In March 2025, the Senate of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) established the Priority Programme “Sustainability and Resilience of Agri-Food Chains in Times of multiple Crises? Towards a joint and critical understanding (Agri-Food Chains)” (SPP 2575). The programme is designed to run for six years. The present call invites proposals for the first three-year funding period (2026–2029).

SPP 2575 investigates the entanglement of sustainability and resilience in agri-food chains in times of multiple crises. In the current era of multiple crises – including global environmental change, geopolitical polarisation, wars and the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic – global food supply is (again) at risk and different agri-food chains have been temporarily interrupted. Additionally, due to the focus shifting to crisis resilience within agri-food chains, sustainability efforts in food production are questioned and their implementation becomes more complicated. At the same time, there is an even stronger societal demand for sustainable and resilient agri-food chains. However, concepts and understanding of resilience and sustainability are diverse and fuzzy, and related normative goals of these concepts can be conflicting. Therefore, an enhanced, critical and interdisciplinary understanding is needed that addresses the overarching question: How can agri-food chains be sustainable and resilient in times of multiple crises?

The Priority Programme aims to answer this question and develop an integrated, conceptual understanding of the entanglement between sustainability and resilience in agri-food chains; create integrated methodological and empirical approaches to analyse sustainability and resilience in these chains; and establish an interdisciplinary research network within and beyond the SPP focusing on sustainability and resilience in agri-food chains.

In order to follow these objectives and define a coherent basis for integrated research, all projects must address the common research agenda:

• Agri-food chains: All projects must work on agri-food chains or at least several (preferably under-researched) segments of the chains.
• Crisis resilience: All projects must consider specific or multiple crises and related implications for resilience and sustainability in food production. For example, a project may either focus on the effects of crises on the resilience of a chain or on resilience strategies within a chain.
• Sustainability: All projects must address sustainability (social, economic and/or environmental). For example, if a project focuses on resilience strategies, it needs to take into account how such strategies are influenced by or affect certain aspects of sustainability.
• Regional hotspot analysis: Each SPP project must focus on at least one of four selected hotspot regions: Germany, Poland, India, Tanzania. Generic/modelling projects are also welcome if the proposal shows very clearly how the developed methods can be applied to specific challenges and case studies in these hotspot regions (e.g., in cooperation with other researchers or within the second funding period).

All projects must further 

• contribute to an integrated, conceptual understanding of the links between sustainability and resilience based on agri-food chains;
• contribute to integrated methodological approaches to jointly generate and analyse qualitative and quantitative empirical data and study the link between sustainability and resilience in the chains, and
• foster an integrated, inter- and transdisciplinary dialogue and international network on agri-food chains within and beyond the SPP.

Projects are invited from the fields of human geography, business administration, sociology, economics and agricultural economics, agricultural policy, environmental and social anthropology, historical sciences, environmental humanities, development studies and neighbouring disciplines. Envisaged projects are particularly invited to contribute to one or more of the following research avenues:

1. Sustainability-resilience frictions and synergies
2. Inequalities within the chain and related regions: sustainability and resilience for whom?
3. Integrating externalities using interdisciplinary whole-chain perspectives
4. New perceptions of risks and uncertainties
5. Decentring perspectives on resilience and sustainability in value chains

Weencourage interdisciplinary tandem proposals. For information on the conceptual background of the SPP it is recommended to consult Follmann et al. 2024 (DIE ERDE–Journal of the Geographical Society of Berlin, 155(1), 29–48.).

Before writing a proposal, interested investigators should participate in the DFG Roundtable meeting on 23 June 2025, 10:00–16:00 in Cologne, where further details on the background of the SPP 2575 and the application process will be given. Please register for the DFG Roundtable by 31 May 2025 by writing to susanne.weber@uni-koeln.de(externer Link).

The duration of the projects should be 36 months and cannot exceed this period. Projects are envisaged to start in summer 2026. To foster collaboration and synergy, successful applicants and their team members are expected to collaborate within the SPP, to attend regular virtual SPP meetings (jour fixe) and annual SPP retreats, contribute to workshops and engage in collaborative fieldwork.

Proposals should be written in English and submitted to the DFG by 15 October 2025, they cannot be submitted after the deadline has expired. Proposals are to be submitted solely via the elan portal(externer Link), the DFG’s electronic proposal processing system, in order to ensure proposal-related data is recorded and documents are securely transmitted.To enter a new project within the existing Priority Programme, go to Proposal Submission – New Project/Draft Proposal – Priority Programmes and select “SPP 2575” from the current list of calls.

Proposals can be submitted using the modules from the “Research Grants Programme” (Sachbeihilfe), including the “Temporary Positions for Principal Investigators” (Eigene Stelle) module. Funding for cross-project workshops and annual meetings will be covered by the Priority Programme centrally.

When preparing your proposal, please note the Guidelines Priority Programme (DFG form 50.05(interner Link)), section B “Individual Projects within Existing Priority Programmes”) and the Proposal Preparation Instructions – Project Proposals (DFG form 54.01(interner Link)). These forms are available on the DFG website(interner Link) and through the elan portal.

If this is the first time you are submitting a proposal to the DFG, please note that you must register in elan before you can submit your proposal. You must do so by 8 October 2025. You will normally receive confirmation of your registration by the next working day. Applicants who already have an elan account are requested to check their data in elan. If necessary, you can update your data directly in the portal. It is not necessary to register again.

Equity and Diversity

The DFG strongly welcomes proposals from researchers of all genders and sexual identities, from different ethnic, cultural, religious, ideological or social backgrounds, from different career stages, types of universities and research institutions, and with disabilities or chronic illness. With regard to the subject-specific focus of this call, the DFG encourages female researchers in particular to submit proposals.

Good Research Practice

According to a resolution of the DFG General Assembly, DFG funding may only be awarded to research institutions that have implemented the guidelines laid down in the Code of Conduct for Safeguarding Good Research Practice(externer Link) in their own regulations. The management of your institution is responsible for implementing the guidelines in a legally binding manner. In order to avoid delays in the disbursement of funding, please verify implementation within your institution in good time. For information regarding the implementation, please refer to the Research Integrity Portal(externer Link). If you have any questions on this subject, please contact the Research Integrity team(externer Link) at the DFG Head Office. 

Further Information 

When submitting a proposal, please use the elan portal(externer Link) and refer to the Guidelines Priority Programme (DFG form 50.05(interner Link) ), section B “Individual Projects within Existing Priority Programmes”), and the Proposal Preparation Instructions – Project Proposals (DFG form 54.01(interner Link)). The FAQ about preparing a proposal(interner Link) may also be helpful.

For enquiries about the scientific aims of the Priority Programme, please contact the Priority Programme coordinator:

Professor Dr. Peter Dannenberg, Geographisches Institut der Universität zu Köln, 
phone: +49 221 470 1542, p.dannenberg@uni-koeln.de(externer Link)

Literature: 

Follmann, A., Dannenberg, P., Baur, N., Braun, B., Walther, G., Bernzen, A., ... & Sulle, E. (2024). Conceptualizing sustainability and resilience in value chains in times of multiple crises—Notes on agri-food chains. DIE ERDE–Journal of the Geographical Society of Berlin, 155(1), 29–48. https://doi.org/10.12854/erde-2024-692(externer Link)

Contact Persons at the DFG Head Office

Programme contact: 

Dr. Tim Haarmann, Geosciences/Geography, phone: +49 228 885 2328, tim.haarmann@dfg.de(externer Link)

Administrative contact: 

Ursula Overath, Geosciences/Geography, phone: +49 228 885 2758, ursula.overath@dfg.de(externer Link) 

Privacy Policy

We, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation), take the protection of your personal data and its confidential treatment extremely seriously. Therefore, please refer to the DFG’s Privacy Policy(interner Link). If you intend to transmit personal data of third parties, please make sure to do so only if the necessary legitimation under data protection law exist. Before transmitting data of third parties to the DFG, please forward the DFG’s Data Protection Notice to the individuals affected (data subjects). If there is a legitimate interest not to inform individuals beforehand (e.g. for reasons of secrecy or in case of a nomination or candidate proposal), these individuals should be informed no later than at the time of publication.