Promoting early career plant biology scientists

To support young researchers is an important objective of our society. To do so the Society has developed several instruments, such as prizes, travel allowances, sponsoring of meetings and participation of young scientists at conferences.

The DBG awards several prizes:

• The Wilhem Pfeffer Prize is being awarded biennially from funds of the Wilhelm-Pfeffer-Foundation for an outstanding PhD Thesis.
• The Prize for the Best Publiaction will be awarded yearly from funds of the Wilhelm Pfeffer Foundation.
• The Horst Wiehe Prize ("Förderpreis der Horst-Wiehe-Stiftung") is being awarded every second year for an outstanding scientific work in the field of Botany.
• On the occasion of the 100^th anniversary of the first edition of the "Lehrbuch für Botanik" by E. Strasburger, F. Noll, H. Schenk and A.F.W. Schimper, the "Strasburger Prize" was created in 1994. It is being awarded every second year for an outstanding and especially original botanical work of a scientist less than 35 years old, is endowed with 2.500 Euros and is supported by the publishing house Springer Spektrum.

Prize for the Best Plant Science Master Thesis is awarded every year at every participating university.

Young plant scientists are invited to organise a Eduard Strasburger Workshop to foster the interdisciplinary scientific exchange of expertise and networking. It will be organised by young scientists for young scientists under the auspices of a scientific institution, shall last for two about days and be addressed to 25-40 participants. Upon approval by the board the DBG offers up to 5,000 Euros for this.

Moreover DBG also offers Eduard Strasburger-Workshops focussing on Hot Topics.

On application the DBG gives travel grants to students and young scientists presenting an oral paper or a poster at the congress "Botanik-Tagung - International Conference of the German Society for Plant Sciences". The applicants must be members of the DBG. The deadlines concerning the travel grants are announced in DBG's newsletter and in the Intranet.

Members, especially early career plant scientists, can receive funding for visiting another lab or institute. For example to leant new methods and  scientific techniques or to initiate a new pilot study. Funding is restricted to those who will not receive funding elsewhere. DBG offers up to 50 travel grants each year for early career plant scientists of up to 400 Euros each. Our Executive Board reviews the applications and gives you feedback about its decision (normally within one week).

Requirements

• You must be a member of the DBG (membership applications are possible any time and also retroactively: become a member for two years)
• PhD students and PostDocs within five years after graduation are entitled to apply
• The visit lasts at least four workdays
• A fixed sum of max. 80 Euros each day for travel costs and accommodation will be refunded up to the max. of 400 Euros in total
• Applicants show the invitation of the lab that will be visited
• Applicants confirm that they have no other sufficient funding source
• Applicants will provide evidence of expenses with receipts after the visit
• Applicants confirm that they will declare their travel expenses and DBG’s Travel Grant in their tax declaration (Multiple financial support is excluded)
• After the lab visit DBG will publish the names of Travel Grant recipients together with the names of their home and the lab visited on its website.

Procede to our application form in the Intranet (LogIn required)

The society sponsorsthe attendance of young scientists at such meetings and conferences that focus on young scientists upon application.

For many years the society supported the RISE program (Research Internship in Science and Engineering) of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD): young scientists from abroad and Great Britain do research at a Germany university together with German Ph.D. candidates. And German students can apply for an internship in Northamerica.

At the moment the DBG is not involved in the RISE program.