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Max Planck Research Award

Excellent scientists and scholars of all nationalities who are expected to continue producing outstanding academic achievements in international collaboration - not least with the assistance of this award - are eligible to be nominated for the Max Planck Research Award.

On an annually-alternating basis, the call for nominations addresses areas within the natural and engineering sciences, the life sciences, and the humanities.

The Max Planck Research Award 2011 will be awarded in the area of engineering sciences in the field of Intelligent Systems.

The deadline for nominations is 20 October 2010.

Intelligent systems integrate information acquisition and processing, as well as target-oriented action, also under diffuse boundary conditions. Research in engineering science that deals with intelligent systems focuses on, among other things, making rational and human cognitive performance and procedures available for artificial inanimate and bio-hybrid systems by machines.

Every year, the Humboldt Foundation and the Max Planck Society grant two research awards to one researcher working in Germany and one researcher working abroad.

The Presidents/Vice Chancellors of universities and the heads of research institutions in Germany are eligible to make nominations (c.f. list of eligible nominators). Direct applications are not accepted. As a rule, each award is endowed with 750,000 EUR and may be used over a period of three to a maximum of five years to fund research chosen by the award winner.

Other important details

Further information

  1. The nominee must be recognised internationally as an outstandingly qualified academic (e.g. awards, positive responses to publications, etc.).
  2. Expectation of continued outstanding academic achievements in international collaboration − not least with the assistance of the award.
  3. Nomination by a person entitled to make the nomination (c.f. list of eligible nominators).
  4. Expert reviews by important international and German collaborative partners and/or academics.
  5. The Humboldt Foundation assumes that candidates will abide by the Rules of Good Scientific Practice during the application and sponsorship periods.
Nominations must be submitted by 20 October 2010.


The deadline is not an exclusion date; however, it may not be possible to process nominations which arrive late or incomplete. The Selection Committee meeting will take place in Spring 2011. Reviewing the applications takes four to six months.

It is the nominator's responsibility to ensure that he or she has submitted all the necessary documents. Nominations not submitted as a single entity will take longer to process. The documents required in addition to the nomination documents, i.e. the confidential statements by the expert reviewers, can be submitted to the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation directly, at the same time as the nomination.

An independent Selection Committee composed of academic peers makes the final decision on the nominations received. The Selection Committee makes its decision solely on the basis of the nominees' academic qualifications.

Nominees will be notified about the Selection Committee's decision immediately after the meeting.

Further information

One of our hallmarks is the degree of support we try to provide for every single guest researcher. This is why we offer you extra benefits in addition to the award amount: from invitations to events to language courses.

Further information

Once an Humboldtian, always an Humboldtian: Even after your initial research stay has come to an end, we shall still maintain close contact with you. Our alumni sponsorship is flexible and designed to support every Humboldtian’s particular path in life and development as well as collaborations between individuals.

Further information