Junior Professorships

  © Mirko Krenzel für VolkswagenStiftung    

The Junior Professorship (W1) at RWTH offers early-career researchers the opportunity to undertake independent research, hone their research profile, and develop their own teaching concepts. With the qualification it provides, it offers an excellent career path towards becoming a tenured professor. In many disciplines, in particular in the natural and engineering sciences, it is considered an attractive alternative to the formal post-doctoral lecturing qualification (habilitation). Junior Professors are not subject to directives, as they are ranked to be at the same level as other university instructors.

To be eligible for appointment to a junior professorship, candidates not only need to have completed university studies and be skilled in teaching, but they must also have shown a special aptitude for scientific research, which, as a rule, can be demonstrated by having achieved a doctoral degree of outstanding quality. Junior professors are appointed for a duration of three years initially. After subsequent successful interim evaluation of the individual's performance and innovation capacity in teaching and research, the professorship is generally extended by another three years, up to six years in total. In exceptional cases there is the option of an additional year's extension after that.

We are committed to offering reliable career prospects to our outstanding scholars at RWTH.

Since 2017, RWTH has administered all tenure-track appointments of professorships in accordance with the Ordnung zum Tenure-Track-Verfahren (regulation for tenure-track faculty appointments). Generally, this includes all W1 professorships that – after a successful evaluation – are promoted to the rank of W2 permanent contract professorships.

In addition, we provide our Advanced Talents with various offers to support them both in their professional careers and personal development.