Fast-track program
Universität Hamburg—University of Excellence established its Fast-Track Program to give outstanding students an opportunity to do their doctorate right after completing their bachelor’s degree or during the first year of their master’s studies. The master’s degree program is integrated into the doctoral phase.
Recipients receive €1,468 per month for 2 years. There are also accompanying qualification and networking opportunities.
Information on the Fast-Track Program
Who can apply?
Bachelor’s students in the Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Natural Sciences, the Faculty of Humanities, the Faculty of Education, the Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences, the Faculty of Psychology and Human Movement Science, the Faculty of Medicine (Research Training Group 2771 Humans and Microbes) at the University of Hamburg
Status of the funding measure
Funding was offered annually between 2020 and 2024; there are currently no further calls for applications planned.
More links
News about the Excellence Strategy
Photo: MPSD
17 November 2025|Excellence StrategyThe German Physical Society Honors University of Hamburg Physicist
The German Physical Society has awarded Prof. Dr. Andrea Cavalleri the Stern-Gerlach Medal for outstanding work in experimental physics. Cavalleri is the leading researcher in the Cluster of Excellence CUI: Advanced Images of Matter at the University of Hamburg.
Photo: Rafa Neddermeyer/Cop30
10 November 2025|Excellence Strategy“Belém is a signal.”
In the Cluster of Excellence Climate, Climatic Change, and Society (CLICCS), Brazilian-born sociology professor Eduardo Gonçalves Gresse is researching how international climate conferences work. He is taking part as an observer in this year’s UN Climate Change Conference in his native country, and says he is cautiously...
Photo: Private
6 November 2025|Excellence StrategyUltrafast meets ultrashort: CUI team receives prestigious ERC Synergy Grant
A research team in the Cluster of Excellence CUI: Advanced Imaging of Matter at the University of Hamburg and DESY has been awarded the prestigious Synergy Grant from the European Research Council. It will receive €14 million to combine atomic-scale imaging with attosecond science, the most advanced approach to ultrafast...
Photo: ESO/B. Tafreshi
21 October 2025|Excellence StrategyThe Sky in All Its Colors
A few days ago, the European Southern Observatory launched operation of a new type of instrument, the 4-meter Multi-Object Spectroscopic Telescope (4MOST), which will carry out unique sky surveys over the next five years. The University of Hamburg is involved in this milestone of the international 4MOST consortium with its...
Photo: Charles Steitler
7 October 2025|Excellence StrategyX-Ray Insight into Ancient Letters
The cuneiform tablets of Mesopotamia are considered the world’s oldest written artifacts. Many of them are hidden in clay envelopes, their contents still a mystery. The world’s first mobile CT scanner for cultural goods is now enabling the Cluster of Excellence Understanding Written Artefacts (UWA) to read the texts for the...
Photo: UHH/Kornowski
2 October 2025|Excellence StrategyThoughts on the “Marvelous Magnifying Glass”
With its 5 electron microscopes, the University of Hamburg is a major location for these large pieces of equipment. The chemist Dr. Charlotte Ruhmlieb explains how to make them as useful to as many researchers as possible and why research today is inconceivable without these microscopes.
