DAAD Internship Funding for German Universities 2026: PROMOS, RISE and Programme Data

In 2024 the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) supported 140,925 students, graduates, researchers, and university staff worldwide on a budget of around EUR 753 million, the bulk of it disbursed through the EU Erasmus+ programme that the DAAD administers as the German National Agency. For a mobility office weighing how to fund a student internship abroad, the practical question is narrower: which DAAD route applies, who decides, and what does it pay. This reference answers that for the three schemes that matter most.

This article is written for International Office and mobility staff at German universities, and for partner institutions abroad that host German interns. It separates the three DAAD-related funding routes that touch internships, gives the real participation and funding figures for each, and sets out who administers what. Where Erasmus+ does not reach, the DAAD's own instruments often do, and knowing the boundary between them avoids both double funding and missed eligibility.

Three Routes, One Boundary Rule

The DAAD touches student internships through three distinct instruments, and the first job of a mobility office is to place each student in the correct one. The governing principle is that the DAAD's own mobility funding is designed to cover what structured programmes do not. The boundary rule is simple: if a placement is eligible for an Erasmus+ traineeship grant, that is normally the route, and the DAAD's PROMOS scheme is reserved for destinations or plans that fall outside Erasmus+.

• PROMOS funds outgoing internships by students at German universities, primarily to destinations not covered by Erasmus+ or another structured programme. This is the workhorse for self-arranged internships abroad.
• RISE Worldwide places German undergraduate STEM students into research internships abroad as a structured summer programme administered centrally by the DAAD.
• RISE Germany runs in the opposite direction, bringing international undergraduates into German research groups. It is the relevant route for a partner institution abroad sending students into Germany rather than for a German office sending students out.

For Erasmus+ traineeship funding itself, which sits alongside these DAAD instruments rather than inside them, see the related guide on Erasmus+ KA131 Traineeship Grant 2026: Monthly Amounts, Eligibility and Application Timeline.

PROMOS: The Decentralised Internship Route

PROMOS, the Programme to Increase the Mobility of Students at German Universities, is the instrument most relevant to a German International Office administering internships abroad. Its defining feature is decentralisation. The DAAD allocates a block grant to each participating university, and the university then runs its own selection. Students do not apply to the DAAD. They apply to their own International Office, which makes allocation decisions through a quality-oriented selection procedure and sets its own deadlines and internal rules within the DAAD framework.

For internships specifically, PROMOS funds placements at institutions or companies abroad lasting between 1 and 6 months. The internship is funded with a monthly partial scholarship rate (Teilstipendienrate) set by the DAAD at EUR 350, EUR 450, or EUR 550 per month depending on the destination country, plus a travel allowance that is also banded by destination. The exact monthly figure depends on the destination country, and individual universities decide the duration and amount of each award within the DAAD funding framework.

Two eligibility constraints matter for coordinators. First, PROMOS is intended for plans and destinations that are not eligible for funding through Erasmus+ or other structured DAAD programmes, so it should not be used to top up a placement that already qualifies for an Erasmus+ traineeship grant. Second, internships at international organisations such as the United Nations, at EU institutions, and at German missions abroad cannot receive PROMOS funding. These exclusions are a frequent source of late-stage rejections when students assume any internship abroad qualifies.

The decentralised model has a practical consequence that coordinators should communicate clearly to students: because PROMOS rounds run on the university's own calendar, a student who finds a host placement late in the year may have missed the only selection window for that academic year. Lead time, not eligibility, is the more common reason a viable PROMOS internship goes unfunded.

RISE Worldwide: Structured Research Internships Abroad

RISE Worldwide is the DAAD's centralised programme for placing German undergraduate students into research internships abroad. Unlike PROMOS, it is administered directly by the DAAD rather than by individual universities, and it is restricted to the natural sciences and engineering: biology, chemistry, computer science, physics, earth sciences, engineering, and closely related fields.

The participation scale is modest by DAAD standards but consistent. The DAAD funded 290 German students through RISE Worldwide in 2023, with the programme operating across roughly 48 countries. Placements run as summer research internships of 10 to 12 weeks, and funding combines a monthly stipend with a travel allowance and insurance coverage. For a German university, RISE Worldwide is best understood as a complement to PROMOS rather than a substitute: it serves a specific STEM research population and a specific summer window, while PROMOS handles the broader, year-round, all-discipline internship demand.

RISE Germany: The Inbound Mirror for Partner Institutions

RISE Germany is the inbound counterpart, relevant to partner institutions abroad that send students into German research groups rather than to German offices sending students out. International undergraduate students in the STEM fields are matched with German research groups for a summer internship. For 2025, RISE Germany interns received a monthly scholarship of EUR 992 plus a travel allowance, with the DAAD providing health, accident, and personal liability insurance, and partner universities and research institutes assisting with housing. The internship period is 10 to 12 weeks, with the earliest possible start dated to 1 June.

For an institution abroad advising students on options in Germany, RISE Germany is a clean, fully structured route with insurance and housing support built in, which removes much of the administrative burden that an independently arranged research placement would carry. For the supervisory and credit-recognition mechanics that apply once a placement is confirmed, see the related guide on ECTS Credit Recognition for Internships Abroad in Europe 2026.

The DAAD in Context: Scale and Funding Base

Understanding the DAAD's overall scale helps coordinators set realistic expectations about responsiveness and competition. In 2024 the DAAD supported 140,925 students, graduates, researchers, and university staff worldwide, a figure at the same high level as the previous year. Of these, 18,748 were individual scholarship holders, 11,481 of whom came from abroad. The organisation employed 1,220 staff across Bonn, Berlin, and 56 offices abroad, and around 350 lecturers taught at universities worldwide with DAAD funding.

The 2024 budget totalled around EUR 753 million. Most funding recipients were supported via the EU Erasmus+ programme, which the DAAD administers domestically, rather than through the DAAD's own scholarship instruments. Since its founding in 1950, the DAAD has supported approximately 1.8 million students and researchers from Germany and 1.3 million from abroad. The practical reading for a mobility office is that the structured, centrally run programmes such as RISE are selective and small relative to the much larger flow that moves through Erasmus+ and the decentralised PROMOS block grants.

For Institutions: Combining Funding Routes With a Structured Placement Pipeline

The funding routes above answer how a placement is paid for. They do not answer where the placement comes from or how its documentation is handled, and that is where a structured placement partner complements the DAAD framework. A PROMOS internship still requires a confirmed host, a defined task scope, and assessment documentation, and a RISE placement still depends on a research group accepting the student. Internship Abroad works with International Offices to supply vetted host organisations across 17 active markets, with standardized supervisor evaluation and placement documentation that aligns with both DAAD reporting and ECTS recognition requirements.

For German universities specifically, this means a student can be matched to a host that fits PROMOS eligibility rules, with the placement details documented from the outset so the International Office can administer the block-grant selection on solid evidence. Create an account to see how the placement and documentation workflow works, or read more about how German institutions use the network in the related overview of Erasmus+ Internship Mobility for Universities 2026 to 2027.

Figures cited are drawn from official DAAD publications, including the DAAD Annual Report 2024 and the DAAD RISE and PROMOS programme pages (daad.de). Programme amounts and eligibility rules are reviewed periodically by the DAAD and by individual universities; coordinators should confirm current figures with the DAAD and their own International Office before each selection round.