Financial Support

At the moment, there is no financial support possible due to expiration of Helmholtz funding on 2020-12-31.

Legal and financial issues

All PhD students participating in the research school will receive financial support in the form of either fellowships or work contracts for the duration of 3 years. The type of support received will depend upon the specific source of funding for each student, defined by the available resources of the hosting group and organization. While scholarships are tax free and do not include any contributions to social insurances, contracts are taxed, and contributions to health insurance, pension scheme, and social benefits are included and automatically deducted from the income.

Fellowships

The IHRS NanoNet can provide up to 6 candidates with a fellowship that is limited to 3 years enabling the candidates to work exclusively on their research project. Fellowships are tax free and do not include any contributions to social insurances, i.e. you are not included in the social insurance system in Germany, “Sozialversicherungspflicht”. All doctoral candidates joining the IHRS NanoNet are obliged to be covered by a private Health insurance and a Third party liability insurance, and must present these policies at the time of joining the research school. Individual arrangements are to be made by the doctoral candidate. Please contact the IHRS NanoNet coordinator for assistance. Individual arrangements for pension schemes and occupational disablement insurance are optional.
The current NanoNet scholarship amounts to 1365 EUR per month following the guidelines of the German Research Foundation DFG.

Work contracts

Contracts are taxed, and contributions to health insurance, pension scheme, and social benefits are included and automatically deducted from the income. The salary is according to German Public Service classification (TV EntgO Bund), and is between 50% - 100% level E13. The initial minimum net income after deduction of compulsory insurances respectively tax and contribution to social insurances is approximately 1400 EUR per month.

Tuition fees

There are no tuition fees for the PhD Program of the IHRS NanoNet. However, there is a semi-annual enrollment fee of about 250 EUR for matriculation at the TU Dresden. The fee includes various benefits, such as the “Semesterticket” which entitles to use the public transport system in Dresden and surrounding area (Verkehrsverbund Oberelbe VVO) and most local trains in Saxony.

Living in Germany

Please be aware that living expenses in Germany might be higher than in other countries. It has been estimated that students will require approximately 850 EUR per month to cover the costs of living and studying.