The staff unit Diversity & Inclusion and TUM Family Service are launching a new initiative with the TUM Balance Award. It honors managers who are particularly committed to integrating work and family life and who promote a supportive work culture through responsible action.
Our aim is to raise awareness of work-life balance at our university and highlight positive examples - an important contribution to attracting and retaining excellent specialists and managers in the long term.
Nominate your leader now!
Would you like to nominate your supervisor for the TUM Balance Award?
Then submit your nomination and help ensure that commitment to work-life balance at our university is recognized and appreciated.
Fill out the nomination form and submit it to TUM Family Service.
Next dates:
Nomination deadline: February 28, 2026
Award ceremony: May 19, 2026 (German Diversity Tag)
Managers (including management tandems) from the scientific and science-supporting/administrative areas of TUM who are particularly committed to successfully combining professional demands with family care responsibilities in their own team and/or towards students through innovative and effective measures can be nominated for the TUM Balance Award. Nominations are given additional weight if the manager also exemplifies how leadership responsibilities can be successfully reconciled with family obligations.
The same manager can be nominated repeatedly, provided that they have not yet received an award.
Nominations may be submitted by all university members (staff, doctoral candidates, students) for their direct or superior manager. Nominators can be individuals or entire teams. Independent nominations of the same manager by different team members or by the entire team underscore the significance of a nomination.
We provide a nomination form for the TUM Balance Award and recommend its use. The document contains some guiding questions relating to the evaluation criteria, which help to justify the nomination in a clear and comprehensible manner. It also provides space for personal experiences and records special circumstances and the team structure, which may be taken into account in the evaluation.
The form facilitates the comparability of nominations. However, nominations can also be freely structured.
Please send your nomination with the subject line “TUM Balance Award – Nomination” to familienservice(at)tum.de
The nominations received will be reviewed in advance by TUM Family Services.
The decision on the selection of the award winner will be made by a jury.
Members of the jury:
- Employees of TUM Family Services
- Representatives from the TUM Institute for LifeLong Learning
- (Deputy) Equal Opportunities Officer
- (Deputy) Women's Representative
The TUM Balance Award is presented once a year at a formal ceremony. In addition to a certificate, the award-winning manager receives prize money of €1,000, which he or she decides how to use together with the team. Possible options include team activities such as (external) coaching or workshops, a team event, or a purchase to improve family friendliness at the respective organizational unit.