National funding

Who offers funding?

German Research Foundation (DFG)

The DFG funds basic research on all topics and for all disciplines. In most funding lines, a proposal can be submitted by the applicant at any time. Researchers with a doctorate are eligible to apply.

Find more information on the DFG's website.

Please note: When submitting a grant proposal to the DFG, the rules set by the DFG oblige you to notify the local DFG liaison person of your submission by sending the PDF of your Elan portal receipt to dfg-meldung[at]uni-kassel[dot]de.

Federal ministries

Alongside the DFG, the federal ministries are among the most important funding bodies. The themed calls for proposals address funding policy topics with benefits for society. Most of them are application-oriented collaborative projects.

Federal funding database [German]


Hessian state funding

The Hessian Ministry of Science and Research, Art and Culture offers various options for research funding:

State offensive for the development of scientific and economic excellence - LOEWE

The state program LOEWE (Landesoffensive zur Entwicklung wissenschaftlich-ökonomischer Exzellenz) provides targeted science policy impulses to strengthen the Hessian research landscape in a positive and sustainable way. The calls for proposals are open to all topics; in addition to collaborative projects, explorative individual projects can also be submitted.

Please note that for the funding lines "Centers" and "Priorities" there is an internal university pre-selection. Information on this can be found here.

Strengthening democracy research

The Strengthening Democracy Research Hesse programme aims to make our democracy more resilient against extremism and polarization. The program offers a total of seven funding lines in various formats, from knowledge networks to alliances to funding awards.

Women's and gender studies

Hessen funds projects that anchor women's and gender studies at Hessian universities, further develop them in all scientific disciplines and support the development of a profile for women's studies in Hessen.


Foundations

Foundations as funding providers differ from one another in terms of size, profile, but also the range of funding offered, hence only a few examples are given here. Some funding formats of certain foundations are very prestigious, e.g. those of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation or the Volkswagen Foundation.

Volkswagen Foundation website

Robert Bosch Foundation website

Fritz Thyssen Foundation website

Gerda Henkel Foundation website


Contact us

Individual projects:
Proposal submission fully or partly by the individual researcher, sometimes requiring sign-off by the provost or similar: DFG Individual Research Grant, DFG Research Group, ministry funding, foundation funding, etc.

  • Dr. Anna Bauer
  • Dr. Nina Felgen

Cooperative projects:
Proposal submission only institutionally via the university presidential board:
SFB/TRRs, RTGs etc.

  • Dr. Katrin Steinack
Head of department
Name, ForenameContact
Dr. Steinack, Katrin
National and international funding - cooperative projects, export control
Adviser
Name, ForenameContact
Dr. Bauer, Anna
National and international funding - Internal funding, DFG, FMER, foundations , EU consortia
Dr. Felgen, Nina
National funding - LOEWE, DFG, FMER, foundations, awards

Not sure whom to contact?
Feel free to ask us!