At the launch of the call, DFG President Professor Dr. Katja Becker said: “By offering researchers from abroad attractive alternative research prospects and working environments here in Germany, the Global Minds Initiative Germany sends out a powerful signal in response to increasing geopolitical tensions and the growing threats to the freedom of research worldwide. It also provides an excellent opportunity to strengthen Germany as a research hub at this crucial time. This is why the DFG decided to participate in the initiative at a very early stage. We started by deliberately opening up our established individual funding programmes. Now, as a second step, we are providing access to our internationally renowned coordinated programmes, which will themselves be further strengthened as a result.”
Federal Minister of Research Dorothee Bär emphasised the significance of the new funding opportunities for leading international researchers: “The Global Minds Initiative Germany has continued to gain momentum since its launch this summer. The high level of interest demonstrates that Germany is an internationally attractive location for excellent researchers at various career stages. We are already welcoming the first researchers to Germany, particularly those in early career phases. I am delighted that further funding opportunities are now available to established researchers. The DFG’s large-scale consortia offer outstanding research environments for top international talent. In this way we are boosting universities, research institutions and indeed the German science system as a whole. We are also advancing the implementation of the Hightech Agenda Germany: after all, if we want to be among the world leaders in key technologies such as artificial intelligence and microelectronics, we need excellent science and research here in Germany.”
Entitled “Global Minds in DFG Consortia”, the new call for proposals is aimed at researchers who have been working abroad for at least three years at the time of proposal submission. Two funding modules are available: under the Professorships module, researchers from abroad who meet all the requirements for a long-term professorship in Germany can be appointed as members of Clusters of Excellence funded under the Excellence Strategy of the federal and state governments or as members of DFG-funded Collaborative Research Centres and Transregios; meanwhile, the Mercator Fellows Global module enables Collaborative Research Centres, Transregios and Clusters of Excellence to closely integrate researchers working abroad who are not yet seeking a permanent move to the German research system by taking them on as Fellows with a long-term collaborative role. This also includes extended research stays in Germany.
The maximum funding duration is five years. Alongside staff funding for the researchers to be recruited, it is also possible to request additional funding for staff, particularly for doctoral researchers, as well as funding for direct project costs and instrumentation. The call for proposals will remain open until March 2026.
When the call was issued, DFG President Professor Dr. Katja Becker spoke of the “enormous level of interest” shown by researchers abroad in the funding opportunities offered under the Global Minds Initiative Germany, saying that this interest had become evident in recent months at the GAIN conference in Boston and other events in the United States. Becker added that strong demand had also been noted on the joint communication platform operated by the DFG together with the other organisations involved in the initiative, namely the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (AvH) and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD): “And the number of consultations we hold has multiplied compared to previous years.”
The DFG President said that this high level of interest had also translated into a growing number of proposals submitted under the DFG’s individual funding programmes, which had been opened up for the Global Minds Initiative Germany. Here the DFG has already been able to approve funding totalling €12 million in the first phase. “Many of the proposals were of exceptionally high quality, and we are very pleased to have attracted such highly qualified additional researchers to our Emmy Noether and Walter Benjamin Programmes. They are a major asset to our funding portfolio and to the international visibility and competitiveness of research in Germany as a whole.”
Further information:
Media contact:
Head of Press and Public Relations at the DFG, Tel.: +49 228 885-2109, presse@dfg.de
For the full text of the call for proposals “Global Minds in DFG Consortia” in German and English, see the DFG website.
Contact persons at the DFG Head Office for the call:
Dr. Sebastian Granderath, Excellence Strategy and Research Impulses, Tel. +49 228 885-2273, sebastian.granderath@dfg.de
Dr. Helen Neuert, Collaborative Research Centres, Tel. +49 228 885-2958, helen.neuert@dfg.de
For further details, see also the joint DFG, AvH and DAAD website