In March 2021, the Senate of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) established the Priority Programme “On the Way to the Fluvial Anthroposphere” (SPP 2361). The programme is designed to run for six years. The present call invites proposals for the second three-year funding period (2026–2029). The submission deadline is 20 June 2025.

SPP 2361 investigates the pre-industrial floodplains in Central Europe and the fluvial societies that operated there. Floodplains are global hotspots of sensitive socio-environmental changes, exceptionally dynamic landscapes and key areas of cultural and natural heritage. Due to their high land-use capacity and the simultaneous necessity of land reclamation and risk minimisation, societies have radically restructured Central European floodplains. This anthropogenic restructuring can be so significant that former floodplains are no longer recognisable as such. The question therefore arises as to whether or when it is justified to understand specific floodplains as a “Fluvial Anthroposphere” and which socio-ecological processes have been involved in their development.

The Priority Programme aims to answer the questions of when and why humans became a significant controlling factor in floodplain formation and how humans in interaction with natural processes modified floodplains. It will clarify the extent to which short-term and long-term natural floodplain dynamics together with early human impacts affected subsequent developments and led to path dependencies. The Priority Programme encourages project proposals from archaeology, the geosciences and history that analyse the interaction of humans and their environments in the emergence of the Fluvial Anthroposphere through multidisciplinary and cutting-edge methodological approaches.

The spatial focus of individual projects must be on the Elbe, Rhine and Danube river systems, either one system, two systems or all three, in order to compare specific pathways of the gradual build-up of anthropogenic impacts on the floodplains as well as the development of interrelated fluvial societies. From a spatial perspective, projects must strictly focus on socio-natural sites in the floodplain itself with an emphasis on large to medium-scale tributaries (second and third order). In the second funding period (2026–2029), the focus should be on in-depth analysis and comparative perspectives of case studies, categorisations and transferable models at both intra- and inter-basin scales, particularly building on the results of the first funding period.

Projects must focus on the medieval and pre-industrial modern periods and be based upon the systematic overlay of historical, archaeological and geoscientific data that requires the methodological expertise of at least one discipline in the natural sciences and one in the humanities. However, earlier and later dimensions may be added to complement the medieval and pre-industrial focus in order to identify, quantify and assess anthropogenic changes and develop parameters and their related boundary levels towards and within the Fluvial Anthroposphere.

Each project must contribute to and theoretically reflect the concept and key hypothesis of a pre-modern emergence of a Fluvial Anthroposphere in the context of the global Anthroposphere/Anthropocene debate. All projects must contribute to innovative thematic and/or methodological developments of this research field and commit to a systematic cross-project classification framework based on (semi-)quantitative indices of anthropogenic impacts and their further joint development. This should particularly build on the results and research data management infrastructure of the first funding period.

Our specific thematic objectives are:

• recovery and modelling of social response mechanisms to abrupt events in floodplains (e.g. extreme flood events). We particularly encourage systematic studies that focus on palaeohydrological and socio-cultural key control variables;
• recovery and modelling of long-term social responses towards medium- and long-term changes in flood regimes and floodplain accessibility (e.g. social adaption and wetland colonisation strategies);
• reconstruction and modelling of floodplain land use and direct human impact on modifications of riparian vegetation by new multi-proxy approaches;
• reconstruction and modelling of the effects of fishing, hunting, hydro-engineering and floodplain habitat changes on faunal biodiversity by means of diachronic synthesis;
• cross-period syntheses of the history of hydro-energy exploitation and related socio-natural sites, path dependencies and impacts;
• reconstruction and modelling of impacts of craft, manufacturing and mining on floodplain dynamics and pollution;
• recovery of socio-ecological and environmental significances of river crossings, especially approaches that recover the diachronic history and path dependencies of river crossings and associated socio-natural processes;
• cross-period syntheses of the history of land reclamation and related socio-natural floodplain sites;
• cross-period syntheses of the history of channel engineering and inland navigation and related socio-natural floodplain sites, especially the interplay with floodplain environments and socio-economic strategies and the conflicts between parties with competing interests; and
• recovery of the interaction of rights and conflict management by systematic and comparative approaches that study floodplain evolution and the associated fluvial societies.

Projects should explore new methods and approaches that are critical to understanding the transition to the Fluvial Anthroposphere.

Please submit your proposal to the DFG by 20 June 2025. Proposals are to be submitted solely via the elan portal(externer Link), the DFG’s electronic proposal processing system, in order to ensure proposal-related data is recorded and documents are securely transmitted.

Proposals can be submitted using the modules from the “Individual Research Grants” (Sachbeihilfe) programme, including the “Temporary Positions for Principal Investigators” (Eigene Stelle) module. Funding for cross-project workshops and annual meetings will be covered by the Priority Programme centrally.

When preparing your proposal, please note the Guidelines Priority Programme (DFG form 50.05(interner Link), section B “Individual Projects within Existing Priority Programmes”) and the Proposal Preparation Instructions – Project Proposals (DFG form 54.01(interner Link)). These forms are available on the DFG website and through the elan portal.

If this is the first time you are submitting a proposal to the DFG, please note that you must register in the elan portal before you can submit your proposal. You must do so by 13 June 2025. You will normally receive confirmation of your registration by the next working day.

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. With regard to the subject-specific focus of this call, the DFG encourages female researchers in particular to submit proposals.

Good Research Practice

According to a resolution of the DFG General Assembly, DFG funding may only be awarded to research institutions that have implemented the guidelines laid down in the Code of Conduct for Safeguarding Good Research Practice(externer Link) in their own regulations. The management of your institution is responsible for implementing the guidelines in a legally binding manner. In order to avoid delays in the disbursement of funding, please verify implementation within your institution in good time. For information regarding the implementation, please refer to the Research Integrity Portal(externer Link). If you have any questions on this subject, please contact the Research Integrity team(externer Link) at the DFG Head Office. 

Further Information 

Detailed information on the Priority Programme is available at: www.physes.uni-leipzig.de/fluviale-anthroposphaere(externer Link).

When submitting a proposal, please use the elan portal(externer Link) and refer to the Guidelines Priority Programme (DFG form 50.05)(interner Link), section B “Individual Projects within Existing Priority Programmes”), and the Proposal Preparation Instructions – Project Proposals (DFG form 54.01)(interner Link). The FAQ about preparing a proposal(interner Link) may also be helpful.

For enquiries about the scientific aims of the Priority Programme, please contact the Priority Programme coordinator

Professor Dr. Christoph Zielhofer, Universität Leipzig, Fakultät für Physik und Geowissenschaften, Institut für Geographie, phone +49 341 9732965, zielhofer@uni-leipzig.de(externer Link)

Contact Persons at the DFG Head Office

Programme contact

Dr. Christoph Kümmel, Humanities and Social Sciences 1, phone +49 228 885-2294, christoph.kuemmel@dfg.de(externer Link)

Administrative contact

Sabine Thomas, Humanities and Social Sciences 1, phone +49 228 885-2810, sabine.thomas@dfg.de(externer Link)

Privacy Policy

We, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation), take the protection of your personal data and its confidential treatment extremely seriously. Therefore, please refer to the DFG’s Privacy Policy(interner Link). If you intend to transmit personal data of third parties, please make sure to do so only if the necessary legitimation under data protection law exist. Before transmitting data of third parties to the DFG, please forward the DFG’s Data Protection Notice to the individuals affected (data subjects). If there is a legitimate interest not to inform individuals beforehand (e.g. for reasons of secrecy or in case of a nomination or candidate proposal), these individuals should be informed no later than at the time of publication.