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

  • Online Q&A on Feb. 12 (in German) and Feb. 20 (in English)
    April 28, 2025 Deadline (Please note: Application will not be possible until mid-January 2025.)
    further deadline: April 21, 2026

    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
  • November 04, 2025 Deadline (Please note: applications can only be submitted from spring 2025)

    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
  • No open call

    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
  • Next deadline is expected for spring/summer 2025

    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
  • next deadline is expected in spring 2026

    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 | current call: 'Political influences on epistemic practice'