UK-German Funding Initiative in the Humanities
Fourth call in this bilateral collaboration, 2021/2022
Fourth call in this bilateral collaboration, 2021/2022
The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) are launching a call for proposals for outstanding joint UK-German research projects in the Humanities. Proposals should strengthen cooperation in the fields of arts and humanities between Germany and the UK.
Both funding agencies want to strengthen international cooperation in these fields, to fund academic research of the highest quality within their own countries, and are aware that some of the best research can only be achieved by working with the best researchers internationally. The scheme will provide funding for integrated UK-German projects. The partner agencies will organise a coordinated peer review and a single joint selection process. Funding will be distributed among the research partners according to researchers' place of work and, more generally, according to the funding rules of each individual agency.
Proposals may be submitted in any area of the Humanities, as defined in the research funding guides. Only proposals whose primary aim is to make fundamental advances in human knowledge in the relevant fields may be submitted in response to the call for proposals. Applicants who are uncertain whether their proposal would be eligible should contact the relevant agencies for clarification.
Projects must have well-defined joint working programmes, clearly demonstrating the added value of UK-German collaboration. We expect that each partner substantially contributes to the common project; this also includes taking on organisational responsibilities. This division of responsibilities should also be reflected in the amount of funds requested by each partner.
Immediate resubmission of unsuccessful proposals from one call under the AHRC-DFG Memorandum of Understanding to the next call is not permitted but is acceptable for future calls. Applicants unsuccessful under the last call may submit different proposals for this call.
The duration of the projects will normally be and must not exceed three years. Successful projects will be expected to start in early 2023.
The UK component may seek up to £350,000 fec, to which the AHRC will normally contribute 80 percent fec. Projects should be integrated but do not have to be symmetrical, in the sense that neither the sums requested nor the items requested have to be identical on the UK and German sides. However, we would expect the work packages to be delivered reasonably equally.
The closing date for this call is Tuesday, 22 February 2022. Applications for this call will need to be submitted through the UKRI Je-S System (by 4 pm UK time) with parallel submission to the DFG’s elan portal (with a deadline of midnight German time). German applicants should note, that if they are using the elan system for the first time, they need to set up an elan account by 15 February 2022 at the latest.
Further information
For more detailed information, please refer to the AHRC website:
Information can also be found on the DFG website:
Lead responsibility for the administration of calls rotates between the AHRC and the DFG. The AHRC is leading the administration of this fourth call and should therefore be the first point of contact for general enquiries relating to the call.
United Kingdom, AHRC:
Please put DFG in the subject heading.
Emma Bessent, International Partnerships and Engagement Management
For help applying through Je-S please contact:
- jeshelp@je-s.ukri.or
phone +44 1793 444164
Germany, DFG:
- AHRC-Ausschreibung@dfg.d
Sigrid Claßen
phone +49 228 885-2209 - Dr. Nora Böttcher
phone +49 228 885-2693
Please note the DFG’s data protection notice on research funding, which can be viewed and downloaded at:
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.