In the following you will find some of the questions frequently asked by Fellows over the years the institute has been in operation. Our operations and funding decisions are primarily based on the rules of the German Research Foundation (DFG), the administrators of the German Excellence Initiative. The answers are intended as helpful guidelines, but should you have any questions about the answers, please contact the TUM-IAS office. Furthermore we welcome any addition to our question list and would appreciate your feedback or suggestions.

Please contact the TUM-IAS office with any additional question.

Please submit all invoices (Rechnungen) directly to the TUM-IAS for payment. The TUM-IAS will then pay the invoice directly from your research fund. Be sure to send the invoices at least a week before payment due date.

International payments or money transfers are possible, but cumbersome. If you have ordered equipment from an international company or invited an international guest, please be aware that the payment or expense reimbursement will take an extra 4-6 weeks. Fellows, who are here for longer stays are encouraged to open a German bank account in order to simplify and speed up the process of receiving their prize money and reimbursements.

Junior Fellows and other TUM employed scientists who have salaries based on the German tariff contract (TV-L) should fill out a travel request form (Dienstreiseantrag) and submit it to the personnel department for approval before taking a business trip.

Submit all original receipts and tickets to the TUM-IAS along with the form for expense reimbursement providing your address and bank information and signature for the transfer of the reimbursement. Meals are not reimbursable as part of your travel expenses. Rental cars are also seldom covered (see question 7). Make sure to submit receipts within 6 months of the date of travel; otherwise you may not be eligible for reimbursement.

Hotel rooms should not exceed 100€ per night including all taxes and breakfast.

In general, only economy class flights are reimbursed by TUM-IAS, higher classes such as business or first class air tickets cannot be covered by us. Exceptionally, business class flights booked due to health reasons can be reimbursed only upon submitting a medical certificate.

In general a car rental cannot be paid for from your TUM-IAS fund. The DFG rule says that, if it is possible to take a train or other public transportation, then a rental car will not be covered. Taxi costs for reasonable distances against a receipt are allowed. If there is no alternative means of transportation, a rental car may be covered, but it must be pre-approved by the TUM-IAS office.

Yes, the procedure is similar to that of your own travel expenses. The Guest should fill out the same form but should reference the host’s name on the form (on the line “name of conference or activity”) so the TUM-IAS office knows, which fund to pay the expenses from.

The purchase of computers, laptops, and notebooks cannot be paid for from your TUM-IAS research fund. According to the rules of the German Research Foundation (DFG) computers, laptops, and notebooks are part of the standard equipment.

Catering for workshops or for TUM-IAS sponsored events can only be covered under very exceptional circumstances. Please discuss your plans in advance with the TUM-IAS office (your Program Manager). Taking a guest out for dinner at a restaurant will not be covered by your fund.

TUM-IAS Fellow research funds are intended to give Fellows the latitude to order basic equipment or attend conferences without having to request funds. For necessary extra expenses Fellows and Focus Group Leaders may submit a short proposal for start-up funding to the TUM-IAS office. Substantial equipment orders are subject to the DFG large equipment rules.

Regarding scientific publications TUM-IAS kindly requests its Fellows to give the TUM-IAS address. The correct address designation is: Institute for Advanced Study, Technische Universität München, Lichtenbergstrasse 2a, D-85748 Garching, Germany.

DFG (German Research Foundation) requires to mention explicitly the support by the Excellence Initiative in acknowledgements either in German or in English:

• “Mit Unterstützung der Technischen Universität München, Institute for Advanced Study, gefördert durch die Exzellenzinitiative des Bundes und der Länder.”

• “With the support of the Technische Universität München – Institute for Advanced Study, funded by the German Excellence Initiative.”

The support must be also mentioned explicitly in acknowledgments when doctoral candidates or postdoctoral researchers funded by TUM-IAS are co-authors of a publication or when the authors have received support (relevant for the published results) from TUM-IAS via the Start-up Program (same text as above).

We would also like to kindly ask doctoral candidates who are funded by TUM-IAS to acknowledge the TUM-IAS support in their doctoral theses.
Furthermore, a copy of the thesis should be sent to the TUM-IAS office to be displayed in the institute´s library.

If you use one of our offices in our institute in Garching and would like to use the printer available on the 2nd Floor you might need to install the printer software first. For individual manuals (Mac, Linux, Windows PC etc.) please refer to the following website: https://wiki.in.tum.de/TUM-IAS/WebHome.
There you will find the manuals on how to install a printer for the individual computer types. This website will be updated on a regular basis by our IT support team.
If you still have a problem, we would like to ask you to directly contact our IT support team in Garching at: rbg(at)in.tum.de or by phone: 18018. They will then get in contact with you and try to solve the problem as soon as possible.

Contact your TUM-IAS Program Manager by indicating your travel data and number of persons, preferably by email. We will then check the guesthouse calendar for availability and contact you with the possibilities.
For further information about our guesthouse, please refer to: http://www.tum-TUM-IAS.de/resources-for-fellows/facilities/facilities/TUM-IAS-guesthouse.html