Introduction to the Ideal Funding

The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation's Study Agency aims its political education work towards left-wing emancipatory goals. This includes, in particular, the pursuit of equal opportunities and the abolition of educational inequalities.

We want to impart key political competences to our scholarship holders, with the aim of promoting networking on the left scene and contributing to the left's ability to hegemonize society.

The scheme also aims to promote self-empowerment: thinking and acting democratically as part of personal self-determination, developing a sense of responsibility, critical faculties, the ability to argue, the ability to resist, the ability to compromise, the willingness to reach a consensus, solidarity, the ability to love, empathy, and rationality.

This goal requires an understanding of education that recognises participation, autonomy and emancipation as prerequisites for (self-)empowerment.

With regards to the scholarship holders, participatory education translates to consciously promoted autonomous action. It is realised in the form of participation and co-determination in relation to many work and decision-making processes in the Study Agency. It is also understanding the Study Agency as a political space that can be entered and cultivated.

The Study Agency explicitly invites cooperation on conceptual level and provides assistance in connecting with other areas of the Foundation (as a guide).

Our funding programme is based on four pillars:

• The first pillar is the promotion of academic competences and the teaching of soft skills related to the academic world. - This includes seminars for doctoral students, conferences for young academics, writing workshops, and seminars on methodology and time management.

• The second pillar is self-empowerment in everyday politics and in life. By this we mean the promotion of critical self-reflection, subject empowerment and resilience. - Empowerment seminars, for example, belong to this area.

• The third pillar is social critique. It means the promotion of left education and transformational perspectives. - This area includes workshops, seminars and conferences on socio-political and educational issues, e.g. the Salon Bildung event series or our Bildungswerkstätten, which we run in close cooperation with the Akademie für politische Bildung.
• The fourth pillar is networking. It aims to promote cohesion on the left, as well as the cooperation with other areas of the foundation, the state foundations and with institutions and organisations outside the foundation with the intention of promoting left cultural hegemony. - This area includes, for example, the regional meetings, the alumni meeting, the Foundation's discussion groups, the scholarship holders’ working groups and cooperation with trade unions, other foundations or educational associations.

Our events programme is based on an emancipatory concept of education, which is centred on critical examination and reflection, and is based around your participation. The events are meant to strengthen you beyond your specific topic area and to create starting points for political action. The content and methodological focus of the education formats result from the thematic context and the choice of speakers.

With a few exceptions, the events are open to all scholarship holders and former scholarship holders of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. In addition, we try to realise and implement the events programme largely based on ideas and suggestions of former scholarship holders.

You can register for the Study Agency events via the Self-Service-Portal (SSP). Here you can register and deregister until the relevant registration deadline. After the registration deadline has passed, you will receive an email confirming your registration and detailed information about the event. Only then is your registration binding!

Please cancel your registration if you are unable to attend an event. We can guarantee the reimbursement of travel and accommodation costs for the Study Agency events. In order to receive the reimbursement, you must put your name down on the attendance lists at the events. For the vast majority of events, we reimburse travel and accommodation expenses.

If the events are not organised by the Study Agency, but by other areas of the foundation or the foundation network, i.e. by the RLS state foundations, we have to limit the reimbursement of travel and accommodation costs to three events per year. If you are a former scholarship holder, we only reimburse travel and accommodation costs during the first 12 months following the end of the scholarship.

We also offer professional childcare during events where it is needed for at least three children.

The introductory seminar marks the beginning of your scholarship; it is the Study Agency’s kick-off and welcome event for all newly accepted scholarship holders and takes place twice a year.

More intensive and detailed discussion on various topics ranging from soft skills to (socio-)political issues take place in workshops and seminars throughout the year.

Within this context, we offer excursions, interdisciplinary events and seminars for doctoral students, time management, writing and text workshops, methodology seminars, research workshops, career guidance seminars, conferences for young academics, educational workshops or graduation academies.

Our regional meetings throughout Germany and the regular meeting in Berlin create opportunities for networking and exchange within the federal states and among yourselves. You also have the opportunity to contribute ideas and topics. Participation in at least one regional meeting/regular Berlin meeting per year is compulsory.

We are especially pleased to be able to offer you regular educational trips.

We also offer a coaching and supervision programme for study and doctoral fellows. Within this programme, we want to give you the opportunity to continue working on your personal goals and questions, or to clarify questions and problems that you are dealing with in your political and student contexts. The coaching programme is carried out by external coaches who are closely aligned with us.

In addition to the events organised by the Study Agency, you can network and exchange ideas with other scholarship holders within the framework of the working groups.

Our practical support programme is only partly open to the public, i.e. our programme is mainly for scholarship holders and alumni. However, we also organize events for the foundation’s broader network and the interested left-wing public.

Here you can access the 2023 brochure of our practical support programm. Please note that not all the Study Agency events are necessarily listed there and that there may be changes that occur at short notice due to the pandemic.

In addition to the events calendar in the SSP, we will always inform you about upcoming events by email. General questions, suggestions and tips about the events programme can be sent to us at any time. If you have any questions about individual events, you are welcome to contact us at the Study Agency and ask us your questions and share your feedback!

We look forward to your participation.

You can find more information about the doctoral seminars here.

You can find out more about the doctoral student yearbook >>Work in Progress - Work on Progress<< here.