Profile area Understanding Research – Evaluation and Science Practice

Hand hält Bücherstapel in die Höhe

With this profile area, the Foundation aims to promote research on science and provide targeted impulses for the structural improvement of research as well as academic teaching. To this end, it focuses on three thematic areas: namely, science cultures, science careers and science discourses. The aim is to evaluate, initiate and facilitate necessary changes in important areas of the science system. Points of reference here are, for example, standards of research and ethics, review procedures, evaluation and publications, career and governance.

The profile area "Understanding Research" aims to

  • promote the generation of knowledge about science as well as the evaluation, communication and strategic application of the findings;
  • open up scope for scientists and scholars to engage in original research at crucial junctures in their careers;
  • support the careers of researchers via joint cooperation in and with other social systems and through qualification at the interfaces;
  • strengthen academic freedom in teaching and research and promote constructive public discourse on the topic;
  • create experimental spaces for improving the structural parameters of research, teaching and transfer.

Current funding offers within the profile area

  • Illustration mit zwei Personen, die sich hinter einem Aktenstapel abklatschen, darüber fliegt eine Rakete, auf der eine Schnecke sitzt
    13 August 2025 Online Q&A (Registration Required)
    30 September 2025 Deadline
    11 September 2026: Meeting for Funded Projects

    Impetus for the German Science System: Strategic Experimental Spaces – University Development Requires Flexibility

    The Foundation invites universities, in conjunction with the relevant ministries, to open and design experimental spaces to test new forms of cross-border or cross-institutional cooperation.

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    • type of funding: strategic projects
    • aimed at: universities, ministries
  • Illustration with three people high-fiving each other
    30 October 2025 Deadline

    Researching Research: Summer Schools & Workshops

    The program addresses scholars from diverse disciplinary backgrounds working on questions or topics relating to research on research.

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    • area of research: disciplines conducting research on research
    • type of funding: summer schools and workshops
  • Illustration mit einem Gewichtheber im Anzug, der Bücher stemmt
    04 November 2025 Deadline

    Opus Magnum

    The funding offer is aimed at outstanding professors from the humanities and social sciences.

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    • area of research: humanities, cultural studies and social sciences
    • type of funding: funding of a substitute professorship
  • Illustration of a woman with a laptop in a hot air balloon powered by fans
    14 April 2026 Deadline
    06 April 2027 Deadline

    Momentum – Funding for Recently Tenured Professors

    The funding offer is aimed at professors three to five years after taking up their first tenured professorship at a university in Germany.

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    • area of research: all disciplines
    • type of funding: concepts for the broadening of perspectives
  • Illustration with two people next to a telescope pointing at the sky
    No open call
    11 September 2026: Meeting of funded projects

    Pioneer Projects – Impetus for the German Research System

    The funding offer addresses active researchers who, in addition to their research activities, would like to explore a project idea for the further development (of a specific area) of the German research system, as well as academic administrators at universities and research institutions in Germany.

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    • area of research: all disciplines
    • type of funding: Innovative pioneer projects aiming at improving the (German) research system
  • Illustration of two people with magnifying glasses looking at a building labelled "Scientia"
    No open call

    Researching Research: Collaborative Research Projects

    The funding scheme is aimed at scientists and scholars of all career stages from postdoc onwards who work on issues related to research on research. The Foundation promotes interdisciplinary, multi-method and internationally oriented research projects.

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    • area of research: disciplines conducting research on research
    • type of funding: research projects