21. February 2025 | Equal opportunity office, Internal service

Convincing equal opportunities concept: University of Erfurt scores again in the Female Professors Programme

The University of Erfurt has once again scored points in the Female Professors Programme 2030 with its gender equality concept. An independent review panel has now selected the university as one of a total of 56 universities for funding. The programme was launched by the federal and state governments to achieve equal opportunities at universities and increase the proportion of women in professorships.

The University of Erfurt is now entitled to apply for up to three start-up grants for the initial appointment of women to permanent professorships by 30 September next year. The funds released from the university budget as a result will then be used for equal opportunities measures that will primarily benefit female academics. In this way, the programme can strengthen gender equality policy structures at universities.

"We are delighted with this renewed success," says Professor Walter Bauer-Wabnegg, President of the University of Erfurt. "It is not least proof that we have a convincing equal opportunities concept, are doing excellent work here and are determinedly pursuing structural changes for more equal opportunities at our university."

The Joint Science Conference (GWK) adopted the Female Professors Programme 2030 in November 2022, building on the three previous programme phases since 2008. The aim of the funding programme is to dynamically increase the number of female professors at universities, to promote (junior) female academics on the path to a lifetime professorship and to retain them in academia, and to anchor gender equality at universities even more firmly in structural terms.