The German Research Foundation's roundtable emphasized the importance of transatlantic research cooperation and the role of universities in fostering these partnerships. Experts highlighted the need for strategic cooperation and independent research to tackle global challenges.
The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) is seeking researchers who make their work accessible to a wider audience through innovative science communication. The award, worth €50,000, will be presented in June 2027.
Threats to academic freedom are increasing, including attacks on individual researchers and specific fields of study. Research vulnerabilities can be strengthened through cooperation among scientists, businesses, and civil society.
Living labs in agricultural, food and nutrition research facilitate stakeholder collaboration to identify problems and develop solutions. Long-term funding perspectives are essential for efficient and successful research.
The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) has elected eight new members to the Senate, bringing diverse expertise from humanities, life sciences, natural sciences, engineering, and more. The new additions will join existing members for a three-year term, starting January 2027.
The DFG is establishing five new Research Units to address pressing issues in various fields. The units aim to investigate gene expression, hospital-acquired infections and climate change. Additionally, the DFG is extending funding for five existing research units.
The DFG has appointed two new vice presidents, expanding its leadership structure to support research initiatives across Germany. The appointments aim to enhance collaboration and funding for scientific projects.
The DFG strongly criticized the AfD's research policy, calling it incompatible with the constitution. The organization emphasized the importance of free and independent pursuit of knowledge for an open society and democracy. The DFG also discussed its funding activities and new developments since the 2025 General Assembly.
The EU has adopted a new regulation allowing for simplified rules on new genomic techniques (NGTs) for plants. Researchers will face fewer hurdles to conduct field trials and develop more robust crops.
Christa Thöne-Reineke and Birgit Schittek share the prize for their work on improving animal welfare in research, with Thöne-Reineke recognized for her long-standing commitment to refining methods. The researchers' contributions include developing alternative methods to animal experiments, advancing the use of 3D skin models in dermato...
The DFG is establishing 10 new Research Training Groups to support early-career researchers. Three of these groups are International Research Training Groups with partners in Australia and France. The groups aim to develop innovative materials, investigate conflict resolution strategies, and improve urban sustainability.
The DFG is establishing 13 new Collaborative Research Centres to support innovative and long-term research projects. The CRCs will focus on topics such as mechanophores, bone tissue remodelling, planetary habitability, and food system diversification.
The DFG Executive Committee presents a comprehensive position paper outlining its vision for the National Network of Data Platforms (NFDI). The document emphasizes the need for data sharing and collaboration to advance scientific research.
Dorothee Haroske and Leszek Skrzypczak are awarded €200,000 for their joint research on function spaces, approximation theory, and Fourier analysis. Their work has given rise to numerous publications and specialist conferences.
Ute Schmid, head of the chair for Cognitive Systems at the University of Bamberg, has been awarded the 2026 Communicator Award for her groundbreaking communication work on artificial intelligence. The award recognizes her efforts to bridge the gap between science, education, business, and policymaking in the field of AI.
The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) is funding 15 additional Emmy Noether Groups in Artificial Intelligence to significantly expand the methodological and algorithmic foundations of AI. The funded projects will generate fresh insights into robustness, explainability, efficiency, and scalability.
The Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize is awarded annually by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft to recognize excellence in scientific research. This year's winners have made significant breakthroughs in various fields, including quantum computing and materials science.
The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft will allocate funds for 14 new research units to drive cutting-edge scientific inquiry in Germany. These initiatives aim to boost collaboration and innovation across various disciplines.
The DFG is promoting coordinated initiatives among researchers, funding organisations, and policymakers to enhance the resilience of research data infrastructures. The organization emphasizes the need for long-term safeguarding of research data in light of increasing cyber threats, institutional crises, and geopolitical tensions.
The DFG, HRK, and WR propose Nexus, a new EU funding instrument for networks of excellence, to strengthen institutionalized cooperation between Europe's leading universities and research institutions. The proposed network would conduct research on a jointly selected topic that is of strategic importance to the participating institutions.
The DFG Senate Commission emphasizes the need for long-term research programmes and adapted policy frameworks to assess the impacts of diversified cropping systems. These systems, such as extended crop rotation, can improve soil quality, reduce pest pressure, and enhance overall system resilience.
The DFG is establishing ten new Research Units and extending nine existing ones to address pressing issues in various fields. The new units will focus on globalisation, energy storage, liver disease, computing energy consumption, and identity leadership.
The 2026 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prizes were awarded to three female and seven male researchers. The winners received €2.5 million in prize money to support their research work for up to seven years. Klaus Blaum, a physicist, was recognized for his high-precision measurements of natural constants and symmetries.
The DFG is establishing 11 new Research Training Groups, including an international IRTG in Australia, to support early-career researchers. The groups will receive €82 million over five years to investigate various research topics.
The DFG is establishing nine new Collaborative Research Centres to support top-level research at universities. This includes a CRC/Transregio made up of multiple applicant universities, and six transfer projects for two existing CRCs.
The DFG is providing additional funding opportunities for established and early-career researchers from abroad to join Collaborative Research Centres, Transregios, and Clusters of Excellence. This aims to strengthen Germany as a research hub amidst increasing geopolitical tensions.
Andrii Mironchenko's work focuses on infinite-dimensional systems, which can model optimized traffic-control systems and intelligent power networks. He develops methods to ensure robustness of control mechanisms against undesired effects from disturbances.
The DFG is funding five new Research Impulses to address pressing societal challenges, including e-participation, automated driving, cultural memory, speech recognition, and sustainable material systems. The projects will receive €31 million over five years and aim to improve research conditions at universities of applied sciences.
The DFG is establishing four new Research Units to address pressing issues in linguistics, security, precision medicine and environmental history. The Research Units will focus on topics like bilingual flexibility, security in catastrophic times, genome-based precision medicine and medieval coastal landscape development.
The DFG presents a statistical analysis showing the involvement of subject areas in Clusters of Excellence, mirroring that of ongoing research. The results reveal a broad disciplinary range among researchers, with notable connections between artificial intelligence and other fields.
The German Research Foundation has awarded the Bernd Rendel Prize to two early geoscience researchers, Katharina Seeger and Taina Marcos Lima Pinho, for their original and promising pre-doctoral research. The prize aims to support their pursuit of academic activities.
The DFG has welcomed the first follow-up funding for NFDI consortia, marking a key step in establishing a reliable long-term information infrastructure for research data in Germany. The continued funding will help consolidate the NFDI consortia and ensure they meet users' needs, further embedding them within the research community.
The DFG is establishing seven new Research Units to explore pressing issues and innovative directions. The units aim to develop new technologies, understand adaptive processes and disease mechanisms.
The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) has elected six new members to the Senate, with expertise in various fields including life sciences, natural sciences, engineering, and humanities. The new members will begin their term on January 1, 2026.
Caren Sureth-Sloane, an economist, is the newly elected DFG Vice President. She will lead the Executive Committee alongside re-elected colleagues Karin Jacobs and Peter H. Seeberger. Meanwhile, sociologist Matthias Koenig steps down from office.
The DFG Annual Meeting focused on the growing global threat to freedom of research, with a particular emphasis on the US situation and anti-intellectual currents in other countries. The DFG President proposed targeted support measures and mechanisms of resistance, including additional funding agreements and joint publications.
The DFG is establishing 18 new Research Training Groups to support early-career researchers, including four International RTGs. The groups will focus on topics like climate-neutral steel, soil-transmitted helminths, infectious diseases, and biomolecular condensates.
The DFG annual meeting will address curtailment of academic freedom, current science policy issues, and funding decisions. The General Assembly on July 2 will report on the DFG's funding activities since the 2024 General Assembly.
The DFG is establishing 13 new Collaborative Research Centres (CRC) to tackle innovative, challenging and long-term research projects. The CRCs will focus on circadian medicine, metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease, heterostructures of molecules and 2D materials, and criticality.
The DFG has awarded the Europa-Prize to four young German researchers who excel in international cooperation and research. Vincent Engelbrecht, Misha Hegde, Mia Maurer, and Johanna Freya Pluschke will receive €1,000 each to prepare for the EUCYS European Union Contest for Young Scientists.
The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) has selected 70 Clusters of Excellence in Germany for funding, with 45 renewals and 25 new projects. The selected clusters will receive €539 million in annual funding over seven years.
Petra Anders receives the Communicator Award for her commitment to communication that opens dialogue with diverse groups and promotes reading and language skills. Her multimodal approach incorporates images, films, and poetry slams to give students a voice, sparking discussions on education issues.
The DFG is investing €30 million in eight new research units tackling pressing issues such as quantum materials, macrophage biology and language convergence. The new units will focus on innovative directions in their respective fields.
The 2025 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prizes were awarded to four female and six male researchers, with two working in the humanities and social sciences, four in life sciences, three in natural sciences, and one in engineering sciences. The winners received €2.5 million each to fund their research for up to seven years.
Thomas Nikolaus has received the €10,000 von Kaven Award for his groundbreaking work on homotopy theory and K-theory. His research has revolutionized the theory of topological cyclic homology and made significant advances in quadratic forms over general rings.
The Funding Atlas 2024 shows an increase in university funding from €26.7 billion in 2022 to €28.4 billion in 2019, with third-party funding rising by 19.1% over the same period. The federal government is the largest source of third-party funding, while industry share continues to decline.
The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft is establishing seven new Collaborative Research Centres (CRC) with a total funding of €92 million. The CRCs focus on innovative research projects in sustainable construction, electronic systems, and ecosystem services. Seven new Transregios are also being funded to tackle long-term challenges.
The DFG is establishing 12 new Research Training Groups to support early-career researchers, with a focus on topics such as proton therapy, mobility rights, and climate data. The funding will total approximately €82 million over five years, with some groups starting six months later than usual due to budgetary constraints.
The DFG is establishing seven new Research Units to investigate topics such as gender-specific differences in immune responses and the development of more resistant dental prostheses. The units will receive a total of €25 million, with five teams funded for up to two four-year periods and two others for two three-year periods.
The DFG is establishing ten new Research Units, two new Clinical Research Units, and one Centre for Advanced Studies to tackle topics such as stroke recovery, anti-allergy measures, and communication techniques. The funding will support researchers in pursuing pressing issues and advancing knowledge.