German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)

The DAAD is the world’s largest funding organisation for the international exchange of students and researchers. Find out more about who we are and what we stand for.

Since it was founded in 1925, around 3 million scholars in Germany and abroad have received DAAD funding. It is a registered association and its members are German institutions of higher education and student bodies. Its activities go far beyond simply awarding grants and scholarships. The DAAD supports the internationalisation of German universities, promotes German studies and the German language abroad, supports countries in the Global South in building and improving their higher education systems and advises decision makers on education, foreign science and development policy.

Its budget is derived mainly from the federal funding for various ministries, primarily the German Federal Foreign Office, but also from the European Union and a number of enterprises, organisations and foreign governments. Its head office is in Bonn, but the DAAD also has an office in the German capital, Berlin, to which the famous Berlin Artists-in-Residence Programme (Berliner Künstlerprogramm) is closely affiliated. It maintains contact with and provides advice to its main partner countries on every continent via a network of regional offices, information centres and information points.

In 2023, the DAAD funded more than 140,000 German and international scholars worldwide. The funding offers range from a year abroad for undergraduates to doctoral programmes, from internships to visiting lectureships, and from information gathering visits to assisting with the establishment of new universities abroad. Voluntary, independent selection committees decide on the funding. The selection committee members are appointed by the DAAD's Executive Committee according to certain appointment principles. The DAAD supports the international activities of German higher education instution through marketing services, publications, the staging of events and training courses.