The pursuit of scientific goals recognises no geographic boundaries and as such, international collaborations are today more the norm than the exception. To facilitate the support of collaborative work between US groups and their German counterparts, the Civil Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation Division of the US National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Division of Engineering of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) have agreed on a lead-agency activity in Advanced Manufacturing in 2020. US researchers are invited to read the Dear Colleague Letter NSF 22-013. In this information for researchers the extension of the existing cooperation NSF’s Advanced Manufacturing programme and DFG’s review board 401 Production Technology by DFG’s review board 405 Materials Engineering is announced.

Scope of the Collaboration

US-German collaborations are invited to submit joint proposals which fall into the scope NSF’s Advanced Manufacturing programme and DFG’s review boards 401 Production Technology or 405 Materials Engineering.

These proposals will be reviewed in a review panel according to the NSF review guidelines (including the NSF review criteria) in competition with other proposals received in the same NSF programme. A member of DFG’s review boards will be involved in the review process.

It is important to note that there are no separate funds available for these efforts on each side; proposals must compete with all other proposals in this area. The result of the review process will be shared between the agencies to make final decisions on this basis. Support will be granted for those proposals with both DFG and NSF recommendation for funding.

Proposal Preparation

• The eligibility to submit a proposal follows the regulations for the NSF and DFG programmes for individual funding respectively. If in doubt, researchers are strongly encouraged to contact the corresponding programme officers.
• Proposals must be prepared in accordance with the proposal preparation requirements of the NSF. This includes a description of the full proposed research programme, and the research team, as well as the funds requested from the NSF. Please be aware that only this proposal will be reviewed.
• In parallel a supplement (max. 8 pages) must be prepared for the DFG. It must contain the information required in sections 4 to 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 DFG.
• The proposal must preface the title with “NSF-DFG:”.
• Please note that for the part to be financed by DFG only those projects are eligible that fall within DFG’s funding responsibility and that fit into the funding scheme “Sachbeihilfe/Research Grants”.
• Applicants to be funded by the DFG are requested to fulfill the eligibility requirements of DFG Research Grants, see the corresponding guidelines of the Research Grants Programme (DFG form 50.01). This includes the duty to cooperate (“Kooperationspflicht”) within Germany for members of non-university institutions with permanent positions.
• Transfer projects for DFG and GOALI projects for NSF are not possible in this collaboration.

Submission

• Proposals are accepted anytime. No specific deadlines apply.
• The proposal must first be submitted to NSF’s Advanced Manufacturing programme via Fastlane.
• After receiving the proposal number issued by the NSF, the proposal has to be submitted to the DFG via elan. The submission to DFG must contain the full original proposal submitted to the NSF, the aforementioned supplement and a cover letter stating the NSF proposal number (this is needed for matching the submissions).
• The submission to DFG must select its primary subject area from the DFG review boards 401 or 405.

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.

Further Information

The elan system can be accessed at:

• https://elan.dfg.de/en

DFG forms 50.01, 53.01 and 54.01 can be downloaded at:

• www.dfg.de/formulare/50_01
• www.dfg.de/formulare/53_01_elan
• www.dfg.de/formulare/54_01

DFG’s data protection notice on research funding:

• www.dfg.de/privacy_policy

NSF’s Dear Colleague Letter:

• www.nsf.gov/pubs/2022/nsf22013/nsf22013.jsp

Points of Contact

NSF (Civil Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation):

• Y. Kevin Chou
  phone +1 703 292-8360
  ychou@nsf.gov
• Khershed Cooper
  phone +1 703 292-7017
  khcooper@nsf.gov
• Bruce Kramer
  phone +1 703 292-5348
  bkramer@nsf.gov
• Thomas Kuech
  phone +1 703 292-2218
  tkuech@nsf.gov
• Andrew Wells
  phone +1 703 292-7225
  awells@nsf.gov

DFG (Office North America):

• Bettina Schuffert
  phone +1 202 729-6350
  bettina.schuffert@dfg.de

DFG (Head Office – Engineering Sciences I):
For proposals in scope of the review board 401 Production Technology

• Wieland Biedermann
  phone +49 228 885-2023
  wieland.biedermann@dfg.de

For proposals in scope of the review board 405 Materials Engineering

• Christiane Richter
  phone +49 228 885-2749
  christiane.richter@dfg.de

Administrative questions can be directed to

• Carina Leber
  phone +49 228 885-2377
  carina.leber@dfg.de

Edit (March 2022):

Changes were made to the "Proposal Preparation" section in the 3rd bullet point.

• In parallel a supplement (max. 10 pages) must be prepared for the DFG. It must contain the information required in sections 5 to 7 of the DFG research grant project description – cf. DFG guidelines 53.01 and 54.01. This includes among other information the funds requested from DFG.
• Now: In parallel a supplement (max. 8 pages) must be prepared for the DFG. It must contain the information required in sections 4 to 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 DFG.