Topics range from decoding gene functions in the gut microbiome to human gaze behaviour and research into new materials for components / Approximately €72 million for the first funding period

The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) is establishing eleven new Priority Programmes (SPP) which are due to start in 2025. This was recently decided by the DFG Senate in Bonn. The eleven new networks were selected from among 43 initiatives submitted and will receive a total of approximately €72 million for an initial period of three years. In addition there is a programme allowance of 22 percent for indirect project costs.

Priority Programmes are designed to enable work on topics that are expected to have a formative impact on a particular research field. This can be achieved by discovering new areas of research or by working on familiar areas from a different perspective or using a new approach. In addition, Priority Programmes involve collaboration between researchers on an interdisciplinary basis and across different locations.

The networks that have now been approved cover a wide range of subjects, from engineering through to life sciences and natural sciences. The projects involve such diverse subjects as the development of new materials and concepts for components, decoding new gene functions in the human intestinal microbiome, and carrying out new forms of research into people's gaze behaviour in communicative situations.

In the coming months, individual calls for proposals will be issued for the Priority Programmes by the DFG inviting interested researchers to participate in the networks. The DFG assesses the incoming funding proposals for their scientific quality and their contribution to the overriding research theme in each case. Priority Programmes are funded for a period of six years.

The new Priority Programmes in detail

(in alphabetical order of the coordinators’ HEIs):

• Priority Programme DaMic - Data-driven alloy and microstructure design of sustainable structural metals 
  (coordinator: Professor Dr. Markus Kästner, TU Dresden)
• Priority Programme Nitrides4Future – Novel Materials and Device Concepts 
  (coordinator: Dr.-Ing. Saskia Schimmel, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg)
• Priority Programme EPIADAPT: Epigenomic adaptations of the developing neural chromatin 
  (coordinator: Professor Dr. Tanja Vogel, University of Freiburg)
• Priority Programme Productive Biofilm Systems 
  (coordinator: Professor Dr. Johannes Gescher, TU Hamburg)
• Priority Programme Interactive Spin-State Switching 
  (coordinator: Professor Dr. Birgit Weber, University of Jena)
• Priority Programme Quantum Software, Algorithms and Systems – Concepts, Methods and Tools for the Quantum Software Stack 
  (coordinator: Professor Dr. Ina Schaefer, KIT Karlsruhe)
• Priority Programme Plate Deformation and Geohazards: The Eastern Margin of the Adriatic Plate (DEFORM) 
  (coordinator: Professor Dr. Thomas Meier, University of Kiel)
• Priority Programme Cross-process modelling in production engineering 
  (coordinator: Professor Dr. Wolfram Volk, TU Munich)
• Priority Programme Heterotypic cell-cell interactions in epithelial tissues (HetCCI) 
  (coordinator: Professor Dr. Sandra Iden, Saarland University)
• Priority Programme Illuminating gene functions in the human gut microbiome 
  (coordinator: Professor Dr. Lisa Maier, University of Tübingen)
• Priority Programme Understanding Gaze 
  (coordinator: Professor Dr. Anke Huckauf, Ulm University)

Further information

Information is also available from the coordinators of the new Priority Programmes.

For further details of DFG Priority Programmes, see:

• www.dfg.de/spp/en