A W1 professorship is a possible qualification phase in your academic career following on from a doctoral degree. W1 professors cover the tasks of a professorship and thereby gain the experience and qualifications they need for appointment to a full professorship.
Framework conditions for W1 professorships
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- W1 professorships allow early career researchers to gain the qualifications required to be appointed as a professor at a university. As a rule, it is considered equivalent to completing a habilitation.
- W1 professors are counted as academic staff and are university lecturers.
As a rule, they are employed as public servants for a fixed term and can use the title “professor” for the duration of this time.
They are entitled to award doctoral degrees and set examinations.
FAU provides them with initial funding.
They have the possibility of being promoted to a W2 or W3 professorship (tenure track).
They are not authorized to submit reviews in appointment procedures or assessments in evaluation procedures.
As a W1 professor, you will receive support from a mentor who is not from your subject.
Your mentor will support you with fulfilling the requirements of the target agreement and guide and advise you on preparing for your future academic role.
Timeline of an assistant professorship at FAU
1st step
Call for applications
Like all other professorships, W1 professorships are advertised via public calls for applications, usually internationally.
If you have any questions about a specific call for applications for a W1 professorship, please contact the person stated in the call for applications.
FAU members can find more information on the intranet.
Current call for applications at FAU
2nd step
Appointment
In order to be appointed as a W1 professor, you must have completed a doctoral degree (at most 4 years after completing your doctoral degree; for medicine and clinical psychology at the most 7 years after completing your doctoral degree) and you must show that you have the potential for excellent and innovative research suggesting you are suitable for an career in academia.
A W1 professorship entails two phases after appointment.
FAU conducts its appointment procedures using a web-based portal..
The appointment procedure at FAU
3rd step
The target agreement
Before your appointment, the Dean will set out a target agreement with you that contains the framework for the entire duration of your professorship.
The purpose of the agreement is to establish the expectations and standards to be met during the evaluation with quantifiable evaluation criteria and optionally a schedule. The criteria depend on whether your W1 professorship is linked to a tenure track.
This target agreement forms the basis for your interim evaluation, and in the case of a tenure track, a modified version of the agreement is the basis for the tenure evaluation.
Template for a target agreement at FAU (takes you to the FAU intranet)
4th step
The interim evaluation
An interim evaluation is held at the end of the first phase. The evaluation assesses your achievements to date and forms the basis for extending the professorship. The steps to be taken to implement and ensure quality standards are governed in the Tenure Track Regulations.
FAU’s Tenure track regulations
5th step
After the interim evaluation
After completing your interim evaluation, you receive qualified feedback about the progress of your professorship to date during a personal meeting.
In the event of a positive interim evaluation, your contract is extended for up to a total duration of eight years, provided you agree.
In the event of a negative interim evaluation, a transitory period of up to one year may be offered, provided you agree.
6th step
Tenure track
W1 professorships at FAU are either offered as a fixed-term or as a tenure-track position, depending on the particular situation. The university can offer a W1 professorship in conjunction with a tenure track, although at FAU the tenure track is not dependent on a certain position being available in the budget.
The tenure evaluation which is equivalent to a call for applications is subject to the TT Regulations and should only be initiated once the interim evaluation has been completed successfully.
Advice, continuing education, support
Services for W1 professors
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FAU offers a program for new professors – FAUonboarding – to help you get off to the best possible start and make it easier for you to settle into your busy and demanding job at the University. The program for professors from all faculties is offered over and above the activities the individual faculties offer to newly appointed professors and is aimed at giving a bigger picture of the various services and facilities available at FAU for research, teaching, human resources, administration, PR and knowledge transfer. The program offers you the perfect opportunity to find out all about our University and meet the various points of contact across FAU.
Appointments and Appointment Procedures is available to answer any administrative questions you may have during the appointment procedure and regarding the interim evaluation.
With its Dual Career Service, FAU supports the partners of newly appointed professors in continuing their career in the region.
FAU’s Dual Career Service/Dual Career Netzwerk Nordbayern (DCNN)
Yvonne Eder
Administrative staff
Contact
If you are a new W1 professor at FAU, you are sure to have a lot of questions about your daily work. The Dean’s Office at your faculty is available to give you help and advice.
Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences, and Theology
Volker Barnickel
Head
Contact
If you have any questions about the School of Theology, please contact fb-theol@fau.de.
Faculty of Business, Economics, and Law
School of Law
School Administration: School of Law (Erlangen) Phone: +49 9131 85-29397
Email:jura-dekanat@fau.de
School of Business, Economics and Society
Dean’s secretary’s office
Phone: +49 911 5302-95650
Email:wiso-dekanat@fau.de
Faculty of Medicine
Heidi Kurth
Administrative staff
Contact
Faculty of Sciences
Michaela Brunner
Administrative staff
Contact
Faculty of Engineering
If you have any questions regarding the research process, FAU offers special services for researchers where you can receive advice and support on the topics of funding and drafting proposals, start-up funding for proposals, project proposals and project implementation, knowledge and technology transfer, early career support, publishing and open access, science communication, and research and work in general.
Advice at the Faculties
For subject-specific questions, we would recommend contacting the research coordinators at the various faculties and schools
Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences, and Theology
Dr. Cordula Glass
Research associates
Contact
Dr. Robert Fischer
Research associates
Contact
Faculty of Business, Economics, and Law
Dr. Dennis Kirchberg
Research associates
Contact
Faculty of Medicine
Dr. rer. nat. Anja Goldmann
Staff
Contact
Faculty of Sciences
Patrik Stör
Resarch and Internationalisation
Contact
Faculty of Engineering
At FAU, early career researchers drive innovation, societal progress and academic excellence. In our opinion, helping talented early career researchers to gain further qualifications, providing financial support, and accompanying them on their individual career path is our key task.
The career program FAUnext
FAU considers the education and training of staff with high potential as one of its greatest obligations and most important opportunities.
The career program FAUnext supports excellent postdoctoral researchers, FAU heads of junior research groups and W1 professors in all the important areas of their career phase.
In our lunch talk series FAUnext4all, we invite guest speakers to hold brief presentations on specific topics that are of interest to the target group of postdoctoral researchers and assistant professors (W1).
With the Emerging Talents Initiative (FAUeti), FAU supports excellent early career researchers (postdoctoral researchers to W1 professors before their interim evaluation) in applying for external funding.
This should give early career researchers the possibility to promote an innovative project independently and extend their academic independence.
Contact: eti@fau.de
Contact
Dr. Silke Schnurbusch
Postdoc support, FAUnext, Coaching