Founding Director for New (Open Topic) Large-Scale Research Center

Job: 
Founding Director for New (Open Topic) Large-Scale Research Center

Recruiter:
German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and Free State of Saxony

Location: 
Saxony, Germany

Job Description:

Do you have an idea for a new research centre?

Realize it by participating in this competition!

What is the aim of the competition “Science Creating Prospects for the Region!”?

The German Federal Government and the Länder are taking concerted action to provide new economic opportunities and stimulus for current coal-mining areas. The Federal Research Ministry of Germany (BMBF) is investing heavily in research and innovation for this purpose. The aim of the open topic competition “Science Creating Prospects for the Region!” is to newly establish two excellent large-scale research centres in the coalfield regions in Saxony, home to thriving cities like Dresden and Leipzig.

What are we offering?
The BMBF and the Free State of Saxony offer you the unique opportunity to realize your innovative idea for a new large-scale research centre. Over the long term, both research centres will be provided with a budget of up to €170 million per year under the Structural Change Act. The thematic orientation and the exact location of the two new research centres will be determined in the thematically open competition. Thus, we are offering you the greatest possible flexibility!

Who are we looking for?
We need the best minds with the best ideas for this unique project in Germany. We are calling on outstanding scientists both in Germany and abroad who are eager to shape the scientific and economic future of Germany and Saxony to submit their innovative idea for a new research centre. Are you involved in academia and want to become part of a forward-looking large-scale project? Then submit your application. Your idea counts!

How can you take part? 
Submit your ideas by 30 April 2021. We expect you to provide an outline proposal (max. 20 pages in English or German) that convincingly sets out the following in particular:

• an ambitious research mission which spans the full spectrum of activities from basic research to application and addresses major societal challenges
• an innovative approach to cooperation between science and industry (incl. a strategy for the transfer of research results into application)
• a proposal for possible core resources (incl. human)

The best outline proposals will be developed further in a six-month conceptual phase, which will be funded with up to €500,000. A high-level “Perspectives Commission” chaired by Wolfgang A. Herrmann, long-time President of the Technical University of Munich, will support you in this effort. Further members of the commission will include the German Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, Stefan Hell, and the German ESA astronaut, Alexander Gerst. 

The funding announcement and further information is available at: 
https://www.bmbf.de/en/science-creating-prospects-for-the-region-13171.html 

Please address your enquiries to: 
WissenSchafftPerspektiven@bmbf.bund.de