With the Athene Grant, the University of Tübingen particularly supports early career researchers (women, trans*, inter* and non-binary persons) in the postdoctoral phase and junior professors at the University of Tübingen.

Members of the Faculty of Medicine with a clinical/medical focus (Dr. med.) are not eligible to apply.

The intramural programme offers additional funds for research, which can be used flexibly, e.g. for assistants, conference participation or research organization. In addition, there is individual coaching related to the academic career and offers for the acquisition of science-related, interdisciplinary skills. Networking and the exchange of experiences among Athene participants are facilitated in the workshops that take place twice a year.

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January 1, 2024

We are currently in the 2024 - 2025 funding phase.

2 years.

We are currently in the 2024-2025 funding phase and are not accepting applications.

We are currently in the 2024-2025 funding phase and are not accepting applications.

Women encounter very specific problems during their studies, during their academic qualification and even as professors. Their difficulties are often attributed - even by themselves - to individual deficits, although they are actually rooted in their situation as women. Women are therefore in a fundamentally different situation to men when studying and working in academia. They always have to prove their individual performance against the background of a whole range of discriminatory factors. A mentoring program for women helps them to be aware of these discriminatory factors and to learn methods to deal with them successfully and to repeatedly name them as such in the university environment.

The Athene Mentoring Program is aimed at women from BA student to MA, PhD, postdoc, junior professor to professor  

Athene Mentoring supports women in pursuing an academic qualification, both if they see their future in academia and if they see their professional future outside academia.  

The focus is on the special situation of women in the academic system and at the university and on counteracting discrimination. 

The program is a so-called cascade mentoring, in which women from one qualification level are mentored by the level above them. The mentoring is intended to increase the proportion of women in Master's degrees, doctorates and ultimately professorships. Exit strategies from academia are also supported where necessary. The mentoring relationships are flanked by workshops for networking within the various career levels and for further training both in terms of general key qualifications and specifically on the situation of women in studies and science.

The aim of Athene Mentoring is to counter the loss of women in the course of academic qualification and to interest female students and academics in the next qualification levels at an early stage.  

The focus is on the special situation of women in the academic system and at the university and on counteracting discrimination. 

If you are interested in Athene Mentoring, please write directly to your faculty. Alternatively, you can write to us directly and we will pass you on!

Female* academics and students* from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities and the Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences can register for Athene Mentoring from now until November 30, 2023:

Anmeldebogen für die Philosohische Fakultät

Anmeldebogen für die Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftliche Fakultät

Athene Mentoring was launched in the winter semester 2021/22, with the Faculty of Catholic Theology, the Faculty of Arts and Humanities and the Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences initially participating. In the summer semester of 2022, the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences was added and in the summer semester of 2023 the Faculty of Law, so that almost all faculties now have the opportunity to participate in the Athene Mentoring Program.

• Cascade mentoring
• Target group: from BA student to MA, PhD student, postdoc, junior professor to professor  
• One-to-one mentoring
• Mentoring in the group  
• Basic module for mentor training
• Workshops for networking and further training of mentors and mentees
• Coordination of the central structure of the program by the Equal Opportunities Office
• Faculties set their own priorities
• Student assistants support the organization in the faculties

The program applies to all newly appointed female junior professors at the University of Tübingen from January 2020.

Please note that we finance 3 coaching sessions as part of the Athene Advanced Program. The first coaching at the beginning of the junior professorship, the second coaching after approx. two years and the third coaching in the fourth or fifth year or after the interim evaluation of the junior professorship. If the junior professors take advantage of additional coaching, they must bear the costs themselves.

Most coaching sessions take place online. You can decide this individually with the coaches.

Please send us an email. We will send you the list of coaches. You can then make an appointment for yourself. 

• Personnel recruitment and management, keyword: How do I find good personnel?
• Career development: How do I plan my next steps? How do I go about applying for a permanent professorship successfully and in good time?
• Networking: How do I network well and early on in the local, professional and international context in order to be well positioned for third-party funding and publications?
• How do I set my priorities with regard to a successful interim and final evaluation?
• Plan B: Leaving academia: What other career options are there?

Send us an email and we will be happy to send you the list of all coaches.

• Successful interim and final evaluation
• Tenure position at your own or another University

The aim of Athene Advanced, as well as Athene Grant and Athene Mentoring, is to support women on their path into academia and later to a professorship, starting with their studies through to a junior professorship.

Taking up a junior professorship is associated with high and sometimes new requirements. In addition to the expected research/publication output and acquisition of third-party funding, it is also necessary to set up your own courses, teach and supervise qualifying candidates and perform tasks in academic self-administration as well as further training (e.g. university didactics). All of this against the backdrop of very limited (professionally divergent) material resources. In addition, this biographical phase often coincides with starting a family or already having family responsibilities.