In principle, to be eligible to submit a proposal, you must have completed academic training with a doctorate. There are two instances where the DFG makes an exception to this rule: 

• If the doctorate is about to be finalised and all necessary examinations have been taken. In other words, only the publication of the dissertation is pending. 
• If the person concerned has conducted research for many years and is established in the research system without ever having written a dissertation. In this case, the person’s academic work to date must justify a status which is equivalent to that of holding a doctorate. Such a status could be based on their publication record, contributions at specialist conferences and the like. The DFG Head Office assesses each case individually to determine whether the individual concerned has in fact achieved this status. In the case of professors who hold permanent appointments at universities of applied sciences (UAS: Hochschule für angewandte Wissenschaften – HAW – and Fachhochschule – FH), the DFG assumes that their achievements over the course of their career are equivalent to a doctorate.

Special requirements apply under the Walter Benjamin Programme and to Temporary Positions for Principal Investigators. Here, the proposal can be submitted after submission of the dissertation and before the oral defence. In the event of approval, however, funding can only be claimed once the doctorate has been completed and proof of this has been submitted to the DFG. Please refer to the relevant DFG forms for details.

By contrast, a doctoral certificate must have already been obtained when submitting a proposal under the Emmy Noether Programme.

The deciding factor here is that your foreign degree is comparable to a German doctorate and is recognised in Germany. This can be verified using the database Anabin maintained by the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs, which enables university qualifications to be compared. Generally speaking, a PhD is normally comparable providing the researcher has made an original contribution to the existing body of academic work. 

A medical doctorate obtained in Austria (so-called “Berufsdoktorat”) does not normally meet these requirements.

Researchers who are on fixed-term contracts can also submit proposals to the DFG. Here, it is necessary to state in the proposal that the position is temporary and when it ends. If the remaining contract term is less than one third of the requested project duration, an informal statement on the part of the institute management must be submitted stating that the intention is for the employment to continue at least until the end of the project term. In such cases, please take into account that proposals take an average of 6 months to process. 

Example: If you would like to submit a proposal for a project with a term of 36 months, your contract must still be running for at least 12 months plus 6 (= 18) months at the time of proposal submission.

If you hold a tenure-track position, you are eligible to submit a proposal to the DFG even if the term of your tenure-track position does not cover the entire duration of the project. The DFG assumes that tenure-track positions generally become permanent.

Researchers at non-university research institutions are eligible to submit proposals in accordance with the general rules. Here, the additional issue arises of whether the so-called duty to cooperate must be fulfilled when the proposal is submitted. 

Non-university research institutions where the duty to cooperate always applies are primarily the institutes or member institutions of the Max Planck Society, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, the Helmholtz Association and also certain Leibniz Institutes. Researchers who are permanently employed at such institutions can only submit a proposal to the DFG for a joint project if they do so in cooperation with a researcher at a German higher education institution (university or university of applied sciences). Special regulations apply when applying for Temporary Positions for Principal Investigators and the Walter Benjamin position.

Researchers on fixed-term contracts at such institutions do not have to fulfil the duty to cooperate.

For further information and details of the duty to cooperate, please refer to DFG form 55.01 and the FAQ on the duty to cooperate (see below).

In order to be eligible, the project leader normally has to be employed at the academic institution where the project is to be carried out for the entire duration of the project. It is sufficient to hold a 20 percent research position. A teaching assignment on its own is not sufficient.

If it is clear at the time of proposal submission that you will retire during the project period, please state this in the proposal and explain how the project is to be continued. The DFG offers you the option of completing the project at your institution after you have gone into retirement. This is something you have to clarify with your institution in advance, however. For this purpose, please send us confirmation that the institution will continue to provide you with the necessary research infrastructure until the end of the project period and will take on the administration of funds. 

Alternatively, you can transfer the project to another person. Ideally, you should name this person in the proposal so that this aspect can be included in the review.

In the case of an emerita/emeritus, the link to the institution at which they were previously employed is guaranteed under state higher education legislation. For this reason, emeriti and retired professors require just two confirmations in order to meet eligibility requirements. One must show that your former university will provide you with the necessary research infrastructure for the entire duration of the project. This confirmation should be issued by the body that is authorised to permit use of the infrastructure. The second confirmation must be issued by the university’s central third-party funding administration and provide the assurance that it will take on administration of the funds granted for the project in the event of approval.

These regulations do not apply to emeriti who wish to continue their research at another institution. In such a case, evidence must be provided of a contractual link.

Unfortunately, an affiliation with a university or research institution as a visiting researcher is not sufficient to be eligible to submit a proposal to the DFG.

Where a programme involves the funding of individual researchers (Walter Benjamin Programme, Emmy Noether Programme, Heisenberg Programme) and in the case of Temporary Positions for Principal Investigators, you are essentially eligible to submit a proposal for a project in Germany providing all other programme requirements are met. Please note the special provisions that apply to the Walter Benjamin fellowship; see also the FAQ on the Walter Benjamin Programme.

Where a programme involves project funding, it is generally the case that individuals integrated in a foreign research system are not eligible to submit a proposal to the DFG. An exception may be made if, in addition to their work abroad, the applicant has a contractual relationship with the German research institution at which the project is to be carried out. The contract must specify the researcher’s residency requirement and also cover the duration of the project as set out in the proposal. In this case, the researcher may have a part-time employment contract or some another contractual relationship. It is not sufficient to have a standard “visiting researcher contract” which merely grants the opportunity to work. Nor is an assignment sufficient that solely involves teaching.

The contract must cover the project itself (min. 20 percent), i.e. the time which the applicant will dedicate to their own share of the work programme, and also any necessary supervision of other personnel specified in the proposal. In addition, contractual arrangements must be in place regarding the researcher’s regular presence on site. For example, it is not sufficient for the researcher to be on site once every quarter for an extended period of time and otherwise supervise the project remotely. The extent of the applicant’s presence at the project location is an aspect of the project’s feasibility which is subject to review and evaluation.

On the subject of involving researchers abroad in DFG projects, see the FAQ How can I involve researchers at foreign research institutions in my proposal?“

Researchers from abroad are only eligible to apply for project funding abroad in exceptional cases. In connection with an established DFG Priority Programme or a DFG Research Unit, proposals for individual research projects may exceptionally be submitted directly to the DFG by the researcher abroad if the project conducted outside Germany makes an important additional contribution to achieving the objectives of the network and adds significant value to the projects planned in Germany.

In addition, there are special procedures available (collaborative projects with the Middle East and with developing countries) that enable proposals to be submitted for projects that are to be implemented by cooperation partners in other countries. However, the foreign cooperation partners themselves are not eligible to apply for funding in such instances. Here, it must always be a collaborative project in which the project leader who is eligible to submit proposals to the DFG applies for funding for the cooperation partner and subsequently transfers this funding. 

No, this is not possible. The institution at which the research work is to be carried out (or its sponsoring institution) must always

• be legally independent,
• be a public sector organisation or 
• be a private institution with official non-profit status,
• meet the requirements for implementation of the specific project in question (research infrastructure) and
• authorise the project leadership to publish the research results in a generally accessible form without delay or restrictions.

Exceptions apply to researchers who do not conduct research at a non-profit organisation but do so in the public interest (e.g. at clinics run by private hospital associations or at private universities).

Here, the DFG Head Office must assess in each individual case whether or not the applicant is eligible to submit a proposal. In order for the specific institution to be assessed, DFG form 4.01 has to be completed and the required documentary evidence submitted. Please contact the department responsible to find out whether your institution has already been assessed. 

Eligibility definitely does not apply to researchers who work at institutions where research is conducted with the aim of generating future profits for such companies.

The latter do not fulfil the requirement of pursuing research in the general interest, so researchers who work for such organisations, e.g. in the R&D department of a commercial enterprise, are excluded from eligibility as a matter of principle.

Both in order to avoid duplicate funding and in order to counteract the pillarisation of the research system, the DFG provides for the duty to cooperate in the case of proposals submitted by permanent employees who work at certain types of non-university research institution (see FAQ “Does the duty to cooperate apply to all non-university research institutions?”). 

The duty to cooperate means that a proposal can only be submitted together with a member of a German university. In addition, at least 50 percent of the total approved funds must be earmarked for the member of the university. Please bear this requirement in mind when compiling the requested funds.

This duty to cooperate can also be fulfilled if the planning and implementation of the joint research project is lead-managed by the cooperation partner at the German university. This must be explained in the proposal.

In the case of the modules Temporary Positions for Principal Investigators and Walter Benjamin Positions, the principle of the duty to cooperate means that the non-university research institution is obliged to co-finance 45 percent of the total costs of the project. In case of the Walter Benjamin Position this obligation is reduced to co-finance the costs only of the position. 

The duty to cooperate does not apply if you are submitting a proposal as part of a Research Unit, a Clinical Research Unit or Priority Programme, in the funding area of Scientific Library Services and Information Systems, or for funding for an international conference, a workshop for early career investigators or project academy. Special rules apply to Reinhart Koselleck projects.

See DFG form 55.01 for further details. In case of doubt, please get in touch with your contact person at the DFG Head Office.

The duty to cooperate only applies to members of the following institutions with permanent positions: 

• institutes or member organisations of the Max Planck Society, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and the Helmholtz Association as well as individual Leibniz Institutes,
• publicly funded research institutions associated with these organisations,
• German branches of internationally funded research institutions, such as the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL). 

If you would like to know whether the duty to cooperate applies to your institute, please contact your administration or the DFG Head Office. 

Researchers at other non-university research institutions are not currently subject to the duty to cooperate.

If you have been appointed based on a joint procedure conducted by a university and a non-university research institution (a so-called dual appointment), you are eligible to submit a proposal as an individual researcher without having to fulfil the duty to cooperate providing: 

• you submit your individual proposal as a member of the university,
• the funds are administered via the university and 
• the research project is to be mainly carried out at the university in question.

No, the duty to cooperate can only be fulfilled by submitting a joint proposal with a member of a German university. This also applies to proposals submitted jointly with researchers from abroad under an international call for proposals or under relevant agreements with foreign funding organisations.

There are rare cases in which the duty to cooperate is waived in connection with a call for proposals. This information is always provided in the text of the call for proposals as set out in the Information for Researchers.