Digital Topics
On the following pages, you will find DFG positions, guidelines and background information on important digital topics. We recommend you to read our impulse pape(externer Link) “The Digital Turn in the Sciences and the Humanities” and find out about the funding opportunitie(externer Link) offered by the DFG in this area.
Impulse Paper on the Digital Turn in the Sciences and Humanities
The DFG followed the prompt of its Senate to systematically and fundamentally address the digital turn in science and the humanities so that it could better assess and monitor the impacts that digital technologies are having on them.
The impulse paper published in October 2020 depicts the views of science and the humanities on the significant impacts that the digital turn is exerting within research and on the areas of activity that result from this concerning the DFG's funding activities and its policy and social advisory function. It defines four areas of activity: 1. subject-specific and interdisciplinary discourse, 2. statutory bodies and competencies of the DFG, 3. funding programmes and 4. funding opportunities.
Impuls Paper "The Digital Turn in the Sciences and Humanities" on Zenod(externer Link)
Strategic Project at the DFG Head Office
The measures proposed in this impulse paper for the four areas of activity are now to be implemented by the DFG Head Office which set up the strategic programme “The Digital Turn in Science and the Humanities” for that purpose.
In a science-led discussion process over recent years, the DFG has fostered dialogue on the issue of the digital turn in the sciences and humanities in connection with topics such as the Handling of Research Dat(interner Link), as well as offering additional specific funding opportunities (e.g. Sustainability of Research Software (in German only(interner Link), Artificial Intelligenc(interner Link), funded projects through calls for research software: 1st Call for Proposal(externer Link) / 2nd Call for Proposal(externer Link)). In the future, too, the DFG is committed to pursuing the following four areas of activity so as to ensure that science and the humanities can help shape the digital turn; for details, see the impulse paper.
Senate Ad Hoc Working Group on the Digital Turn
The Senate has set up an ad hoc working group (in German only(interner Link) so as to involve the DFG’s statutory bodies in the work being done under the strategic programme on the digital turn (PDW) in a coherent and systematic manner, thereby enabling the DFG as a whole to play a formative role in this dynamic field. In addition to providing conceptual support for the strategic programme, the working group is to consider the needs of the research community with regard to the digital turn in order to establish a basis for further action in the area of research policy on the part of the Executive Committee and Senate.
Further Information
- Position paper on the funding of information infrastructures for science and the humanities (in German only(Download)
- DFG Statement on the Establishment of cOAlition (interner Link)
- Press release on CoAR(interner Link)
- DFG Open Science Positionin(interner Link)
- Membership of ReSA (in German only(interner Link)
- National Research Data Infrastructur(interner Link)
DFG Funding Opportunities
The DFG funding opportunities relating to the digital turn in science and the humanities involve two different approaches: firstly, research funding whose central objective is to support outstanding academic research, and secondly infrastructure funding, which includes information infrastructures and technologies as well as instrumentation and instrumentation technologies.
Research grants: the Research Grants Programme (Guideline 50.0(interner Link)) provides numerous options to fund projects relating to the digital turn in the sciences and humanities. A research grant enables everyone who has completed their academic training to conduct a research project that is limited in time and scope – at any time and irrespective of the subject.
Coordinated programmes: there is frequently a need for larger consortia when addressing interdisciplinary issues as they arise in the context of the digital turn. Suitable funding programmes in such cases are those for Collaborative Research Centres (CRCs) (Guideline 50.0(interner Link)) and Research Training Groups (RTGs) (Guideline 50.0(interner Link)), in particular in the case of predominantly locally based consortia.
Priority Programmes: One particular feature of Priority Programmes is nationwide collaboration between participating researchers. Priority Programmes (Guideline 50.0(interner Link)) can be set up by the DFG Senate if the coordinated funding promises benefits in the relevant field of research. The Senate negotiates once a year on the setting up of Priority Programmes for proposed initiatives arising in science and the humanities.
Scientific Library Services and Information System(interner Link)
The objective of this funding stream is to create a coordinated system of information infrastructures for science and the humanities; it aims to provide users free and extensive access to research information and to link research information and data. Project proposals under the e-Research Technologies funding programme (Guideline 12.1(interner Link)) can be used to address numerous challenges and needs arising as a result of the digital turn. The Information Infrastructures for Research Data programme (Guideline 12.1(interner Link)) and the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI(interner Link) are relevant to the topic of research data.
Research instrumentation and information technolog(interner Link)
Successful research requires access to costly and specific technological instrumentation. The DFG funds project-specific instrumentation within its general research funding. In the case of major research instrumentation of an infrastructural nature that is required for multiple research projects, it is possible to submit a funding proposal to the DFG under the programme Major Research Instrumentation (as per Article 91b of the Basic Law(interner Link). In addition to the established programmes for instrumentation and IT infrastructure funding, three new programmes relating to instrumentation research funding were included in the DFG funding portfolio at the end of 2017. For example, the programme New Instrumentation for Researc(interner Link) is designed to enable researchers themselves to develop new instrumentation for use in science and the humanities, including prototypes.
In the case of some projects, it is not always possible or useful to draw a clear distinction between research and the development of information infrastructure. For this reason, in the case of projects involving both extensive research and the development/provision of scientific information and/or information infrastructures, it is possible to submit a proposal for a so-called “bridge project(interner Link).
Contact
| E-mail: | matthias.katerbow@dfg.de |
| Telephone: | +49 (228) 885-2358 |
| E-mail: | Michael.Lentze@dfg.de |
| Telephone: | +49 (228) 885-2449 |