (university, university of applied sciences) or a non-university research institution in Germany;
  • conduct research in one of the following areas: Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Earth Sciences, Mathematics, Neurosciences or Physics;
  • and are not already funded by a junior research group program (e.g. Emmy Noether, ERC Starting Grant or others).

If approved, the funding must be requested by the applicant’s institution and made freely available to the researcher. All funding must be used in accordance with the approved budget plan. A yearly proof of use of funds is to be submitted to GSO.

All information about the application is available above for download. We recommend reading these carefully as the program is highly competitive. The approval rate was 5% in 2023 and 3% in 2022 and 2021.

The application deadline for the 5th Klaus Tschira Boost Fund cohort ended on March 31, 2023.

Our Fellows & Alumni

Thanks to the generous funding of the Klaus Tschira Foundation, we have so far been able to support 60 Fellows in their research and academic independence in five cohorts. The latest cohort started their projects in autumn 2023.

Lorenz Adlung
University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf / Systems Biology
Domenico Azarnia Tehran
Leibniz-Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pharmakologie Berlin / Neurobiology
Stefanie Bärthel
German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) Heidelberg and Munich / Translational Cancer Research and Experimental Cancer Therapy
Sabrina B. Bennstein
Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf / Immunology
Youssef El Mouali
Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) Braunschweig / Microbiome
Bennet Fischer
Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology Jena / Photonics
Clarissa Glaser
University of Bonn / Hydrology
Christin Katharina Kreutz
TH Köln - University of Applied Sciences / Computer Science
Deniz Kumral
Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg / Cognitive Neuroscience
Eunbi Kwon
Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence Martinsried / Field Ornithology
Alice Mockford
Christian Albrecht's University of Kiel / Ecological Entomology
Vahid Nasirimarekani
Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization Göttingen / Origin of Life
Henri Niskanen
Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics Berlin / Biochemistry & Molecular Genetics
Frederic Alexander Römschied
ENI-G, A Joint Initiative of the University Medical Center Göttingen and the Max Planck Society / Computational Neuroethology
Maria-Elena Vorrath
Universität Hamburg / Geochemistry
Jingyuan Xu
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology / Sustainable Energy Technology
Casey Paquola
Forschungszentrum Jülich / Neuroscience
Hilary Noad
Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids/ Experimental Condensed Matter Physics
Inmaculada Martínez-Reyes
Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine / Molecular Immunology and Gene Therapy
Oya Cingöz
Robert Koch Institute / Infection and immunity
Renate Sachse
Technical University of Munich / Computational and structural mechanics
Sam Sanders
Ruhr University Bochum / Mathematics & Computer Science
Susanne Wintzheimer
FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg / Materials Chemistry
Svetlana Klementyeva
University of Tübingen / Inorganic Chemistry
Zahra Razaghi-Moghadam
University of Potsdam & MPI Molecular Plant Physiology / Systems Biology
Ignacio Rodríguez Polo
University of Göttingen / The Francis Crick Institute, London / Developmental Biology
Anna Schulz
Technical University of Munich/ Animal Physiology and Immunology
Christoph Heyl
Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY & Helmholtz-Institute Jena / Laser Physics
Claudia Bizzarri
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology/ Photoactive metal complexes for catalysis and bioimaging
Daniel Carlson
Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon/ Oceanography
Emmanuelle Quemin
Leibniz Institute for Experimental Virology/ Structural Virology
Felix M. Key
Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology/ Evolutionary genetics
Florian Loebbert
University of Bonn/ Theoretical Particle Physics
Georgios Gkatzelis
Forschungszentrum Jülich/ Atmospheric Chemistry
Katharina Baum
Hasso Plattner Institute/ Network-based data analysis
Matthew Agler
Friedrich Schiller University of Jena/ Microbial ecology & Plant-microbe interactions
Mine Altinli
Bernhard-Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine/ Molecular Entomology
Miriam Menzel
Forschungszentrum Jülich/ Neuroimaging
Christian Hering-Junghans
Leibniz Institute for Catalysis Rostock/ Inorganic Chemistry, Catalysis
Claudia Alfes-Neumann
Bielefeld University/ Pure mathematics
Marcel Pawlowski
Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam/ Astronomy, Astrophysics
Merle Röhr
Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg/ Computational Chemistry, Theoretical physics, Quantum biology
Paola Carrillo-Bustamante
Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology Berlin/ Computational Biology, Infectious Diseases
Pauline N. Fleischmann
University of Würzburg/ Neuroethology
Penelope R. Whitehorn
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology/ Pollinator Ecology
Romy Lorenz
Max Planck Institute Leipzig/ Cognitive neuroscience
Sabine Becker
Technische Universität Kaiserslautern/ Metalloneurochemistry
Walter Bronkhorst
Institute of Molecular Biology Mainz/ Developmental Biology, RNA Biology
Wilhelm Palm
German Cancer Research Center Heidelberg/ Cell Biology, Metabolism, Cancer
Darjus Tschaharganeh
DKFZ Heidelberg / Cancer Research
Dermot Harnett
HU Berlin, BIMSB/ Computational Biology
Florian I. Schmidt
University of Bonn/ Innate Immunity, Cell Biology, Virology, Nanobody engineering
Jan Rennies-Hochmuth
Fraunhofer IDMT Oldenburg/ Speech Intelligibility
Julia Grosse
GEOMAR Kiel/ Marine Biogeochemistry
Lena J. Daumann
LMU München/ Bioinorganic Chemistry
Lysanne Snijders
Assistant Professor / NWO-Veni Fellow / Animal behaviour
Matthias Schröter
UFZ Leipzig/ Ecosystem services
Nadja Klein
HU Berlin/ Applied Statistics
Patrina S. P. Poh
Charité Berlin/ Bone Tissue Engineering, Additive Design & Manufacturing
Tuan Leng Tay
Assistant Professor in Biology and Anatomy & Neurobiology