Young scientists

“In Lindau, you have a lot of people in one place who share your struggles, your hopes and your excitement to support science. And I think that’s just amazing.”

Niamh Kavanagh, Lindau Alumna 2019

A Network of Excellence

The opportunity to join the annual gathering of Nobel Laureates at Lindau is provided exclusively to outstanding young scientists aged up to 35 (with individual exceptions for e.g. parental leave, military/civil service) – undergraduates, PhD students, and post-doc researchers. In order to participate in a meeting, they must pass a multi-step application and selection process.

Applicants who have successfully mastered the application process undoubtedly represent the emerging generation of leading scientists and researchers. Apart from taking the one-time chance to participate in a Lindau Meeting, these young scientists become part of a special community – a network of excellence. As alumni of the Lindau Meetings, former participants stay connected with each other and become ambassadors of the scientific dialogue fostered by the Lindau Meetings.

Nadine Gärber

Head
Young Scientist Support and Academic Partner Relations
+49 8382 277 31 14
nadine.gaerber@lindau-nobel.org

Nomination and Application Process

Criteria

Each year, highly talented young scientists are recruited worldwide among undergraduate students, master and doctoral students and young postdoctoral scientists to participate in the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings. Participants must be below 35 years of age (with individual exceptions for e.g. parental leave, military/civil service), should have an excellent academic track record and at least one letter of recommendation. They need to speak English fluently, and may not have participated before.

Further details are stipulated in the official selection criteria:

Selection Criteria for the 72nd Lindau Meeting (Physiology and Medicine) Selection Criteria for the 72nd Lindau Meeting (Physiology and Medicine)

A scientific review panel appointed by the Council for the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings is responsible for selecting the participants of each meeting. The reviewers closely examine all submitted applications. The applicants’ academic and research achievements, their motivation and dedication, their recommendations as well as extracurricular activities are some of the decisive details.

Nomination Process

There are two ways (for three different situations) to participate in the official nomination process:

Situation 1:

Young scientists studying or performing research in a country where the Lindau Meetings have one or more official academic partners must be nominated by one of these partners. They may request from an academic partner to be nominated; however, no academic partner is obliged to respond to such a request, and it is the sole decision of an academic partner how to proceed with such a request.

Situation 2:

Young scientists studying or performing research in a country where the meetings have one or more official academic partners and who cannot get nominated because of their nationality (so-called ex-pats) may apply via Open Application.

Situation 3:

Young scientists studying or performing research in a country where the meetings have no official academic partners yet may also apply via Open Application.

The full nomination, application and review process is conducted online. Find an overview of the nomination process.

Timeline

Every year in September/October, the meeting’s academic partners nominate their candidates for participation. Young scientists who wish to be nominated should therefore contact the respective academic partner before September. Some academic partners also perform complex and/or nation-wide pre-selection processes, which require an even earlier application.

Open application is usually possible at the same time, i.e., from September to October.

Once a young scientist has been nominated or has submitted an open application, he or she has about five weeks to fill in the online database profile (NAPERS). The data provided here is used for the application evaluation.
(Please note, that access to the online database profile is made available to nominees and open applicants only. We kindly ask you to refrain from requesting access prior to your nomination or open application.)

In mid-February to March of the following year, the results of the application process for young scientists are published. All applicants are informed individually whether they have passed the selection process and thus will be invited to attend the up-coming Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting.

Accepted applicants will receive detailed information regarding the participation from the Lindau Executive Secretariat via email. Applicants must therefore be sure to check their inbox – and the spam filter – regularly.