Flexible childcare
Funding is available for services designed to help in situations where regular childcare or other family care arrangements are unavailable, whilst work commitments such as events are due to take place.
In partnership with the childcare agency KidsMobil, HU offers a temporary childcare service (e.g. in the existing family rooms) available to all staff members. This service is designed to make it easier for staff with children to carry out their work duties or attend events when their usual childcare arrangements are unavailable.
Similarly, in cooperation with the same provider, KidsMobil, HU offers a service providing individual emergency and out-of-hours childcare that is available to all staff. This usually takes place in the home environment.
This is intended to make it easier for, or enable, staff with children to carry out their work duties when regular childcare is not available. To use this service, confirmation of the work-related necessity from the relevant line manager is required.
Family fund
Each year, HU’s Family Fund provides financial support to help overcome structural barriers to balancing family life with studies, work and an academic career. The Fund’s allocation guidelines are based on HU’s understanding of the family, which recognises family wherever long-term social responsibility for dependants is assumed.
The Family-Friendly University Commission (KFH) decides on the allocation of funds.
Applications for measures 1, 2 and 4 can be submitted on an ongoing basis by email to the Family Equity Unit, which acts as the KFH’s administrative office.
Please submit all required documents in a single PDF file. All applications should be formulated using gender-neutral language. Applicants with disabilities may also submit their application in paper form.
Funding measures
Grants for childcare during stays abroad for doctoral students, postdoctoral researchers and professors, as well as technical, service and administrative staff at HU, provided that the funds available from the respective institutions or third-party funding bodies are insufficient to cover childcare costs.
Grants for childcare or the care of relatives in need of care for participants (professors, postdoctoral researchers, doctoral candidates, technical, service and administrative staff, and students) attending academic events (e.g. meetings, conferences, summer schools, workshops and congresses) outside the regular lecture period, or for professional development events outside core working hours, provided that these are not covered by nursery or after-school care and additional costs are incurred.
A grant may be awarded provided that the costs cannot be covered by other institutions (e.g. event organisers, third-party funding bodies, long-term care insurance, health insurance, government allowances, youth welfare offices).
Eligible applicants: Organisers of the respective event and all participants mentioned above who require childcare or care services for relatives in connection with or as a result of events.
Graduation grants for doctoral candidates and postdoctoral researchers at HU who have demonstrated academic excellence and are facing financial hardship, provided that they are unable to complete their degree within the prescribed timeframe for family reasons and, in the case of HU staff members, that there is no longer any possibility of employment under the WissZeitVG even when family circumstances are taken into account.
This funding covers a maximum period of six months plus a maximum of three months until the thesis defence. The monthly grant amounts to €1,365 (doctoral students) or €1,500 (postdoctoral researchers). The monthly family allowance is €400 for the first child and €100 for each additional child.
Eligibility: Doctoral candidates and postdoctoral researchers at HU, with or without prior employment at HU. Applicants who have already received or are currently receiving completion funding for their doctoral or postdoctoral studies from another source within or outside HU beyond the standard maximum funding period are excluded. Furthermore, the scholarship cannot be combined with a position of employment within or outside HU.
The call for applications for funding under this scheme is issued at least once a year and is announced publicly.
Funding to increase the working hours of a student assistant in order to support a research project where, due to pregnancy and maternity leave, it is not possible to carry out academic work, or only to a limited extent. A prerequisite is that the work cannot be carried out by staff funded by other institutions or from budgetary funds. (Given the minimum duration of research assistant positions, the application must be for an extension of an existing research assistant position.)
Eligibility:
All members of the HU who are pregnant or on maternity leave and who, as a result, are unable to carry out their research or other academic work as planned.