The French Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG; German Research Foundation) have agreed to continue publishing annual calls for French-German projects in the natural, life and engineering sciences (excluding space technology, nuclear research and defence). Responsibility for the administrative processing and the review process for proposals submitted under these calls alternates annually between ANR and the DFG.

Proposals in social sciences and humanities must be submitted in the dedicated ANR-DFG call for social sciences and humanities (with separate deadlines). This includes transdisciplinary projects when the proposed approach is mainly centred on social sciences and humanities, and/or when the principal investigator is from the social sciences/humanities.

• ANR-DFG call for social sciences and humanities

Call ANR-DFG NLE 2024

The results of the 2024 edition of this call can be expected for October 2024.

Call ANR-DFG NLE 2025

The 2025 edition of the ANR-DFG collaboration in the Natural, Life and Engineering sciences (NLE) will take place with the ANR having the role of the ‘lead agency’, i.e., the ANR will be responsible for processing the proposals and conducting the review process. However, the full proposals need to be submitted to both the ANR and the DFG using their respective web interfaces.

The ANR is requesting unilaterally a pre-registration before 15 October 2024. In order to submit a full proposal after this pre-registration, you must be invited by the ANR to proceed. This is to be expected for February/March 2025.

At this point only, after submission of the full proposal to the ANR, submission to the DFG has to happen through the DFG’s elan system.

• http://elan.dfg.de/ 

The documents of the full proposals (which have to be prepared and submitted according to the rules of the ANR) have to be submitted identically (same pdf files) to the DFG. The proposals must clearly specify and justify the financial request both to the ANR and to the DFG. Note that the overhead from the DFG (“Programmpauschale”) is always requested implicitly without further mention.

Please submit scientific CVs of all German and French applicants to the DFG. They do not need to be in an ANR- or DFG-specific form.

Additionally, you will be asked to fill in and upload a project data form, which will be available here later.

Concerning the ANR requirements, notably the precise timeline, all relevant information can be found at

• https://anr.fr/fr/detail/call/aapg-appel-a-projets-generique-2025/ 
  (notably, read the “Annexe PRCI – franco - allemands – DFG”, which will appear in September 2024)

Be aware that from the viewpoint of the DFG, proposals within this call are a special case of the DFG’s Research Grants programme (Sachbeihilfe). The German applicants of a French-German project need to comply with the DFG’s eligibility rules.

In particular, for proposals from non-university research institutions in Germany the duty to cooperate “Kooperationspflicht” needs to be fulfilled (if applicable to the specific institution). Please note the “Kooperationspflicht” cannot be fulfilled with the international cooperation partner.

Please check yourself whether you need to submit further documents according to the DFG’s general regulations (e.g., employer statements for temporary PI positions, ethics votes, etc.).

A submission to the DFG is only possible if all German applicants of a French-German project have a valid account with up-to-date contact information on elan. If not, please request/update your account as early as possible. The French partners may request an account, too, in order to provide themselves their correct contact information to the DFG. However, the latter is not compulsory.

If within a project, there are two ore more applicants on the German side, it must only be submitted to the DFG once by one German applicant. This applicant needs to enter all information with respect to all applicants on the German side.

Submissions to the DFG will have a deadline shortly after the ANR deadline in March 2025, to be communicated here in due time.

Once full proposals are allowed to be submitted, please submit your proposal under Proposal Submission – New Project as a “Proposal for a Research Grant” in the Individual Grants Programme, and select the call “Frankreich-ANR-DFG 2025 NLE” during the submission process.

Solely the funds requested from the DFG need to be entered in the elan web forms (for every German applicant), for a project duration of either 24, 30, or 36 months. As usual, the overhead funds (“Programmpauschale”) do not need to be requested explicitly. If applicable, they will be granted automatically.

The corresponding French applicants (and only them) need to be entered as “cooperation partners” in the elan web forms.

The final decision after reviewing and selection by ANR, and confirmation by the DFG, can be expected to be available in October 2025, with a start of funding at the beginning of 2026. Funding will be awarded to the selected projects according to the general financial regulations of the ANR and DFG, respectively.

Contact for general questions about ANR-DFG NLE:

• Dr. Carsten Balleier, 0228-885 2063, Anr-nle@dfg.de
• Maria Borre, 0228-885 2715, Anr-nle@dfg.de
• Christina López Castillo, 0228-885 2295, Anr-nle@dfg.de

Contacts for questions specific to your research discipline:

• www.dfg.de/en/dfg_profile/head_office/structure/programme_contacts

Contact for questions concerning the submission to the ANR:

• the administrative and financial arrangements: aapg.adfi@anr.fr 
• the scientific aspects of the project proposal: aapg.science@anr.fr
• difficulties encountered when entering data or during document submission on the website: aapg.si@anr.fr

Please note the DFG’s data protection notice on research funding, which can be viewed and downloaded at

• www.dfg.de/privacy_policy

If necessary, please also forward this information to those persons whose data the DFG processes because they are involved in your project.