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Humanities Centres for Advanced Studies
Humanities Centres for Advanced Studies
The Humanities Centres for Advanced Studies in the humanities and social sciences are a special type of funding instrument specifically tailored to the working methods used in these particular fields. The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) has instituted these Research Colleges to fulfil the recommendations made by the German Council of Science and Humanities in January 2006 (“Empfehlungen zur Entwicklung und Förderung der Geisteswissenschaften in Deutschland”, “Recommendations for the Development and Promotion of the Humanities and Social Sciences in Germany”).
Humanities Centres for Advanced Studies should be headed by specially designated researchers with comprehensive experience in carrying out research projects. These researchers should, as appropriate, collaborate with other colleagues to tackle a topic that is broadly defined enough that it should, according to the German Council of Science and Humanities, “tie into existing interests and strengths at the site, while remaining capable of providing a framework for the association or integration of different individual research concepts”. As specialist centres for research in the humanities and social sciences, Humanities Centres for Advanced Studies can attain their specific profiles and enhance their attractiveness by, in particular, deliberately adopting comparatively more open-ended approaches or decidedly experimental characters. No thematic or interdisciplinary direction is prescribed.
Significant characteristics of the Humanities Centres for Advanced Studies are intensive independent research performed by the researchers responsible – where applicable, made possible through leaves of absence; the integration of young researchers; and a “fellow programme” for visiting researchers from both home and abroad. These visiting researchers are to be invited for periods of up to two years and will maintain links with the Humanities Centres for Advanced Studies once their visit is over.
The funding period is eight years. The proposal process is a multi-step one, in which draft proposals are accepted after consultation with the appropriate advisors. Once an advisory group has selected a particular proposal, measures designed to facilitate the drawing up of a successful full proposal are requested.
A call for the submission of draft proposals is made every year on 20 April.
