Coordinated programmes promote cooperation and structural innovation by encouraging national and international collaboration in areas of current relevance and by concentrating scientific potential at a university.

• Priority Programmes
  A particular feature of the Priority Programme is the nationwide collaboration between its participating researchers.

• Research Training Groups
  Research Training Groups are established by universities to promote early career researchers. They are funded by the DFG for a period of up to nine years. Their key emphasis is on the qualification of doctoral researchers within the framework of a focused research programme and a structured training strategy. Research Training Groups with an interdisciplinary approach are warmly welcomed.

• Collaborative Research Centres
  Collaborative Research Centres are long-term university-based research institutions, established for up to 12 years, in which researchers work together within a multidisciplinary research programme.

• DFG Research Centres
  The primary objective of this programme is to establish a limited number of internationally visible and competitive research centres at German universities.

• Research Units
  A Research Unit is made up of a team of researchers working together on a research project which, in terms of thematic focus, duration and finances, extends beyond the funding options available under the Individual Grants Programme or Priority Programme.

• Clinical Research Units
  Clinical Research Units provide outstanding researchers the opportunity to carry out close, medium-term cooperation in a special research project from the field of disease or patient-oriented clinical research.

• Centres for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences
  Centres for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences are a special type of funding instrument specifically tailored to the working methods used in these particular fields.