With funding from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the Jacobs Foundation and in cooperation with various Leibniz institutes the newly-founded “College for interdisciplinary Education Research” offers the opportunity of interdisciplinary career advancement to 30 excellent junior scientists in educational science, psychology, economics and sociology during the early post-doctoral stage. Over a period of 2 years (in exceptional cases: 3 years), the College offers a range of activities for the advancement of interdisciplinary cooperation and methodological training in quantitative educational research.
The main shared research areas of the College are:
- educational inequality and success against the odds
- competence development as an educational and social process
- returns to education
The college starts on March 1, 2013. Although the fellowships do not provide funding for employment, they offer funding for participation in multiple activities of the College, including research collaboration, various forms of training, and networking (see www.ciderweb.org). At the end of the first year, the fellows may apply for 7 post-doc-positions (from March 2014 to February 2016) to work on their own projects at one of participating Leibniz institutes. These 7 positions will be awarded in a competitive process.
The participating Leibniz institutes are: German Institute for International Educational Research (DIPF, Prof. Dr. E. Klieme), German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin, Prof. Dr. C.K. Spieß), Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education (IPN, Prof. Dr. O. Köller), GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences (Prof. Dr. B. Rammstedt), Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB, Prof. Dr. H. Solga) and Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW, PD. Dr. F. Pfeiffer).
The working language of the College will be English.
More detailed information about the College can be found on this website: www.ciderweb.org
Required qualifications:
- Pre- or post-doctoral status (ABD doctoral students or postdoctoral scholars no more than 12 months after receiving their PhD)
- Current employment (incl. scholarships) at a university in Germany or Europe or research institution
- Completed research in the field of education or education-related issues
- High interest in interdisciplinary cooperation on quantitative-empirical research projects (within the College)
- Above-average degree in one of the following disciplines: educational research, psychology, economics or sociology
- High skills in quantitative methods of empirical social research
- Excellent written and spoken English

Application documents:
- CV and publication list
- Credentials (transcripts)
- Meaningful letter of interest (in English) with reference to at least one of the College’s three main research areas
- Two letters of reference (from senior researcher or other academic advisor)
- One published paper or a dissertation chapter (draft or completed)
Disabled candidates with equal qualifications will be given preference; the WZB expressly invites women and persons with immigrant background to apply.
Candidates are kindly requested to submit their application and the usual accompanying documentation to:
Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB)
Dr. Christian Brzinsky-Fay
Application documents have to be submitted in English (letters of references are also possible in German) electronically no later than October 25, 2012. Acceptance notifications will be sent until January 31, 2013.