Visiting Scholars and Scholarships

Since 2021, the GWZO has awarded scholarships to doctoral students, post-doctoral researchers and senior academics or researchers with comparable positions and achievements from the institute’s region of interest. Funding is available for research projects on the history and culture of Eastern Europe from the early Middle Ages to the present day. The funding aims to promote the development of new research projects or project ideas in close cooperation with researchers at the GWZO.

• Mobility Grants: The GWZO supports the implementation of ongoing research projects for a period of up to three months, provided the sources and literature require doing research in Germany.
• Research Start-Up Grants: The GWZO provides three-month research start-up grants to support the development of new and promising research projects within the institute's scope of work.
• Short-Term Scholarships: Lasting up to one month, short-term scholarships support doctoral candidates co-supervised (e.g. cotutelle) by GWZO staff at the University of Leipzig and scholars at universities elsewhere in (Eastern) Europe.

Applications are open annually for scholarships taken in the following academic year (1 October to 30 September) and remain open until 30 April of each year.

In 2026, the Leibniz Institute for History and Culture of Eastern Europe (GWZO) will award two to three additional scholarships of up to nine months each for the GWZO's Department IV »Knowledge and Participation« in Prague. 

Research start-up scholarships for promising project ideas on the topic of knowledge and archives of migration as well as on the knowledge of groups that are marginalized due to their ethnicity or history of migration are particularly welcome. Preference will be given to projects in which these actors are actively involved in the research or those that explore their historical participation in the production of knowledge and science. 

The application requirements and general rules for GWZO scholarships apply in accordance with the scholarship regulations of the Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe (GWZO). Here you can find a description of the focus and subject areas of the »Knowledge and Participation« department. Applications can be submitted until March 15, 2026, to foerderung@leibniz-gwzo.de.

The GWZO’s visiting scholars programme enables the institute to invite researchers, primarily from Eastern Europe, to Leipzig for shorter stays. The programme also supports practical, joint work on the institute’s research topics. We especially welcome conceptual and methodological impulses from the region of research. Visiting scholars are given the opportunity to present their research, take part in the host department’s meetings and discuss ideas for collaborative projects with the scientists on site. The visiting scholars programme highlights the Institute’s function as a hub and interface for international academic exchange with Eastern Europe.