Funding Research

The Award Commission of the BMBF/DFG Overhead – Faculty of Humanities Social Sciences and Theology provides start-up funding for all faculty members. The aim of the award commission is to promote peer-reviewed third-party research at the faculty. To this end, mainly the early phase of project development is to be supported. The seed funding also serves in particular to promote early career-researchers, who are expressly invited to submit applications at this point(funding line 1).

Professors of the faculty can apply for an earlier research sabbatical (Forschungsfreisemester) if their successes in research require relief from other duties. Applications can be submitted once per semester for the following year. The call for applications is sent via e-mail.

Selected funding organizations

• Federal Ministry of Education and Research
• German Research Foundation (DFG)
• Volkswagen Foundation
• Fritz Thyssen Foundation
• German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)
• Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
• Gerda Henkel Foundation
• EU Horizon 2020 veraltet

Funding databases

• Electronic Research Funding Information System (ELFI)
• Open Calls at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF, in German only)
• Research databases of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (in German only)
• Research awards and scholarships on Academics.de (in German only)
• Portal für Stiftungen und das Stiftungswesen (in German only)

With our newsletter “PHIL Forschungsnews”, published in cooperation with the International Office, we keep you informed about current calls for proposals in research funding and international affairs. As soon as you have a fau.de address as a faculty member, you will automatically receive this newsletter. If you know other interesting funding instruments or would like to give us feedback on the newsletter, please contact us at: phil-forschungsnews@fau.de

The Faculty of Humanities, Social Sicences and Theology promotes early-career academics in the humanities and likes to further internationalisation of research at the faculty by means of a programme set up specifically for this purpose. The aim is to support early-career researchers (doctoral students, postdocs, Jun. Prof.), e.g. through active participation in an international academic congress. The funding consists of a contribution of up to 100 percent of the travel and accommodation costs incurred, including the congress fee. Funding can only be granted if a funding application has been rejected by another external funding organisation (e.g. DAAD).

The application form „Antragsformular Kongressreise Philosophische Fakultät“ has to be submitted to the Office for Research and Young Researchers electronically and in pdf format via e-mail.

The “Professional Third-Party Funding” ProFund programme was developed specifically for young researchers in the humanities, economics, and social sciences together with the Faculty of Law and Economics. It is run in collaboration with the FAU Graduate Centre.

ProFund is aimed at young researchers at the faculty, in particular postdocs, postdoctoral researchers, and junior professors with little or very little experience in acquiring third-party funding.

The goal is to impart knowledge on developing project ideas, applying for third-party funding and handling and implementing third-party funded projects. The programme enables researchers to apply for and carry out a promising third-party funded project, for example with the DFG, the EU, renowned foundations, or the BMBF.

In order to obtain the ProFund programme certificate, the following seminars and events must be attended:

– Module 1 – Funding sources

– Module 2 – Application Workshop

– Module 3 – Management & Leadership

You can register for the individual seminars via the Graduate Centre and apply for the certificate after successful participation.

As part of the Emerging Talents Initiative, FAU supports excellent doctoral researchers in the qualification phase. The aim is to give recipients the opportunity to independently advance an innovative project and expand their scientific independence. The funding period is 12 months. The maximum funding amount is 15,000 EUR. The ETI grant aims to enable the researcher to submit an application to an external funding body (e.g. DFG or ERC). The call for proposals is usually issued twice a year (March and August).

Further Information and the application form are available here.

• Finding Scholarships (DAAD)
• Portal für Stiftungen und das Stiftungswesen (in German only)
• Stipendiendatenbank e-fellows (in German only)
• Research awards and scholarships on Academics.de (in German only)

With our newsletter “PHIL Forschungsnews”, published in cooperation with the International Office, we keep you informed about current calls for proposals in research funding and international affairs. As soon as you have a fau.de address as a faculty member, you will automatically receive this newsletter. If you know other interesting funding instruments or would like to give us feedback on the newsletter, please contact us at: phil-forschungsnews@fau.de

To support early-stage collaborative projects, research fields and research foci can apply for start-up funding in the form of personnel and material funds (Förderlinie 2 and 3).

Support from the application fund serves to (partially) finance costs incurred while preparing the application. Specifically, grants for the preparation of documents and other costs required during an on-site inspection can be applied for here.

Within the framework of this programme, researchers can apply for grants for a closed workshop. Eligible are workshops that deal with concrete proposal preparation for a third-party funded project, preparation for an on-site inspection or a kick-off meeting before the official start of the project.

This programme supports approved collaborative projects that require support in the administration of their third-party funds or the administrative organisation of the collaborative. Research fields and research foci can apply for an administrative assistant (TVL E6) in the amount of 25% or 50% within the framework of this measure.