Funding announcements

On this page we regularly inform you about current funding announcements. The following calls are currently open:

The aim of the funding measure is to give new impetus to the necessary modernization and adaptation of the water supply in Germany through research and innovation and to strengthen resilience to future requirements. The aim is to further develop practical and flexible solutions for the future value retention and optimization of water management infrastructures and the operating concepts based on them and to adapt these to the changing framework conditions.

As a result of the funding initiative, technologies and organizational and structural solutions for increasing the resilience of the public water supply should be available, the practical implementation of which has been realized in municipalities and pilot regions in an exemplary manner. Particular consideration should be given to the economic viability of the solutions. The announcement is an initiative to promote the transfer of research and innovation into practice and is also explicitly aimed at companies in the water industry and municipal operators of water infrastructure. The aim is to promote transferability to other regions and accelerate the sustainable adaptation of the water supply infrastructure as a whole.

Click here for the funding announcement on the BMBF website.

With this funding guideline dated 16.11.2023, the BMBF intends to support young scientists who wish to qualify in the field of society-related sustainability research and the management of inter- and transdisciplinary research groups on the topic of urban-rural regions, generally for up to five years, as part of the Federal Government's "Future Strategy for Research and Innovation" and the Transformation Initiative Urban-Rural Future of the "Research for Sustainability" (FONA) strategy. An overarching goal of the funding measure is to produce excellently trained junior staff in inter- and transdisciplinary sustainability research with attractive career prospects in science and practice. Interdisciplinary social-ecological junior research groups are funded, which develop innovative ideas and solutions with a transdisciplinary research approach in order to make cities fit for the future. Where possible, new solutions are tested on site, for example in a real laboratory, and their potential impact on sustainability is evaluated. The focus is on cities and their functionally interlinked surrounding regions in Germany. Depending on the research question, studies can relate spatially to individual neighborhoods, cities, the urban hinterland or regions with several urban cores. Cities in other European countries can also be included, for example as part of comparative studies. Project outlines must be submitted in the first stage of the procedure by April 29, 2024 at the latest and subsequently every two years by April 29, 2028. Click here for the full announcement of the funding guideline on the BMBF website.

This BMBF funding call refers to Module 1 of the framework announcement of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research for the funding of projects on the topic of "Transformation Clusters Social Innovations for Sustainable Cities" of November 2, 2023. The aim of the funding call is to fund projects that research and develop the potential of social innovations for sustainable and climate-friendly renewal of existing residential buildings, conversion of non-residential buildings and efficient and sufficient land use in existing urban quarters and settlement areas in transformation clusters. More information can be found here (informal call for funding) and here (information on the BMBF platform for research for sustainability - FONA).

The aim of the "New Products for the Bioeconomy" ideas competition funding guideline is the low-threshold implementation of ideas and research results in commercial applications for the bioeconomy. The funding body is the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The purpose of the funding is to enable (young) scientists to develop very early and high-risk product ideas for the bioeconomy and to prepare the technical implementation as well as the exploration of commercial exploitation options, possibly also in the context of a spin-off. The funding guideline applies in conjunction with the German government's "National Bioeconomy Strategy". The aim of the strategy is to strengthen Germany's pioneering role in the bioeconomy and to develop the technologies and jobs of tomorrow. In doing so, the Federal Government is also acknowledging its global responsibility in the internationally networked bioeconomy. More information on the funding guideline can be found here: https://www.bmbf.de/bmbf/shareddocs/bekanntmachungen/de/2021/07/Bekanntmachung19_Nationale-Bio%C3%B6konomiestrategie.html?view=renderNewsletterHtml