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Supervision, Topic and Funding

Thema / Topic

Thema / Topic
Image Credit: Marion Kuka

If the formal admission requirements from the doctoral regulations (Promotionsordnung) are fulfilled, a supervisor and a topic must be found before the start of the doctoral degree program and the financing clarified.


In order to register for your doctoral degree program, you must first find a supervisor (professor, whose primary employment is with the university, or privatdozent, Priv.-Doz.) in whose working group you can write your thesis.


You will find all the professors and adjunct professors who are eligible for this position in our department under:
Working groups of the Institute of Biology
Working groups of the Institute of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Working groups of the Institute of Pharmacy


If your supervisor is not a professor in our department, whose primary employment is with the university, you will need the commitment of such professor (list of professors at department BCP, whose primary employment is with the university) to act as second reviewer and head of the doctoral committee.


In addition, you can also do your work in an external working group, but you will need a second reviewer in any case at the time of registration, who must be the professor in our department with a primary employment with the university.


Supervisors who have not habilitated can submit an application in accordance with Section 6.3 of the doctoral regulations in order to be granted the right to act as supervisors or reviewers in this procedure. This presupposes that the person concerned acts as director, research group leader or similar. In the event of approval by the doctoral board, the rights and duties of the supervisor are regulated in a cooperation contract.

General information on the doctoral degree program at Freie Universität Berlin can be found here.

Information on funding opportunities for graduates (doctoral funding) can be found here.

Information on supervision can be found here.


Answers to frequently asked questions (FAQ) can be found here.

Read on for the next topic: Start of Work