DFG: open calls

DFG funding for Ukrainian researchers as part of expanded refugee researcher support. Covers living expenses up to €1,000/month per Ukrainian project leader and allows supplemental proposals to include Ukrainian partners in existing German or German-Ukrainian projects. Requires confirmation from Ukrainian university of limited or no salary payment. Open to proposals received up to 31 August 2026.

DFG funds the Ukrainian share of bilateral German-Ukrainian research projects under Cooperation with Developing Countries. German applicants can request up to €1,000/month per Ukrainian project leader for living expenses. Supplemental proposals possible for existing projects. Initiation of International Collaboration instrument also available.

Second funding period (2027–2030) of SPP 2431 'New Data Spaces for the Social Sciences'. Open to researchers at German institutions. Covers four areas: data integration/linkage, respondent-driven designs, instrument validity, and multimodal data acquisition. Proposals must be submitted via the DFG elan portal. Host institution must have implemented DFG Code of Conduct for Good Research Practice.

Open to researchers at German institutions (DFG funding rules apply; host institution must have implemented DFG Code of Conduct). Covers four research areas: data integration/linkage, respondent-driven designs, instrument validity, and multimodal data acquisition for social science panel surveys. Proposals submitted via elan portal; DFG forms 53.01 and 53.200 mandatory.

Third funding period (beginning 2027) of the annually open SPP 1006, supporting research on ICDP continental scientific drilling data/samples, pre-site surveys, drilling device development, and long-term experiments. Proposals must have a clear link to a future, ongoing, or past ICDP drilling campaign. Proposals must be submitted in English via the DFG elan portal. Open to German research institutions that have implemented the DFG Code of Conduct for Good Research Practice.

Joint call (NSERC, DFG, JST, UKRI-EPSRC, NSF, NordForsk) for bilateral/multilateral research in quantum science and technologies: quantum algorithms/encryption, communications, computing, materials, and sensing. German applicants must be DFG-eligible; non-university researchers must comply with DFG form 55.01 duty-to-collaborate rule. Projects must include at least one NSERC-eligible Canadian researcher.

Trans-Atlantic Platform (TAP) fifth international call for collaborative SSH research on how societies envision and respond to uncertain futures. Proposals must be submitted via the DFG elan portal. Encourages involvement of early career researchers. Transnational teams required; national addenda apply per participating country.

Open to researchers at German universities, universities of applied sciences, and research institutions. Proposals must be written in English and submitted via the DFG elan portal. Focuses on four Antarctic research topics (climate dynamics, environmental change, polar connectivity, polar processes). Projects with geological questions must address Antarctic history no older than ~34 million years. Programme phase 2025–2030.

Second three-year funding period of SPP 2458, covering combinatorics research across nine themes (enumeration, Dynkin classification, commutative algebra, matroids, convexity, lattice points, statistics, non-linear optimisation, mathematical physics). Proposals encouraged to address synergies between human mathematical insight and AI-supported methods. Open to new projects and renewals. Host institution must comply with DFG Code of Conduct for Good Research Practice.

Third call of SPP 2520 (2026–2031); funds participation in expeditions on German research vessels (RV MARIA S. MERIAN, METEOR, SONNE, POLARSTERN, ALKOR, HEINCKE, ELISABETH MANN BORGESE) and initial sample/data analysis. Open to researchers at German universities, universities of applied sciences, and research institutions. Proposals must be in English. Five thematic areas: climate, biogeochemical cycles, ocean-lithosphere dynamics, biosphere interactions, and new technologies.

Three-year pilot for a joint Lead Agency Procedure between DFG and NWO (Dutch Research Council), open from 6 August 2024 until 30 July 2027. Facilitates bilateral research projects between researchers in Germany and the Netherlands through mutual opening of individual funding procedures.

Joint Lead Agency Procedure for Dutch-German research teams in NWO Domain Science areas (Astronomy, Chemistry, Computer Science, Earth Sciences, Life Sciences, Mathematics, Physics). Applicants must be based in Germany (DFG) or the Netherlands (NWO). Proposals outside the defined scope cannot be considered. Unilateral funding of only one national part is not possible.

Joint basic research proposals within NWO Domain Science (Astronomy, Chemistry, Computer Science, Earth Sciences, Life Sciences, Mathematics, Physics) and corresponding DFG review boards. Commercial companies excluded. Non-university German researchers must fulfil DFG 'duty to cooperate' with a German university partner. No fixed budget cap; standard DFG Sachbeihilfe rules apply. Proposals compete with all other individual grants.

Promotes German-Italian exchange in humanities and social sciences via small-format events (max 25 participants). Proposals and forms are in German only. Supports early-career academics. Focus on European culture, history and society from a comparative German-Italian perspective.

Multilateral research projects in humanities and social sciences submitted through the Trans-Atlantic Platform (T-AP), involving the Croatian Science Foundation (HRZZ). Calls are published at irregular intervals and not all T-AP members participate in every call.

Bilateral research projects between researchers at German and Swiss institutes, facilitated through the Lead Agency Procedure between DFG and the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF). Funding proposals can be submitted at any time under the mutual opening agreement.

Doctoral researchers at DFG Collaborative Research Centres in Germany may host research fellows from the US, UK, or Canada for 6–12 weeks. Aimed primarily at life sciences, natural sciences, and engineering. Host doctoral researchers register via the DAAD website in late summer; applications and project descriptions submitted through DAAD. Programme run jointly by DFG and DAAD.

Lead agency procedure between DFG and Israel Science Foundation (ISF) for bilateral research projects. German researchers apply to DFG; Israeli researchers apply to ISF simultaneously.

Swiss researchers can participate in DFG Priority Programmes at project level by submitting applications under a German PI. Maximum project duration in both countries is 36 months. Applications evaluated by DFG. Open to researchers based in Switzerland.

Swiss researchers can participate in DFG Research Units with up to two Swiss subprojects or participations in German subprojects. Maximum project duration in both countries is 48 months. Applications evaluated by DFG. Open to researchers based in Switzerland.

DFG programme funding clinical trials including feasibility studies, interventional trials, and observational trials. Applicants must be eligible under DFG principles (typically German higher education institutions and research organisations). Proposals submitted via the DFG elan portal; guidelines available in German and English.

DFG individual funding programme for highly innovative, high-risk research projects. This page provides forms and guidelines for proposal submission; no open deadline or call window is stated. Applicants submit via the elan portal. Eligibility requirements described in programme guidelines (DE/EN available).

Funds long-term research projects (editions, corpora, excavations, longitudinal studies) of central scholarly importance in humanities and social sciences, requiring 7–12 years of continuous funding. Applicants must meet DFG research grant eligibility requirements (typically researchers at German higher education or research institutions). Projects must demonstrate international-level academic quality and long-term character.

Joint basic/knowledge-driven research proposals within NWO Domain Science scope (Astronomy, Chemistry, Computer Science, Earth Sciences, Life Sciences, Mathematics, Physics) and corresponding DFG review boards. Applicants must be based at German or Dutch research institutions; DFG eligibility rules (Sachbeihilfe) apply. Commercial companies may not be included as partners.

Funds multi-year scientific exchange networks of 10–20 researchers (doctorate required) based in Germany or at German research institutions abroad. Covers travel/maintenance costs for meetings, coordination costs, and publication costs. Employees of purely commercial or non-publishing institutions are ineligible. Network must target a specific outcome (e.g. joint publication, research methods development).

Supports collaborative research projects between researchers at German institutions and Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Colombia). Proposals can be submitted at any time under the Standing Open Procedure. Natural sciences, life sciences, engineering, and social sciences in scope.

Supports collaborative research projects between researchers at German institutions and Universidad de los Andes (Colombia). Proposals can be submitted at any time under the Standing Open Procedure (2026–2027 cycle).

Multilateral funding network (ORA) for social sciences research projects. Biennial calls for proposals; ANR (France) and DFG (Germany) are among the partner agencies. Proposals must involve researchers from multiple participating countries.

Researchers at German institutions may submit joint research project proposals with international partners under a Standing Open Procedure (no fixed deadline). Requires complementary co-financing from a DFG partner organisation abroad. Review is either bilateral (both sides review independently) or via lead agency. Funding contingent on both organisations approving.

Bilateral US-German collaboration call in chemistry, process engineering, fluid mechanics, and thermodynamics. German researchers apply to DFG; US researchers apply to NSF under a lead agency arrangement. Applicants must be based at eligible German (DFG) or US (NSF) institutions respectively.

Supports joint basic research projects between German and Israeli researchers across all scientific and humanities disciplines. German applicants must be based at eligible German research institutions; Israeli counterparts apply in parallel to the ISF. No budget or deadline information visible in this page segment.

Funds disease- or patient-oriented (translational) clinical research collaborations at German research institutions (university hospitals). Applicants must hold a doctorate; purely commercial organisations are not eligible. Includes measures to promote early-career researchers and equity/diversity.

Joint Franco-German research grants under the Lead Agency Procedure (ANR leads review). German applicants must be eligible under DFG Research Grants Programme (DFG form 50.01); up to 4 applicants on German side. Commercial companies and industrial/technological centres are excluded. No formal DFG funding limit; amounts need not match ANR side.

Funds integrated German-French research projects in humanities and social sciences. No topic restrictions; data-related infrastructure components allowed. Requires convincing collaboration between German (DFG-funded) and French (ANR-funded) partners. Projects must demonstrate clear cross-border research benefit. Multilingual scholarship in German and French is encouraged.

Joint UK-German research teams only; each project must include researchers based in Germany and the UK. Scope covers Chemistry, Physics (excl. Particles/Nuclei/Astrophysics), Mathematics, and Engineering Sciences (DFG side) / all EPSRC research areas (UK side). Proposals must be written in English. No dedicated budget — proposals compete within standard DFG Research Grants and EPSRC Responsive Mode funding lines.

German-based researchers may submit joint proposals with partners in Brazil, Colombia, India, Iran, Turkey, USA (two-sided review) or Austria, Belgium, Italy (South Tyrol), Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, Switzerland (lead agency procedure). Applicant must be affiliated with a German institution. Complementary co-financing by the foreign partner organisation is required.

Multilateral T-AP calls for research projects in humanities and social sciences. Not all T-AP members participate in every call. Applicants must review the latest call to confirm DFG and relevant partner organisations (e.g. NWO, HRZZ) are participating. Scope limited to humanities and social sciences.

Open to German universities and equivalent institutions with the right to award doctorates, including UAS with independent or cooperative doctoral rights. Funds doctoral researcher and postdoc posts, visiting researchers, travel, workshops, and coordination. Interdisciplinary approaches welcomed. Aims to qualify doctoral researchers within a focused research and structured training programme.

Open to researchers in all disciplines at German research institutions holding a doctorate. Funds close collaborative alliances of several researchers on a joint research project, typically fewer than ten sub-projects, majority based at universities. Includes Clinical Research Units and Centres for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences as variants.

Bilateral Franco-German research grants under the Lead Agency procedure (ANR leads). Applies only to Research Grants Programme (not Clinical Trials, Research Units, or Package Proposals). German applicants must be eligible under DFG Research Grants rules; commercial companies excluded. Proposals submitted via DFG elan portal under 'Frankreich-ANR-DFG (Year) NLE'. Both French and German project elements must be well-justified and interlinked.

Funds distinguished researchers (typically 2–3 principal investigators) to collaborate on a broadly defined humanities or social sciences topic at a specific German site, including a fellow programme for visiting researchers from Germany and abroad for up to 2 years. No specific thematic or interdisciplinary requirement. Host institution must be in Germany.

Open to German universities (and doctorate-granting institutions of equivalent status). Funds long-term, multidisciplinary research programmes including staff, instrumentation, consumables, travel, Mercator Fellows, Integrated Research Training Groups, equality measures, science communication, and transfer projects. Early-career researcher support is a key review criterion. CRC/Transregio allows up to 3 co-applicant universities; international project integration possible.

Joint call between UNAM (Mexico) and DFG (Germany) for bilateral research projects across disciplines. Published 6 November 2025.

Joint DFG-Villa Vigoni call for various event formats (workshops, colloquia) for humanities researchers at German and Italian institutes. Call details available in German only.

Bilateral Franco-German research grants under the DFG Research Grants Programme (Individual Grants Programme). Proposals must include well-justified and interlinked French and German project elements. Commercial companies and industrial/technological centres are excluded. Proposals submitted via DFG elan under 'Frankreich-ANR-DFG (Year) NLE'. No formal funding cap; overheads added automatically for German part.

Supports multinational and translational research projects within the European Partnership for Brain Health. Requires a multinational consortium. German applicants must be affiliated with a German research institution.