Information für die Wissenschaft Nr. 19 | 11. März 2024

Joint Korean-German Research Projects 2024 in the Natural, Life and Engineering Sciences (NRF-DFG 2024)

As an expression of the fruitful scientific collaboration between their two countries, the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) are pleased to announce a new funding opportunity for joint Korean-German research proposals in the natural, life and engineering sciences.

Under this call, funding is provided for joint research projects carried out between highly qualified researchers in the Republic of Korea and their German counterparts. The joint proposals have to be based on a close interaction and exchange between the Korean and German research teams and should present joint project goals and a joint work plan with balanced contributions from all project partners.

The collaborative projects selected to take part in this joint initiative will receive research funding for a period of three years. The NRF will fund the Korean project components, while the DFG will fund the components to be carried out in Germany. Based on written reviews, a joint Korean-German panel will select approximately 20 projects for funding.

Research areas

The present call is open to joint research projects in the fields of natural, life and engineering sciences, excluding the humanities and social sciences.

Submission of project proposals

This bilateral call will be managed via a Lead Agency Procedure. The NRF will act as Lead Agency in this call, i. e. it will be responsible for conducting the written review process and for organising the joint Korean-German panel review. Applicants from Korea must submit a single joint proposal to the NRF on behalf of the combined Korean and German research team, following all formal requirements and using the proposal form provided by the NRF. Applicants from Germany submit the same document to DFG. All documents must be written in English.

In cases where private companies participate in a joint project, all project partners need to sign the DFG’s Model Agreement (link provided below), which the applicants need to submit together with the proposal. The agreement needs to be reviewed and approved by the DFG before a funding decision is made.

For more detailed information on the call, please refer to the NRF call for proposals “KOREA- GERMANY JOINT RESEARCH PROGRAM(K-GJRP) 2024” (see below). Proposals that do not conform to 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 to the NRF by 26 April 2024, 5 pm Korean time, and to the DFG by 26 April 2024, 12 noon CEST. Proposals submitted to only one organisation (NRF or DFG) will not be considered.

Specific instructions for applicants from Korea

The Korean PI is obliged to submit the Korean version of the grant proposal, a process that will be outlined separately on the NRF homepage. This supplementary step is essential to ensure comprehensive project management through the Integrated R&D Information System (IRIS), aligning with the guidelines and requirements set forth by the NRF.

Specific instructions for applicants from Germany

Applicants to be funded by the DFG are required to fulfil the eligibility requirements for the DFG 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 Research Grants Programme, DFG form 50.01.

Together with the proposal submitted to the DFG, a supplement (max. 8 pages) must be prepared for the DFG. This additional document must contain the information required in sections 4 and 5 of the DFG research grant project description – cf. DFG guidelines 53.01 and 54.01. This includes among other information the funds requested from the DFG, following the modules outlined in the DFG guidelines for the Research Grants Programme (DFG form 50.01). It is important to note that 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”.

All proposals to the DFG must be submitted through the 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 “Südkorea-NRF-DFG-Projekte-2024” to tag your proposal for this specific call.

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. Furthermore, 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 16 April 2024. The registration requests are handled manually by the DFG staff.

If an ethics vote is required for the German or Korean part of the project, it must be submitted together with the proposal. However, in exceptional cases, an ethics vote by the responsible local German ethics committee can be submitted no later than three months after proposal submission. Otherwise, the funding organisations may stop processing the application.

Please note that the submission of an ethics vote is also necessary if only the project part abroad is affected, as it is a cooperation project.

Notification of results

Applicants will be informed in writing of the results of the review and, where applicable, of the subsequent administrative steps according to the respective national regulations. The selection of the projects will be completed by the end of 2024.

Good Research Practice

Please note that according to a resolution of the DFG General Assembly, as of 1 August 2019, DFG funding may only be awarded 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. This means that also for international proposals, funding from the DFG can only be received if the guidelines for safeguarding good research practice (see link below) have been implemented by the German applicant´s institution. If you have any questions on this subject, please contact the Research Integrity team at the DFG Head Office (see contact below). Further information regarding the implementation can be found on Research Integrity website (see link below).

Equity and Diversity

The DFG strongly welcomes proposals from researchers of all genders and sexual identities, from different ethnic, cultural, religious, ideological or social backgrounds, from different career stages, types of universities and research institutions, and with disabilities or chronic illness.