In order to honour special achievements, the Presidential Board is inviting applications for an award round for merit pay for 2026 in accordance with Section 5 (5) of the award guidelines.

Full-time professors in salary groups W2 and W3 areeligible to apply

There is no right of application for persons who receive fixed-term performance-related pay from an appointment or retention performance agreement. Those who already receive ongoing performance-related pay from a previous award round are not entitled to submit a new proposal for the respective category. A proposal is possible in the categories in which no performance-related pay is currently being granted.

Requirements for submitting an application

• In the period from 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2026, special achievements must have been demonstrably made in at least one of the three categories of research, teaching and further education, and promotion of early career researchers.

• Special achievements must have been made during the period of employment at the University of Oldenburg.

• These achievements must not already be part of a performance agreement, a performance-related salary or associated with the performance of a function.

• Current performance-related remuneration must be terminated by the end of 30 June 2025 at the latest (compliance with the one-year waiting period in accordance with Section 5 (2) of the award guidelines).

Application

• The application form must be used, plus the third-party funding and publications annexes if applicable.

• Proposals must be submitted electronically to electronically.

• Only proposals submitted by the deadline of 17 July 2026 will be considered.

• The necessary comments from the Dean or Dean of Studies will be obtained by Division 1.

In addition, the Dean is authorised to nominate individuals for the award of special merit pay if they have not submitted a personal proposal.

A commission consisting of members of the Presidential Board, the Equal Opportunities Officer and members nominated by the School is responsible for assessing the performance. Payment of the performance-related remuneration is made for a period of three years and begins at the earliest after the Presidential Board has made its final decision. A total of 45 levels will be advertised in this award round. One level (currently 183.97 euros) can be awarded per category.

The following criteria apply to the assessment of achievements:

Research category

a) Acquisition of above-average third-party funding as the main applicant or in a responsible position when acquiring sub-projects.

The form "Annex third-party funding" must be completed.

• For the purposes of this call for proposals, third-party funding is exclusively competitive third-party funding. Funds from the state of Lower Saxony do not count as third-party funds.

• The project must be approved in the period from 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2026.

• The financial and cost centre must be specified.

• The national average per teaching and research area is used as the reference criterion for the required above-average amount of third-party funding raised.

• The third-party funding raised must be at least 10% above the current reference value from DESTATIS on a three-year average. These are annual values.

b) Special publication achievements according to the standards of the respective discipline.

The form "Annex Publications" must be completed. The following points must be observed:

• The publication must have taken place in the period from 01/07/2023 to 30/06/2026.

• The date of publication must be stated.

• The extent to which the respective publications have undergone a peer-review process or whether the monograph or edited volume was published by a recognised academic publisher must be stated.

• The extent to which the publications are qualitatively outstanding works for the respective discipline must be justified.

• Quality features can be, for example

  • Results that represent methodologically or theoretically new standards or findings in the field

  • Publications that are the subject of controversial debate among experts

  • Publications that have been published in journals that are ranked in the upper quartile (Q1) of the ranking of scientific journals (JCR) in your subject area

  • Publications that have a high rate of citations

  • Publications that are widely discussed in public, etc.

Proposals without justification cannot be considered.

Teaching and further education category

a) Significantly above-average performance in teaching and examination-related activities.

• The above-average nature of the achievements must be described in the proposal, e.g. quality of teaching, special teaching formats, number of examination achievements (Bachelor's and Master's theses), taking into account the overall commitment

• Only those achievements can be taken into account that lie outside the framework set by the Teaching Obligations Ordinance.

b) Acquisition of above-average third-party funding as the main applicant or in the case of acquisition of sub-projects in a responsible position.

The form "Annex third-party funding" must be completed.

• For the purposes of this call for proposals, third-party funding is exclusively competitive third-party funding. Funds from the state of Lower Saxony do not count as third-party funds.

• The project must be approved in the period from 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2026.

• The financial and cost centre must be specified.

• The above-average nature must be justified.

Category promotion of young talent

• Proof of special achievements through responsible participation, e.g. in Graduate Schools or in the Graduate Academy at the University of Oldenburg.

• In addition, other special achievements for the promotion of young researchers at the University of Oldenburg can be taken into consideration. The achievements and personal commitment to the promotion of young researchers must be justified in detail (proportion of personal contribution).