Evaluation of the German federal-state program for the promotion of young scientists

Within the framework of the Federal-Länder Program for the Promotion of Young Scientists (Nachwuchspakt), the aim was to create an alternative career path for young scientists that is characterized by better planning and security. Based on the tenure system already in use in Anglo-American countries, 1000 tenure-track professorships were chosen in two selection rounds (2017, 2019) at 75 universities, which will be funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research until 2032.

The aim of our project is to systematically compare W1 and W2 professorships that were regularly advertised by universities and those that were approved and advertised under the federal-state program. Specifically, the aim is to find out whether there are differences according to fields/disciplines, demographic characteristics (especially gender, social origin, academic age) as well as previous academic achievements (publications/third-party funding volume) in filling the positions.

In order to identify possible differences in the above dimensions between job holders of regularly advertised W1 and W2 professorships and job holders of W1 and W2 professorships advertised under the federal-state program, we will conduct a standardized survey of W1 and W2 professors in addition to a series of expert interviews with university employees in appointment management. To create the population/sampling frame, we plan to cooperate with the Deutsche Gesellschaft Juniorprofessur e.V. and the German Center for Research on Higher Education and Science (DZHW).