(26.08.22) At the beginning of August, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) and the regional government of the Autonomous Province of Bolzano – South Tyrol extended their joint funding agreement. DFG Vice President Professor Dr. Britta Siegmund and South Tyrol’s Governor Arno Kompatscher signed the cooperation agreement at an event promoting the German-speaking research area at the Landhaus in Bolzano, which was also attended by high-ranking representatives of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), as well as numerous researchers from Italy, Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

In addition to the DFG, the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) likewise extended its cooperation agreement with South Tyrol; the Austrian Science Fund FWF extended its funding agreement in this regard last year and was represented at the event by Vice President Professor Dr. Georg Kaser. The signing of the agreements took place as part of a larger event attended by more than 50 participants which was dedicated to research and innovation in South Tyrol, with the aim of intensifying and internationalising research activities at South Tyrolean research institutions and at the Free University of Bolzano.

The province of South Tyrol took the opportunity offered by the conference to take stock of research cooperation in the German-speaking research area and presented current collaborative cross-border projects. Since no systematic research funding or comparable science foundations exist in Italy, the Autonomous Province of Bolzano has set up its own funding programmes under the "South Tyrol Research Initiative”. This began cooperation with the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) in 2018, and with the German Research Foundation (DFG), the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) and the Luxembourg National Science Foundation (FNR) in 2020.

Since the start of the new funding line at the beginning of 2019, 129 project proposals with South Tyrolean involvement have been received by the FWF, SNF, DFG and FNR. Together with the province of South Tyrol, the DFG is currently funding project participation in the areas of climate and geological research, ecology and biodiversity, and also linguistics. For this reason, DFG Vice President Siegmund spoke in her welcoming address of the “success story of these bilateral and multilateral networks that will continue to be an engine of European research development”. The concrete examples of projects showed how successfully collaborative research in these consortia is able to respond to current challenges.

By extending the agreement, the DFG will continue to accept proposals for collaborative projects involving researchers from Germany and South Tyrol until the end of 2026. Project proposals can be submitted under the Research Grants programme and coordinated procedures in all disciplines. The usual DFG rules apply in terms of proposal eligibility on the German side, including the collaboration requirement. The South Tyrolean partners must also be eligible to apply to the province of South Tyrol.

Proposals for collaborative projects with the province of South Tyrol are always submitted to the DFG under the lead agency procedure, i.e. the review process is carried out by the DFG. The results of the review, evaluation and decision-making process are then communicated by the DFG to the Province of South Tyrol. In the event of a positive decision by the DFG, the project partners from South Tyrol submit a so-called contribution proposal to the province of South Tyrol in accordance with the guidelines that apply there. The project can only be funded by the DFG if the province of South Tyrol likewise approves the contribution proposal.

• Further information on the proposal submission procedure (In German only)