The legal construct behind Work4Germany

The Work4Germany Fellowship Program will enter its fourth round in September 2023. We are repeatedly asked how it is (legally) possible to send experts to federal ministries as fellows for a limited period of time.

The terms “Fellow” and “Fellowship” are not chosen at random, but are based on an established model in science and research for the interdisciplinary exchange of experience. In this case, fellows are experienced scientists and/or experts on specific topics who make their knowledge and findings available to other organizations for a limited period of time by working on projects.

Other countries, such as the USA with its “Presidential Innovation Fellows”, have been using the terms “Fellow” and “Fellowship” for years for the transfer of knowledge between the private and public sectors.

With Work4Germany, we are building on this tradition and relying on a proven model. Another advantage is that the designations are new in the German administration and still completely unoccupied. They therefore offer the opportunity to make it clear in the German administrative landscape that there is something new behind both the fellowship program itself and the role of the fellows.

The fellowship deliberately distinguishes itself conceptually from well-known and frequently used constructs such as job shadowing. Hospitants have an observing, learning and rather passive role, are not paid and work purely on content. The mission of our fellows should be different. We therefore first asked ourselves what we wanted to achieve with the fellowship and how this could be mapped. The answers to these questions also have an impact on the underlying legal construct.

The full blog post is currently available in German only.