Funding opportunities

Several funding programmes are available for young academics at the Göttingen Campus:

If you are part of the University, check out the Research Department, here and (for EU projects) here and Göttingen International for Education and Mobility programmes. If you are part of the wider Göttingen Campus see the GAUSS page. You may like to sign up to FIT (Forschung Internationales Transfer) which provides current calls from a range of funders. You can subscribe to FIT and select the type of calls and how often you want to be informed. Postdocs will also find this funding website useful - Research in Germany.

Upcoming Funding opportunities

Sorted by deadline

October

  • Daimler Benz Postdoc Scholarship: for early career researchers in any field; the Foundation is delighted to receive applications from hitherto underrepresented fields such as humanities, social sciences and cultural studies. The annual subsidy is €20k which is granted for two years to finance academic assistance, technical equipment, research visits or participation in conferences as well as access to their network of scholars. Deadline: 1 October
     
  • Lichtenberg-Kolleg / Göttingen Institute for Advanced Study: Call for Proposals- The Lichtenberg-Kolleg invites faculty members of the University of Göttingen to submit proposals to set up thematic research groups and/or to invite individual scholars as fellows for the academic years 2021-2023. Due to recent events the deadline has been extended to 5 October.
     
  • Gerald D Feldman Travel Grants – for internationally oriented postdocs and early career scientists. The intention is to improve the professional opportunities for humanities and social scientists. Applicants must carry out a research project of their choosing in at least 2 or 3 host counties of the institutes and branches of the MWS or the Richard Koebner Minerva Centre for German History. Visits last up to one month in each country and are for research, especially in libraries or archives. Contact Tim Urban with any queries.  Deadline: 9 October
     
  • Schilling Forschungspreis (Neuroscience): €20k to support early career scientists, up to the age of 35. The prerequisite is outstanding research as shown by publications by someone working in a German laboratory or a German national working abroad. All fields of neuroscience are welcome. Deadline: 15 October

  • Deutsch-Französische Hochschule event-funding  to support early career researchers (summer schools/research workshops) in any discipline. Projects should be led by two partners – one German and one French and primarily aimed at MSc, PhD students or postdocs. Funds are €2,000-€15,000 per project. Please check themes which include for 2020, a general theme, “climate change and sustainability” and “Artificial intelligence and its challenges in Europe”.  For queries, email Frau Leprévost. Deadline: 15 October

  • Joint research projects with researchers in Africa (DFG) –Research on neglected tropical infectious diseases in humans and animals including their social and behavioural aspects. Funds given to establish balanced partnerships for mutual benefit, sustainable support of junior African scientists in their home countries to contribute to the development of research capacities in Africa, strengthening of intra-African scientific networking. Contact by email.Deadline: 28 October

  • Hector Research Career Development Award for applicants who completed their PhD within the last 7 years, hold a W1 professorship or are leading a junior research group (eg Emmy Noether, ERC Starting Grant or similar), in natural sciences, engineering, medicine or psychology and hoping for a full professorship/habilitation. Funding of €25k, plus 1 doctoral position for 3 years plus membership of HFA (Hector Fellow Academy) provided for an outstanding research project plus access to a network of top scientists. Deadline: 30 October

  • Hochschulwettbewerb – Bioökonomie – zeigt eure Forschung!Students and early career researchers in any field can apply to develop projects on the topic of Bioeconomy. The idea is to make your research accessible in an interactive way, funding prize is €10,000. Deadline: 30 October

November

  • Azrieli International Postdoctoral Fellowship: provides funding for eligible international applicants to conduct research in any academic discipline at accredited institutions in Israel. Their focus is on supporting excellence and enabling multidisciplinary study to break down academic silos, encourage creative thinking and drive solutions to the world’s most pressing issues. Deadline: 1 November
     
  • Minerva Short-term Research Grants are for short-term exchanges between German and Israeli scientists, funded jointly by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) and the Israeli Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST). Contact Michael Nagel. Deadline: 2 November
     
  • The Universitätsbund Göttingen e.V. conference funding (info in German) supports (among many other initiatives) scientific and cultural events at our University, eg by providing assistance for excursions and conference trips or funding to organise conferences or lecture series. Conference trips can be applied for at any time as long as there is at least 4 weeks before the start of the trip. The funds do not cover hospitality, daily allowances or student helpers. Deadline likely to be 10 November
     
  • Max-Eder Junior Research Group by the Deutsche Krebshilfe – for highly qualified early-career oncologists under 35 years old at the date of application who wish to establish their own independent working group and develop their scientific career. Deadline: 12 November
     
  • Mildred-Scheel Postdoc Programme – for early-career doctors and natural scientists (PhD within last 10 years, under 35 years old, permanent resident in Germany) to carry out clinically oriented basic oncology research or clinical cancer research abroad. Deadline: 12 November
     
  • DFG: Priority Programme “Theoretical Foundations of Deep Learning” – proposals are invited to address a genuine contribution to the understanding and the theoretical foundations of deep learning. Deadline: 30 November
     
  • Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften: Forschung, Vernetzung, Perspektiven (in German) – BMBF funding for accompanying projects that will support inernationalisation and networking of the humanities and social sciences and contribute to the development of this area through research. Deadline: 30 November
     
  • DAAD Stipends for students and postdocs to take part in the JSPS Summer Program in Japan: aims to give German graduates and postdocs an insight into the Japanese cultural and scientific landscape to gain experience into the Japanese research environment. The funding covers a visit between June and August. Deadline: 30 November

December and later

  • DFG Priority Programme “META-REP”: a meta-scientific programme to analyse and optimise replicability in the Behavioural, Social, and Cognitive Sciences – project funding for 3 years which will contribute significantly to the debate by describing and defining “replication”, explaining why they vary across disciplines and evaluating measures to increase replication rates. Scholars interested in submitting a proposal (in English) should attend the preparatory meeting on 28 September at 14:00 (deadline for registration 11 September). Deadline: 2 December
     
  • DFG Priority Programme “Systems Ecology of Soils – energy discharge modulated by microbiome and boundary conditions (SoilSystems)” applications particularly invited from interdisciplinary teams. Deadline: 15 December
     
  • NCN-DFG Calls for joint Polish German Proposals – National Science Centre (NCN) and the German Research Foundation (DFG) launch joint funding initiatives for all fields of science and the humanities open to Polish-German joint proposals. Deadline: 15 December
     
  • Alexander von Humboldt/JSPS short-term and standard research stipends for postdocs: supports postdocs from Germany in any field of study in a research project in Japan. Research stays can be 1-12 months or 12-24 months. Deadline: 4 January
     
  • Indo-German Fundamental Research Projects in Life Sciences: funded by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation), this provides funding for teams of Indian and German researchers to seek synchronised funding for integrated Indo-German cutting-edge fundamental research projects proposing innovative approaches in the academic disciplines covered by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India, with a duration of up to three years. All areas of the life sciences are covered (including pandemics). Contact: Matthias Kieseselbach (DFG India) or Manish Rana (DBT). Call open until 28 February 2021 but proposals should be submitted as soon as possible.

On-going

  • International Scientific Collaborations – MWK
    Every year Göttingen International Department applies to the Ministry of Science and Culture of Lower Saxony for funding to promote scientific cooperation with foreign countries. The aim is to promote grants in particular to initiate and implement sustainable collaborative projects in research and teaching as well as fostering partnerships at university or faculty/department level. Contact: Katharina Schüssler. Deadline: on-going
  • Leopoldina Postdoc Scholarship
    Postdoctoral scientists in Germany, Austria and Switzerland who already show independence in natural science or medicine to conduct research abroad. Contact: PD Dr Andreas Clausing, Deadline: 4 times a year and applications can be submitted at any time.
  • Fritz Thyssen Foundation Research Stipends
    to support highly qualified individual junior scholars who received their doctoral degree one or two years ago. Funding in the following areas: history, language and culture; interdisciplinary field “image-sound-language”; state, economy and society; medicine and the natural sciences. Contact, applications can be submitted at any time and an answer is generally provided within 8 weeks.
  • TWAS – The World Academy of Sciences offers postdoctoral fellowships lasting from 6 months to 3 years, for scientists from developing countries who have recently earned their PhD. Several programmes and deadlines, check the link above for more details.
  • Feodor Lynen Research Fellowship– The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation provides sponsorship for research stays worldwide (length of 6 to 24 months for postdocs), for researchers from Germany in all disciplines and all career stages. Applicants choose an academic host from some 15,000 academics in the Humboldt Network abroad. Apply at any time, selection committee meetings in February, June and October
  • The Göttingen International Monthly Alert provides information about international and national calls for funding, for researchers and students. If you have any questions regarding a call, please get in touch directly with the organisers or respective institution. Read the Monthly Alert for July 2019 here and subscribe here.

  • Walter Benjamin Programme. This programme enables researchers in the postdoctoral training phase to independently conduct their own research project at a location of their choice for 2 years. The project can be carried out at a research institution in Germany or abroad, with the host institution providing support for the project. Applications can be submitted at any time. Frequently asked questions are here.  Contacts are subject-specific and can be found here.