For Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU), support for early career researchers is a key priority. With five faculties strong in research, it offers budding academics excellent conditions for a career in research, teaching or research management. To bind such excellent young talents to HHU in the long term too, the university is establishing plannable and transparent career paths with the help of the Tenure-Track Programme for the support of early career researchers run by the German federal and state governments. This is being accomplished on the one hand through the targeted utilization and ongoing expansion of tenure-track professorships at HHU and on the other hand HHU is opening up other career perspectives of equal rank in the academic system through the Düsseldorfer Weg ("The Düsseldorfer Path").

Düsseldorfer Weg is the name of an innovative career model that HHU wants to implement with the help of the Tenure-Track Programme. The key feature of the Düsseldorfer Weg is that it develops and further professionalizes two other career paths for early career researchers alongside professorships. It thus opens up a total of three career paths for outstanding early career reseachers: as tenure-track professor, university lecturer or research manager. What is special about the Düsseldorfer Weg is that cross-occupational events and regular network meetings take place for all the participants in the programme. In this way, an environment is created in which cross-faculty thinking and action across different professions becomes an even greater part of everyday university life than to date.

In addition, in the framework of the Tenure-Track Programme HHU will further optimize the compatibility of family and work. HHU hence considers the tenure-track professorship to be an excellent strategic instrument for suporting the university career of women, with the aim of increasing significantly and sustainably the number of female university professors.