The Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds requires applications to be written by the applicants themselves, although this does not exclude consultation with scientific supervisors. The form of presentation should be adequate but not ostentatious, since all applications are destroyed after the Board meeting.
Applications are to be made in English and submitted fivefold.
The main criteria for approval or rejection are the scientific quality reflected by the applicant's achievements to date, the originality of the PhD project and the scientific standard of the laboratories in question. While scarcely any applicant meets all these requirements, a surprising number come very close to doing so. Once the application is received by the secretariat it is checked for completeness. If necessary, missing information is requested. Subsequently an independent expert is consulted.