Eligibility Criteria of Funding Schemes – which date counts (defense or certificate) for latest application for fellowships/grants
If you are considering pursuing an academic career, please make sure that you familiarize yourself with the eligibility criteria of various funding agencies concerning the cut-off dates for applying for fellowships. Especially the highly attractive longer term or junior group funding schemes (e.g. Emmy Noether, Sofja Kovalevskaja, ERC, Fritz Thyssen) are varying in this regard. For some the cut-off date is the date of your PhD certificate, for some it is that of your thesis defense, which makes a noteworthy difference when, for example, you can only apply up to four years after your PhD.
In this regard – and if you are still a GAUSS PhD student of course, please make yourself familiar with these regulations early on and, if possible for you, consider a restricted online publication (see GAUSS webpage here) to avoid missing the chance to apply for these funding schemes.
Please check the cut-off dates of a selection of fellowships here (please note the list is not exhaustive).