The BIH Johanna Quandt Professorships are W2 temporary professorships with full tenure track. They are funded by Berlin Institute of Health and Stiftung Charité. With these professorships, Berlin Institute of Health (BIH) and the shared research area of Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin (Charité) and Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC) are to be further developed. What makes these new professorships special is that they are tailored to women academics and feature a special thematic openness. The decisive factors are the translational and systems medicine orientation of their professorships and their innovative and interdisciplinary design.
Funding volume
With the funding line BIH Johanna Quandt Professorships, two new BIH professorships with the W2 salary group are being established. Appointment to the professorship is via a joint appointment by BIH and Charité. There is a once-off temporary appointment for a period of five years with the opportunity of a fully tenured chair with a W2 or W3 salary group. The total limited period of five years is determined with the first appointment; there is no option for an extension of the limited period later on and for a subsequent delay in the continuation of the professorship as a life tenure professorship.
Each BIH Johanna Quandt Professorship receives funding by Stiftung Charité and BIH of up to 500,000 Euroa year, limited to a period of five years in all.
Women clinicians can, for example, also be appointed on a salaried employee basis. Remuneration will then be in line with the above-mentioned salary groups for civil servants.
Eligibility requirements
BIH Johanna Quandt Professorships can be applied for by experienced women scientists from the fields of translational, systems medicine research themselves. The applicants have to be able to demonstrate their suitability for appointment with corresponding academic achievements in research, teaching and knowledge transfer.
Proposal and assessment criteria
The proposal for the funding of a BIH Johanna Quandt Professorship consists of two parts.
The first part is to provide proof of the applicant’s academic achievements and qualifications. The applicant must demonstrate that she is not only suitable for appointment but has performed outstandingly in her field of translation and systems medicine in the areas of research, teaching, and transfer.
The second part consists of the applicant’s concept for the BIH Johanna Quandt Professorship. It is to demonstrate
- the contents the professorship is to focus on and
- how, from the applicant’s perspective, the professorship, with the contents it is oriented on, can contribute to realizing the guiding notion of BIH of translational and systems medicine research.
All proposal forms have to be handed in until 31 March 2016 via the BIH application portal. (The link will be provided on this webpage from 1 February 2016.)
When applying, and in the case of funding being approved, the Rules of Safeguarding Good Scientific Practice of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft as well as the ethical principles of the European Union’s Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (Horizon 2020), including the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity, are to be observed. In addition, the Stiftung Charité approval principles apply.
Selection procedure
Stiftung Charité announces the funding offer, receives the proposals and subsequently conducts a science-guided selection procedure consisting of the following steps:
1.
The BIH Board issues a statement on whether and to what extent the professorship proposed by the applicant fits into the existing organizational structure and general structural and profile development. This statement is to be used in a pre-selection by the Academic Advisory Council of the Private Excellence Initiative Johanna Quandt.
2.
The proposals are subjected to an independent expert appraisal. The details of the expert appraisal procedure are determined by the Academic Advisory Council of the Private Excellence Initiative Johanna Quandt. In each case, it appoints a selection committee comprising the following members:
- the BIH Chief Executive Officer,
- the Chairman of the MDC Board of Directors,
- the Dean of Charité,
- one scientist each to be appointed by BIH, by Charité and by MDC and
- approx. three to five external experts (depending on the number and content scope of the proposals).
3.
The Academic Advisory Council of the Private Excellence Initiative Johanna Quandt takes the funding decision on the basis of the expert appraisal. Funding is announced pending the successful appointment of the applicant to a W2 temporary professorship (limited once-off for a period of five years) with the option of a subsequent continuation as a W2 or W3 life tenure professorship. Funding is only approved when this condition has been met.
The funding decision having been taken, BIH and Charité hold responsibility for the joint appointment (for instance via waiver of announcement and direct appointment), for the subsequent appointment procedures and the appointment itself. In the course of the appointment procedures, a binding decision has to be taken on the tenure track model to be chosen for the candidate to be appointed and on where and how the chair is budgeted after the five-year period.
Stiftung Charité funding commences with the appointed applicant taking office. Assumption of office ought to be twelve months after the positive funding decision by Stiftung Charité at the latest.