Frequently Asked Questions

  • The RTG will fund two cohorts of PhD students in its first funding phase. A first cohort of eleven students will start in October 2024 and a second cohort of eleven students will start in October 2026.

    In addition, we will associate approximately 25 PhD students and postdocs from the Departments of Psychology and Educational Sciences who are working on thematically related research projects with the RTG. These students and postdocs will also participate in the RTG activities and contribute to the vibrant research environment we aim to create.

    All PhD students will be employed by Saarland University and will receive four-year contracts at the E13 75% salary scale. This corresponds to an annual salary of approximately €39,000.
    Saarland University also offers an occupational health management model (including university sports programme), a supplementary pension scheme and a discounted job ticket.

  • By the time you begin your PhD, you should have an MSc degree in psychology or a related discipline. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule:

    First, you do not need to hold the MSc degree at the time of application, but in your application you should convincingly argue that you will have completed your MSc by the time you join the RTG or shortly afterwards.


    Second, the Faculty of Human and Business Sciences at Saarland University allows for a fast-track dissertation for excellent students who finished their BSc degree, provided some conditions are met. Should you consider this possibility, please contact us at info@flexbar.org.


    Your English language skills should be at the C1 level.

  • Once you have submitted your application, we will review your application in detail.


    We will then invite a shortlist of candidates to an in-person interview visit in Saarbrücken. You will give a presentation about your research to date (e.g., your master’s thesis) and meet one-on-one with some of the senior researchers in the RTGs. You will also have the opportunity to speak informally with the members of the research group of the senior researcher of the project that interests you most. We will reimburse your travel expenses to Saarbrücken. If an in-person interview is not possible for you, we can also interview you via MSTeams.

  • Each student in the RTG will have two senior researchers as their PhD supervisors. Your primary supervisor will be the senior researcher of the project to which you have been admitted to. The secondary supervisor for each project can be found in the research project descriptions.

  • Your position as a PhD student will be funded for four years, and this cannot be easily extended. However, four years is a realistic and comfortable time period; most other third-party research projects are funded for a maximum of three years. Your supervisors will guide you and support you in your endeavor to complete your research and write your dissertation before the four years are up. Obviously, beyond the support of your supervisor, this will also strongly depend on your commitment and dedication to the goal to finish on time.

    We have built some guardrails into the RTG to make it more likely that you will finish within four years. You will meet with your supervisor on a regular basis, typically every two weeks. You will also have regular meetings with your secondary supervisor and your mentor at longer intervals. After six months, you will write a dissertation proposal with a timeline. After 18 and 30 months, you will write progress reports. Of course, you will discuss the proposal and the reports with your supervisors, and they will help you solve any problems that may arise. There will be various other support structures within the RTG that you can harness to complete your dissertation on time.

  • We strongly believe that PhD students benefit from spending time in different research environments, both in terms of broadening their scientific horizons and in terms of personal growth. Therefore, in addition to conference visits and summer schools, we fund a (typically) three-month research visit for each PhD student to a national or international research site of their choice.


    The RTG will frequently host guests from around the world. Students will benefit from spending time with these guests, and will be encouraged to suggest guests who should be invited. Students will also have the opportunity to work with our Mercator Fellow, Einat Levy-Gigi, during her visits to Saarbrücken.


    You will have the opportunity to employ BSc and MSc students as research assistants to support your work. If you wish, you may have the opportunity to teach a class in the BSc or MSc psychology study programs and supervise BSc or MSc theses, but this is voluntary.


    In addition to the two PhD supervisors, each student will also be assigned a senior researcher from within the RTG as a mentor. The mentor will be a point of contact for topics such as self-organization and career advice, and can help in case of conflicts. We also aim to increase the proportion of female researchers, and will implement a number of measures to support the careers of our female PhD students.

  • Yes! The working language in the RTG will be English. We anticipate that many of our PhD students will speak German, but that there will also be a number PhD students from countries that do not speak German. So, please apply for a position that you find attractive if you speak English at the C1 Level or better.


    If you don’t speak German but would like to learn it, the university offers free language courses that you can attend. Speaking at least some German will make it easier for you to participate fully in the social and cultural life around you.

  • Saarbrücken is the capital of the German state of Saarland and a decent sized city of about 180,000 people. The French border is just a few kilometers away and easily accessible by local train. You can get to Paris in less than two hours on the train, Luxembourg is an hour’s drive away, and Frankfurt (including the big airport) can be easily reached by train in less than two hours as well.


    Saarbrücken has a lively culture scene, ranging from opera and ballet to swing dancing and from the night life in the Nauwieser Viertel to chilling by the Saar river in the summer and going for hikes in the countryside. Saarbrücken hosts the annual Saar Music Festival and the Max Ophüls Film Festival, one of the most prestigious German-language movie festivals.


    The living expenses in Saarbrücken are moderate, especially compared to bigger cities like Munich or Berlin, and you will live quite comfortably with your salary as a PhD student.