Individual measures financed from pooled funds (e.g. career or compatibility measures) must be accounted for precisely on a project-specific basis (per network and per participant in the network): documentation must indicate for each project or network which measures were financed (whether fully or proportionately), funds of which project were used and in what amount, who benefited and to what extent. Research networks/projects must be able to provide the DFG with details of the amount of funding expended and what measures it was used to finance.

In cases where the measures require prior organisation in order to be provided, individual research networks and/or projects must draw up a plausible estimate of the need or expected use by staff and set this out in writing as part of the pooling concept.

It is essentially possible for several research networks and/or projects to jointly finance a position dedicated to advising on, organising and coordinating equal opportunity measures (e.g. a position for a gender advisory service) from the Standard Allowance for Gender Equality Measures.

In order to take account of the prohibition of favouritism (“Besserstellungsverbot”), a comparable advisory service – e.g. through the institution’s Equal Opportunities Office – must be available to all academic staff at the institution.

The first requirement for funding a cross-network or cross-project advisory centre is that there is a fundamental need for such a facility. An overall calculation must be drawn up indicating the additional need for the financing of a cross-project position, and this is to be documented internally. The second step involves documenting the need for individual services to be provided by the advisory service and the extent to which these are likely to be used by each research networks/projects.

The extent to which the individual research networks/projects require the advisory services must be determined based on an appropriate allocation key that allows distribution among the relevant research networks/projects.

This can be done by a job description of the advisory service and/or the planned activities and the extent to which these are expected to be used by individual members. This needs assessment must be checked regularly to ensure it is up to date.