In Germany, several qualification paths lead to a professorship. The junior professorship was established in Germany in 2002 as an alternative qualification path to the previously common habilitation. The junior professorship is usually a six-year fixed-term position and is similar to the lifetime professorship. It enables academics to achieve early independence and autonomy in research. This position is being evaluated after three years. So-called tenure-track professors are transferred to a lifetime professorship after a positive interim evaluation.

As a junior research group leader, you manage a group of researchers over a period of several years (usually five years) and supervise your own doctoral students. These qualification positions are financed by third-party funds and are characterized by professor-like autonomy in the organization of research and teaching. During this time, they acquire the necessary qualifications for appointment to a lifetime professorship at a very early stage.

The University of Oldenburg supports junior professors and junior research group leaders during this phase, in which they often take on leadership roles for the first time or manage their own chair or research group.

All support and qualification offers are listed here.

Leadership in Academia Programme

Certificate „Qualification in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education”

Mentoring: „Progressio. Successfully shaping top positions in science”

Appointment management

Funded junior research groups