German research fellowship programme

The Leibniz-DAAD Research Fellowship Programme, launched in 2011, makes it possible for up to 15 top international postdocs to engage in research for a year at one of the 87 institutes of the Leibniz Association.

The scholarship programme of the Leibniz Association and the DAAD targets qualified postdocs from all over the world who wrote their PhD no longer than two years ago.

They can apply for a fellowship direct to the DAAD. This fellowship aims to provide opportunity to highly qualified junior scientists to groom into scientific leaders of the future and potential partners for future cooperation.


Professor Karl Ulrich Mayer, President of the Leibniz Association elaborates, “Leibniz and the DAAD complement each other perfectly in what they offer and what they need, so it really makes sense for them to work together.

The Leibniz Association has exciting research facilities to offer at institutions with a high international reputation, but the Leibniz brand is not yet as well-known internationally as it could be, given our institutes’ degree of excellence. We are therefore working on raising our international profile. The DAAD, for its part, has an excellent international network through which we can publicise our services all over the world.

The DAAD has the infrastructure and the systems for looking after scholarship holders well, and all our ‘Leibniz-DAAD research fellows’ benefit fully from the DAAD’s support services for fellows and alumni. The Leibniz Institutes then take care of the people and what is most important to them: the research.” More information can be found at: www.daad.de/leibniz

Max Planck Society expands cooperation with India
The foundation of the Indo-German Max Planck Center on Lipid Research is strengthening cooperation between Germany and India in the field of biological-medical research. The leading partners in the Center, which was opened in Bangalore, at the end of September 2011, are the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG) in Dresden and the National Centre of Biological Sciences (NCBS) in Bangalore. The new establishment is already the second Max Planck Center in India.

The research focus of the Max Planck Center on Lipid Research is the systematic analysis of all the fat molecules in different organisms. The researchers wish to study how different processes take place within a cell and how the cells of individual organs and, ultimately, the organs themselves work together.

“We would like to analyse the complete inventory of lipids in different cells and organisms in order to be able to develop instruments that use lipidomics for biological system analysis and for the study and treatment of diseases,” explains Professor Marino Zerial, director at MPI-CBG and one of the two responsible heads of the new institution.

When it comes to research, an expansion of cooperation is being considered to involve the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin, the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam and the Institute of Life Sciences in Bhubaneswar.

In addition, the researchers are building on collaboration with Max Planck institutes that are successfully working in the field of lipid chemistry and chemical companies. A research group in Dresden and Berlin is being planned during the start-up phase. An already established research group is being involved in Bangalore and an additional group is being set up.