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Information für die Wissenschaft Nr. 80 | 17. Oktober 2022

International Cooperation: Standing Open Proposal Submission Opportunities in the Individual Grants Programme

The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) maintains cooperation agreements with a number of funding organisations in Europe and worldwide that offer complementary funding possibilities in order to facilitate transnational research activities. In addition to funding opportunities in the framework of calls for proposals with deadlines that the DFG issues with some funding organisations (see link under further information), the DFG has agreements for so-called Standing Open Procedures, in which proposals can be handed in at any time (at least from the DFG’s end).

Standing Open Procedures within Europe

In Europe the DFG currently collaborates with the following organisations in the Weave Lead Agency Initiative:

  • Austria, Austrian Science Fund (FWF)
  • Belgium, Research Foundation Flanders (FWO)
  • Belgium, Fund for Scientific Research (F.R.S.-FNRS)
  • Czech Republic, Czech Science Foundation (GACR)
  • Luxembourg, Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR)
  • Poland, National Science Centre (NCN)
  • Switzerland, Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)

Weave is a bottom-up funding mechanism with no additional restrictions regarding the thematic focus or subject matter covered by the proposals, other than those provided for by the relevant national and/or regional funding mechanisms.

The DFG funding scheme open to Weave is the Individual Research Grants Programme (“Sachbeihilfe”). Within Weave researchers from two up to three European countries or regions are able to submit a collaborative research proposal. Weave is based on the Lead Agency Procedure principle. The jointly written proposal is submitted to the organisation acting as the Lead Agency. The Lead Agency carries out the review process according to its own rules and forwards the results to the other funding organisation(s) involved. Funding decisions are made based on these review reports – separately in each case. The DFG and the respective partner organisation(s) only provide funding for joint research projects upon positive funding decisions on both/all sides. Unilateral funding of only one part of the research project is not possible.

Proposals with the DFG as the Lead Agency can be submitted at any time. Please note that other funders within Weave may have specific rules and may have deadlines. Therefore, please refer to both the DFG’s website and the other organisations’ websites for detailed information on eligibility requirements, proposal preparation, submission procedures etc. (see links below). In particular, we would like to draw your attention to the DFG’s “Supplementary Instructions for Proposals for Cross-Border Cooperation under the Weave Lead Agency Procedure (Weave LAP)” (DFG form 54.019).

In addition, DFG collaborates within a bilateral Lead Agency agreement with:

  • South Tyrol (Italy), Autonome Provinz Bozen

In this case, the DFG always acts as the Lead Agency. For further information please refer to our respective website (see link below).

For proposals with Turkey, see “Standing Open Procedures worldwide”.

Standing Open Procedures worldwide

The DFG collaborates with a number of partner organisations worldwide that offer complementary funding opportunities:

  • Brazil, The São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP): all areas; on the Brazilian side, only researchers who are located in universities/research institutions within the State of São Paulo may apply
  • Colombia, Universidad de los Andes (UNIANDES): all areas
  • Colombia, Universidad de Antioquia (UdeA): all areas
  • Costa Rica, El Consejo Nacional de Rectores (CONARE): all areas
  • India, Indian Council of Social Sciences Research (ICSSR): only for the social sciences and humanities
  • Iran, National Institute for Medical Research Development (NIMAD): only for medicine and parts of life sciences
  • Iran, Iran National Science Foundation (INSF): all areas
  • Turkey, Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey (TÜBITAK): all areas

Projects can be applied for using a parallel application process. Proposals, which have to be written jointly, must be submitted in parallel at the DFG and at the respective partner organisation according to the applicable rules of the respective funding organisation. Researchers in Germany must submit their proposals within the DFG’s Individual Research Grants Programme (“Sachbeihilfe”) in compliance with the guidelines outlined in DFG forms 50.01 and 54.01 (see links below) via the electronic proposal processing system elan-portal. These include the eligibility criteria and proposal preparation instructions for applicants to be funded by the DFG. The review process is carried out separately on each side. The funding organisations make the funding decision on their own based on these review reports. The DFG and the respective partner organisation only provide funding of joint research projects upon positive assessment and funding decisions on both sides. Unilateral funding of only one part of the research project is not possible. Please find further information below.

Further Information

Detailed information on Standing Open Procedures within Europe (Lead Agency Processes):

Detailed information on the partner organisations worldwide (parallel application process with separate review):

Information on Individual Research Grants Programme (Sachbeihilfe):

Further information on elan:

  • The electronic proposal processing system elan-portal can be accessed at https://elan.dfg.de/en(externer Link)
  • After the log-in, please use the respective link “Proposal for a Research Grant” in the Proposal Forms column.
  • If you are using the DFG’s elan system for the first time, please note that you will need to register before you may use the system. Allow at least one business day to process your registration.
  • elan flyer(Download)
  • elan FAQ(Download)

Please note the DFG’s data protection notice on research funding, which can be viewed and downloaded at:

If necessary, please also forward this information to those individuals whose data will be processed by the DFG due to their involvement in your project.

General information on Standing Open Procedures:

Apart from the Standing Open Procedures, DFG also announces specific calls with fixed deadlines for proposal submission together with other countries/partner organisations. Such calls will be announced in separate press releases (Information for Researchers) on the DFG homepage. Please note that no linkages exist between Standing Open Procedure and such specific calls with fixed deadlines for proposal submission:

Further general information on the international cooperation of the DFG:

For international cooperation possibilities within other DFG funding programmes such as the Initiation of International Cooperation or Coordinated Programmes, please contact the DFG’s Head Office:

Questions related to the Standing Open Procedures maybe directed to the responsible contact person for the respective region/country/procedure:

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