FAU consistently promotes outstanding young researchers by appointing them to W1 professorships, thus enabling them to teach and carry out research independently. A W1 professorship is one form of the postdoctoral qualification phase of an academic career. W1 professors carry out the same range of tasks as full professors, thus becoming eligible for an appointment to a professorship with tenure.

The innovative input of W1 professors serves to enhance key research priorities, benefits teaching and the supervision of young researchers and W1 professors also undertake administrative duties.

At FAU, W1 professorships may be fixed-term appointments or tenure-track appointments according to circumstances. Highly competitive appointment procedures are employed in the case of W1 professorships that conform to the stringent quality standards at FAU, the aim being to recruit the best possible young researchers from within Germany and abroad.

W1 professorships are one of the target groups within the “Develop Your Talent at FAU“ personnel development strategy. This strategy emphasises aspects of evaluation and appointment procedures, in addition to the candidate’s subject-specific and general teaching and leadership-related qualifications. W1 professors receive initial start-up funding from FAU.