Thinking outside the box or: our ideational support

Of course, money is important and that is why we strive to keep the bureaucratic hurdles for subsidies for stays abroad, research cost allowances and the like as low as possible. However, a scholarship also offers a whole cosmos of opportunities that go far beyond your own studies.

As a scholarship holder, you are part of the liberal family. This does not mean that you are a member of a political party. Rather, we would like to share our values and views with you and discuss major political issues as well as philosophical trends and specific current affairs. To be able to do this in a well-founded manner and to enable you to pursue a broad range of interdisciplinary training, we offer all newly accepted scholarship holders basic seminars on the history of liberalism. In addition, you can take part in all workshops, conferences and evening events from our political education department . Regardless of whether you are at your university, your place of residence, or on the #zauberberg, the Theodor Heuss Academy in Gummersbach, as a scholarship holder, you are very welcome at all Foundation events.

The scholarship-based annual cycle includes at least three highlights: the international academy, the domestic academy and the joint summer academy of the talent programme. 20 scholarship holders take part in each of the academies; they usually last a week and  offer you an intensive introduction to a topic. Each of you should have participated in at least one of the academies during the scholarship. The experiences are formative and, in many cases, have laid the foundation for friendships.

What makes us unique: our scholarship holder self-administration

What makes the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom's scholarship so special? We currently have 18 working groups and initiatives that are founded, organized, and developed by scholarship holders. The topics range from education to entrepreneurs and international politics to the queer_feminism initiative. They are represented by coordinators who are newly elected every year. The working groups and initiatives organize national meetings, subject-specific seminars and are the source of ideas for the international, domestic, and summer academies. At the annual convention, all fellows come together to choose the fellow’s council and the proposed seminars and academies from among their ranks. We, the staff of the scholarship department, support you financially, with seminar rooms and with our network of experts - you determine the content!

And what else?

Our scholarship holders are also active as contact persons at their universities. They are present at fairs and information events at universities, universities of applied sciences and schools and are available to interested parties with questions about the scholarship. We provide you with all information material and expertise you need. Most of the contact persons organize round-tables at their universities so that you can meet and talk regularly. The idea of networking is important to us. For this reason, former fellows and liaison lecturers also come to the round-tables, and if someone from the scholarship department is on site, we like to join in.