Salaried employees who want to travel or do research stays for more than 6 weeks need approval for secondment from the travel department and personnel office. You will need to sign a secondment contract before the travel if you want to travel while still receiving your salary. Should you want to pause your salary, please also indicate this in the paperwork.

First step: Please prepare the following papers at least 2 months before the research trip:

1. A letter indicating why the research stay is necessary, a research proposal and a time schedule for your research stay
2. A copy of the invitation letter by the partner university including the length of the research stay
3. A letter of support by the project supervisor ("Fachvorgesetzter")
4. Application form for travel approval for the research stay
5. Take out (health) travel insurance for the entire stay (this can sometimes be submitted later)

Second step: Please let your office manager/secretary check all papers, and submit them (or a copy of all these papers) to your Home Department (HR officer/ Fachbereich). The Head of Department (Verwaltungsleitung) has to issue an approving statement.

(Sometimes it is better to inform both your Home Department and Central Personnel Division at the same time (by phone or mail) that you are going to apply for secondment. Let us know if you need help in German)

After receiving the approval statement from the Head of Department, please submit all aforementioned documents (and the Department's approval) to the Travel Department (IA RK) for travel approval.

The travel department and personnel division will then screen the application and prepare a secondment contract. This can take about 4-6 weeks. You will need to sign the secondment contract personally before travel - please do not travel before having signed the secondment contract and receiving travel approval.