Requirements for admission
The minimum requirement for admission into the BBW ForWerts Graduate Program is an MSc degree. If you have obtained a comparable degree or have extensive research or working experience in a field relevant to the program’s projects, please contact BBW ForWerts administration about your eligibility for the program. Fluency in English is mandatory.
Application Process
Track 1: Open Call for Applications for the Graduate Student Positions
After submitting an application in our online portal and after the deadline, we will send the applications of the best suited candidates to the project leaders of those projects the candidates have applied for. The candidates will then receive an Email from us letting them know if they have been selected for an interview by the respective project leader(s).
Deadline for Application: will be announced upon a call
Track 2: Application of Graduate Students who already have a PhD position and supervisor
Graduate students already enrolled in a PhD project can submit an application, including a description of their PhD project under the item “research interest”. The candidates who successfully pass the panel interview (see below) can enter the Graduate Program.
Deadline for Application: 3 months upon signing the Agreement for Doctoral Studies with the home university (a copy of the agreement should be submitted to BBW ForWerts)
Panel Interview
To enter the Graduate Program all applicants of Track 1 or 2 have to successfully pass an additional panel interview. Here, an interdisciplinary panel of project leaders from the BBW ForWerts network will conduct interviews with the selected candidates to judge if they are generally suited for the BBW ForWerts Graduate Program (English language skills, motivation, and scientific background). Interviews will last 20 minutes and usually take place at a location in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. In exceptional cases, Skype interviews may be conducted.Invited candidates have to prepare a 7-minute “chalk talk” presentation explaining their Master’s thesis (or similar work) in English with the use of nothing but a whiteboard. After the presentation, the project leaders conducting the interviews will ask questions about the candidate's research, background, goals and bioeconomy interest in general.The project leaders who chose to invite candidates upon an open call for applications may, or may not be present. They may contact candidates for additional interviews to get to know them better.
After the interviews
Track 1: Candidates who applied upon an open call will be informed by a project leader and offered a position. However, BBW ForWerts will accept these candidates for the Graduate Program ONLY if they also have passed the panel interview and after an agreement between the project leader and the graduate student has been signed.
BBW ForWerts will inform candidates that have not been selected by project leaders.
Track 2: The graduate students who already have a position will be informed by BBW ForWerts if they have been accepted for the BBW ForWerts Graduate Program.
