If you graduated from your last degree programme no more than 2 years ago, you are eligible to apply.

If you are not older than 35 years (at the time of the application) you are eligible to apply.

Please provide an official document signed by your university clearly showing that and when you successfully graduated instead. A transcript of records in not sufficient.

Usually, our system sends out an automatically generated confirmation E-mail. Please also check your spam-folder. If you cannot find any e-mail, please contact Alexandra.vogt@ws-pforzheim.de

Yes, the number of characters is including spaces.

In exceptional cases you can apply as a team (max. 2 people). Please note that in this case you would have to share the scholarship salary. If you apply as a team, please provide Curriculum Vitae including contact information, final degrees and portfolios of all team members.

The decision will be made mid-December. You will receive the acceptance or rejection via E-Mail.

Here you can find a description of the workshop facilities: https://www.emma-pf.de/en/rooms/workshops/

In addition, the workshops of Pforzheim University can be used by arrangement, e.g. electro plating, ceramics, silver smithing, industrial design including wood work. If you have special requirements for which our workshops are not sufficient, we can assist you in finding companies in the region that might provide services (depending on the time, the volume of work and the costs).

At EMMA, we do not have facilities for ceramics, enamel or woodworks. Those facilities are available at the Pforzheim University and can be used by agreement (depending on the volume of work).

We ask the scholarship holders to take care of their visa themselves, but of course we will assist you as far as we can and provide invitation letters etc.

Generally you can apply with a project idea that you worked on before. In this case, please describe in your application how and why you want to develop your project further.

Please understand that we cannot give any advice on the topics of your proposals. Generally, make sure that the jury can understand from your proposal what is special about your project idea, why you think it is important to work on that topic, why you are the right person for this and how you want to implement it. Please also be aware that your idea has to be implemented within the three months residency and exhibited in the end of the residency.

Due to the high number of applications that we receive, it is unfortunately not possible for the jury to give feedback on every single application.

Pforzheim is located in the Black Forest in the south of Germany, the region where the Black Forest Cake comes from ;-). It is a very green city with three rivers flowing through the middle of the city. It also has a long tradition of jewelry making, still the majority of German jewelry is produced here. In Pforzheim, you will also find Germanys only school for goldsmithing and watchmaking as well as Pforzheim University with its renowned Faculty of Design. Together with EMMA Creative Center, this makes Pforzheim a great place for creative people, as you will find lots of creatives in a relatively small area. This makes it very easy to get in touch with students, professors and other creative people in Pforzheim, share your work, find people to support you with your project or invite you to the next party 😉 The city also offers a good infrastructure for designers, like EMMA, the Faculty of design or lots of small specialized companies.
In your free time, Pforzheim offers a lot of activities, like hiking in the Black Forest, visiting the famous jewelry museum or art exhibitions, relaxing in nice cafés, trying food from different cultures as Pforzheim is a very multicultural city, or drinking German Beer J

If you want to know what the previous Designers in Residence think about Pforzheim and the Designers in Residence program, you can watch our films:

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016