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LMU Completion Grant

In a competitive selection process, LMU Munich awards completion grants for outstanding doctoral candidates on the verge of finalizing their thesis, who have no other source of funding for the requested period. The stipend amounts to 1,350 Euro per month. The completion grant can be awarded for up to 6 months, depending on the previous funding of the candidate:

  • Doctoral candidates who have already received 3.5 years of funding for their doctoral project (this includes employments, stipends, or similar in Germany or abroad) are eligible to apply only in exceptional academic cases and only for a maximum of 3 months. The academic reasons why the dissertation was not completed during the 3.5-year funding period must be explained in detail.
  • Doctoral candidates who have received less than 3.5 years of funding for their doctoral project, may apply for up to 6 months.
Program objective Support for outstanding doctoral researchers on the verge of finalizing their thesis. Submission of the dissertation should be envisaged at the end of the funding period. Applications for intermediate funding cannot be considered. For a cumulative doctoral thesis, the required publications (according to the regulations applicable to the respective faculty) need to be already sufficiently completed so that the finalization of the dissertation during the funding period is possible.
Target group Doctoral candidates of LMU Munich with a university degree qualifying them for the doctorate who have no other source of funding for the requested period
Mode of support Stipend
Amount 1,350 Euro per month (no additional funding for family allowance, insurance allowances, any additional travel and material expenses etc.)
Income Any other income over 350 Euro per month ("brutto", pre-taxes) will be fully deducted from the scholarship.
Duration
  • up to 3 months for doctoral candidates who have already received 3.5 years of funding for their doctoral project
  • up to 6 months for all other candidates

Funding is only possible until submission of the thesis, but not for the preparation of the defense.
Application The application must be submitted via the GraduateCenterLMU Portal.

Please prepare the following documents:

  • CV including information about previous academic achievements (e.g. talks, publications, awards or participation in conferences) and employments
  • University degree certificate entitling you to a doctorate
  • Letter of motivation including a project outline for the requested funding period and reasons for the application (max. 1,000 words)
  • Detailed work and time schedule for the remaining time until thesis completion (in tabular form)

To complete your application, you will need two academic reference letters, which must include an assessment of the current status of your work, the feasibility of your work plan and timetable, as well as your academic qualifications and the quality of your doctoral project.

One letter must be written by your first supervisor. It should also contain a confirmation that financing from funds of the chair/institute/department and, if applicable, further financing from an ongoing third-party funded project is not possible.

The second letter must be written by another academic advisor (Professor or Privatdozent (PD)).

Your first supervisor respectively the second academic advisor must send their reference letters directly to the GraduateCenterLMU by email in due time (graduatecenter@lmu.de).

Before you request the reference letters, please start your application in the GraduateCenterLMU Portal so that we can assign incoming reference letters to your application. (The application must only be submitted by the application deadline).
 Contact For inquiries concerning the LMU Completion Grant, please write an email to graduatecenter@lmu.de.
Application deadlineFunding period
June 15, 2025 September 1, 2025 – March 31, 2026
October 15, 2025 January 1, 2026 – July 31, 2026
Important notes:
  • Only complete applications that are submitted in due time will be considered.
  • The reference letters must be received by the GraduateCenterLMU in due time.
  • The evaluation process takes approximately 6 to 8 weeks.
  • On accepting the grant, scholarship holders agree to submit an informal final report (approx. 2 pages) within 6 weeks after the end of the individual funding period, which shortly describes the finalization of the dissertation. The report has to be signed by the scholarship holder and countersigned by the first supervisor.
  • Please note that in case of rejection we cannot elaborate on the reasons for the decision.
  • It is not possible to reapply.
  • Doctoral candidates who receive an LMU Completion Grant cannot also receive an LMU Travel Grant during the funding period.