Procedure
Approval
As soon as your application has been approved, you and the aspirant will be notified via
e-mail. For non-EU citizens, the notification of approval will be given under the condition of a positive outcome of a check regarding foreign trade regulations. Attached to the e-mail there will be a Written Statement of Commitment. Please sign it and send it back via internal mail ("Hauspost"). The aspirant will receive a form for entering general information that will be needed to prepare all necessary documents for the Aspirant Grant (Doc). At a later point in time, the aspirant will receive an invitation letter that is needed for visa applications (if applicable). In order for KHYS to be able to make a payment to the aspirants, KIT needs to conclude a Grant Agreement with the aspirant. This document will be provided to the aspirants after their arrival at KIT.
Arrival/Visa
If the aspirant needs a visa for coming to Germany, he or she should apply for it in good time. For the Aspirant Grant (Doc) it will be sufficient to apply for a Schengen Visa (Category C) with the purpose of a research stay. Among other things, the aspirant will have to provide a proof of accommodation for the stay in Karlsruhe. However, it will not be necessary to register with the City of Karlsruhe for such short-term stays. Finding accommodation in Karlsruhe is very difficult, which is why the KIT doctoral researcher who serves as the aspirant’s buddy shall help him or her in this regard. For short-term stays, guests can book a room at ▶ KIT’s International Guest House or at the ▶ Gastdozentenhaus (house for guest lecturers). However, bookings have to be made well in advance. Additional accommodation possibilities are listed in the PDF file ▶ How to search for accommodation published by KIT International Affairs.
For any questions concerning the visa the aspirant should contact the respective German Embassy or German Consulate. KHYS will send out the invitation letter needed for the visa. Please note that the Category C visa cannot be extended. It is therefore not possible for the aspirant to extend his or her stay at KIT in order to actually start the doctoral project discussed during the stay. He or she will first have to leave Germany and apply for another visa.
Payment Arrangements
The process for the payment will be defined for each aspirant individually. As a rule, the reimbursement of the travel costs will take place once the stay has been concluded. This means that the aspirant will have to pay for the journey in advance. KHYS will directly assign and pay out the grant to the aspirant. The aspirant will receive a refund for the costs of the journey to Karlsruhe (flight/train/if applicable: visa) plus accommodation costs which should not exceed EUR 1,200 for the one month (higher costs need to be justified). The travel and accommodation costs will be reimbursed according to the provisions of the Baden-Württemberg travel expenses law (Landesreisekostengesetz, LRKG). The reimbursement will generally take place once the travel accounting process has been concluded. For more information, please refer to the ▶ FAQ.
Duty to Report
Please note that the aspirant will have to send us a final report within four weeks after the aspirant’s stay at KIT. Templates for the report will be made available. The obligation to submit a report is a compulsory part of the Aspirant Grant (Doc). Please note that for evaluation reasons it is also necessary that you notify us should the Aspirant Grant (Doc) result in an actual doctoral project at KIT. In addition to the report, KHYS will send you a link to an anonymous online evaluation regarding general aspects of the funding measure.
