Alternative career options
Open Field
The clue is in the name: the open-field professorship offers freedom of choice. Ruhr University Bochum provides two of these unrestricted professorships to each faculty, in addition to regular professorships. The faculties have thus the chance to offer a tenure option to renowned researchers and outstanding early career researchers who have secured high-quality third-party funding.
Which third-party funding schemes may qualify for an open-field professorship?
- Heisenberg professorships awarded by the German Research Foundation (DFG)
- DFG Emmy Noether research groups
- Starting, Consolidator und Advanced Grants awarded by the European Research Council (ERC)
- Sofja Kovalevskaja grants awarded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
- Lichtenberg professorships awarded by the Volkswagen
An open-field professorship is tailor-cut to match the individual researcher’s academic profile and is firmly integrated in the faculty. The faculties are free to allocate the two additional W2 (in exceptional cases W3) professorships as they choose. Once external funding expires, the Rectorate takes over the respective professorial position, while the faculty finances the employee. If the holder leaves Ruhr University Bochum, the faculty can reallocate the professorship.
