Funding Opportunities for Joint German-Mexican Research Projects (UNAM-DFG)
Within the scope of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), which was signed in September 2022, a first joint call for German-Mexican research projects is launched.
This initiative aims to bring together relevant and competitive researchers from Germany and UNAM to design and carry out jointly organised research projects of outstanding scientific quality. Funding within this initiative will be available for collaborative research projects consisting of researchers from Germany and from UNAM. Within these research teams, each national funding organisation will generally only fund those project components that are carried out within its own country (DFG in Germany and UNAM in Mexico). The collaborative research projects must involve active communication and cooperation between the participating researchers.
There are no separate funds available for these efforts; proposals must succeed on the strengths of their intellectual merit and teams in competition with all other proposals in the funding programme “Sachbeihilfe/Research Grants”.
The collaborative projects selected to take part in the initiative will receive research funding for a period of up to three years.
Research areas
The present initiative is open to joint research projects in all fields of research, social sciences and humanities.
Eligibility
Funding is available for bilateral collaborative research projects comprising researchers from Germany and UNAM in Mexico. Within a research project, contributions from Germany and UNAM should be balanced with regard to the scientific contents. Applicants are required to fulfil any national requirements for funding and follow the general regulations of their respective funding organisation (see below). Proposals that do not meet these requirements will not be considered.
Evaluation procedure and criteria for project selection
The assessment of all proposals will be based on a peer review process at both the DFG and UNAM. The results of these review processes will be shared between the DFG and UNAM. Support will be granted for those proposals where both DFG and UNAM recommend funding. Unilateral funding of only one part of a joint initiative will not be possible.
The usual review criteria for proposals submitted to the DFG apply (DFG form 10.206). UNAM applies their usual criteria for their reviews.
Allowable costs
All requested cost items must be in accordance with the respective national administrative regulations. At the DFG, only costs for the German share of the projects are eligible. At UNAM, only costs of the Mexican share of the projects are eligible according to the regulations of UNAM.
Submission of project proposals
Applicants for a bilateral collaborative project within this call must submit their joint proposal to their national funding organisation. Mexican principal investigators (PI) of UNAM submit their documents to UNAM, German PIs to the DFG, following the formal requirements of their respective funding organisation. All documents must be written in English. Please note that the documents submitted to the DFG and UNAM must not differ with regard to the scientific content of the proposal and with regard to the applicants involved.
Additional requirements for German and Mexican applicants are specified below. Proposals arriving late and/or are not fulfilling the national requirements will not be considered. No legal entitlement can be derived from the submission of a project description.
All proposals must be submitted by 3 February 2023.
Specific instructions for applicants from Germany
Proposals can be submitted in the Individual Research Grants Programme (“Sachbeihilfe”).
Applicants to be funded by the DFG are required to fulfil the eligibility requirements of DFG´s Individual Research Grants Programme. This includes the duty to cooperate (“Kooperationspflicht”) within Germany for members of non-university institutions with permanent positions. For more information see the corresponding guidelines for the Individual Research Grants Programme (DFG form 50.01 and 55.01).
Proposals within this call must be prepared according to the Proposal Preparation Instructions (DFG form 54.01).
Please note additionally:
The project description must describe the joint project.
While the electronic budget figures via elan only have to be provided for the German applicant(s), the proposal itself should contain not only the German budget part but a budget overview for the Mexican part as well, to provide appropriate information to the reviewers.
In the proposal submitted by the German applicant(s) to the DFG, an academic curriculum vitae for all Mexican PIs should be submitted to complete the reviewers’ information. In the DFG proposal and the electronic submission procedure in elan all Mexican partners who apply for funding at UNAM need to be recorded under the category “Other Participating Individuals” > “Cooperation Partners”. Employees whose positions are requested for funding should not be assigned to this category.
All proposals must be submitted through DFG´s electronic proposal processing system (elan). After logging in, please use the link “Proposal for a Research Grant” in the Proposal Forms column (Proposal Submission > New Project > Individual Grants Programme > Proposal for a Research Grant). Please select “MEXICO UNAM 2022 – Joint Research Grants” to tag your proposal for this specific call.
As mentioned, all proposals must be submitted by 3 February 2023. If you are using the elan system for the first time, please note that you need to register yourself and your institutional addresses before you are able to submit a proposal. Also, if you are planning to move to a different institution, you need to register the new institutional address beforehand. Please make sure that all applicants for your project (if there is more than one) start their registration no later than 25 January 2023. The registration requests are handled manually by the DFG staff.
Please note the DFG’s data protection notice on research funding, which can be viewed and downloaded at the DFG website (see link below). If necessary, please also forward this information to those persons whose data the DFG processes because they are involved in your project.
Specific instructions for applicants from UNAM
UNAM-applicants are kindly requested to conform to all the requirements listed in the UNAM call for proposals that is published on the UNAM-website and to submit their documents to UNAM.
Notification of results
Applicants will be informed of the results of the review and, where applicable, of the subsequent administrative steps according to the respective national regulations in written form. The selection of the projects will be completed by the end of 2023.
Guidelines for Safeguarding Good Research Practice
Please note that according to a resolution of the DFG General Assembly, since 1 August 2019, DFG funding may only be granted to institutions that have implemented the guidelines laid down in the Code of Conduct for Safeguarding Good Research Practice in their own regulations in a legally binding manner.
For international proposals, this means that funding from the DFG can only be granted if the guidelines for ensuring good research practice (see link below) have been implemented. If you have any questions on this subject, please contact the Scientific Integrity team at the DFG Head Office (see contact below). Further information regarding implementation can be found at the webpage on Scientific Integrity (see link below).
Further Information
To submit a proposal to the DFG, please follow the “Guidelines for the Research Grants Programme“ (form 50.01) and the ”Proposal Preparation Instructions – Project Proposals” (form 54.01) under:
General information for German principal investigators on research grants may be found at:
Further general information on elan:
General information for Mexican principal investigators at UNAM may be found here (in Spanish):
DFG’s data protection notice on research funding:
Please note the DFG’s data protection notice on research funding. 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:
Guidelines for Safeguarding Good Research Practice. Code of Conduct:
Information on the implementation of the Guidelines for Safeguarding Good Research Practice. Code of Conduct:
Contact of the DFG´s Scientific Integrity team (Good Research Practice):
Contact person at the DFG in Bonn, Germany:
For questions concerning international cooperation with Mexico:
- Dr. Dietrich Halm
phone +49 228 885-2347
dietrich.halm@dfg.d
Contact person at UNAM, Mexico:
- Dra. Claudia C. Mendoza Rosales
phone +52 55 5665-3265 and 55 5622-6257
dda_direccion@dgapa.unam.m