Research
By pooling complementary strengths, the University Alliance Ruhr has become a dynamic and powerful network with international appeal. Top-level international research at the UA Ruhr has been consolidated under the umbrella of the Research Alliance since 2021. At the heart of the Research Alliance are four Research Centers and one College, which are working together to develop answers to key questions about the future. The Research Centers focus on the topics of health, sustainability, digitalization and the energy transition. The College promotes interdisciplinary collaboration and international networking in the humanities and social sciences. All five institutions build on the joint strengths of the three partner universities.
Another example of successful collaboration in top-level research at the UA Ruhr is the funding awarded to three Clusters of Excellence under the ‘Excellence Strategy’ programme, involving Ruhr University Bochum and TU Dortmund University as well as scientists from the University of Duisburg-Essen. Funding has been granted to the Clusters of Excellence “RESOLV” in the field of solvation science, “CASA” for cybersecurity, and “Color Meets Flavor” in particle physics.
You can find more information about research at the UA Ruhr here:
PhD
Depending on your subject, research area and interests, you can choose where to work on your PhD thesis:
- at a university
- at a non-university research institute or
- at a German company
For doctorates conducted at non-university research institutions or companies, doctoral candidates must also enrol at a university, as only universities are authorised to award doctoral degrees.
If you decide to do a doctorate in Germany, you can choose between different forms of research. Depending on your discipline, research area, personal circumstances and formal qualifications, there are two different paths:
Individual doctorate
In Germany, pursuing a doctorate primarily means working intensively on a specific subject or research project over an extended period of time. The "individual" path to a PhD is still the most common in the country. It involves writing a thesis and offers a great deal of flexibility, but it also requires a high degree of personal initiative and responsibility: a professor supervises a PhD researcher, who works on their subject largely independently, in consultation with the professor.
Individual doctoral programmes can begin at any time and are not restricted to the universities’ academic semesters.
Structured PhD programmes
In Germany, structured doctoral programmes are very similar to the PhD programmes in English-speaking countries, in which a team of supervisors look after a group of doctoral students.
Structured doctoral programmes in Germany often have a strong international orientation with English as the team language. Unlike the individual doctorate model that can be freely structured to suit the individual research project, here doctoral students and their research proposals have to fit in with an existing PhD programme.
The doctorate frequently entails a clearly structured doctoral study programme with compulsory attendance at lectures or seminars and interim assessment (credit points). The programme frequently also covers academic and scientific methods or soft skills, such as presentation techniques.
Normally, such programmes are publicly advertised and often feature grants or paid doctoral positions.
Postdoctoral studies
Universities are the most popular employers for postdocs in Germany. People who want to continue working in research often decide in favour of a job at a university. As a rule, postdocs work as research associates at a professorial chair or as members of research staff in a research group or a third-party-funded project.
Further information on the types of employment, applications and salaries for postdoctoral positions in Germany can be found here:
Further information about postdoctoral opportunities at UA Ruhr can be found here:
Research stays and funding
Researchers outside UA Ruhr may apply at any time for research stays with a scientist or research group within the alliance. The stay can be funded by a support programme in the country of origin, Germany or international programmes; in some cases, temporary employment may be possible. Regulations vary by faculty, and prospective researchers should always contact their prospective host directly. Researchers from UA Ruhr universities who are interested in stays in Latin America and the Caribbean should contact the potential host institutions for information.
There are several main routes to financing your research in Germany: paid positions, scholarships/fellowships, programme-based placements, and project/Principal Investigator grants that create jobs. More information on research funding in Germany and at the UA Ruhr universities:
Research funding - TU Dortmund
Further information on research at the UA Ruhr universities can be found here: