UK-German Funding Initiative in the Humanities

Eighth call in this bilateral collaboration, 2025/2026

The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) are launching a call for proposals for outstanding joint UK-German research projects in the humanities.

Both funding agencies want to strengthen international cooperation in the fields of arts and humanities to fund academic research of the highest quality within their own countries, and are aware that some of the best research can only be achieved by working with the best researchers internationally. The scheme will provide funding for integrated UK-German projects. The partner agencies will organise a coordinated peer review and a single joint selection process. Funding will be distributed among the research partners according to scholars’ place of work and, more generally, according to the funding rules of each individual agency.

Proposals may be submitted in any area of the humanities, as defined in the research funding guidelines of both agencies. Only proposals whose primary aim is to make fundamental advances in human knowledge in the relevant fields may be submitted in response to the call for proposals. Applicants who are uncertain whether their proposal would be eligible should contact the relevant agencies for clarification.

Projects must have well-defined joint working programmes that are clearly demonstrating the added value of UK-German collaboration. We expect that each partner substantially contributes to the common project; this also includes taking on organisational responsibilities.

Immediate resubmission of unsuccessful proposals from one call to the next is not permitted, but one resubmission is acceptable for future calls. Applicants who were not successful under the last call may submit different proposals for this call.

The duration of the projects will normally be – and must not exceed – three years. Successful projects will be expected to start in early 2027.

The UK component may seek up to £420,000 Full Economic Costs (FEC) to which the AHRC will normally contribute 80 percent FEC. Projects should be integrated, but do not have to be symmetrical in the sense that neither the sums nor the items requested have to be identical on the UK and German sides. However, we would expect the work packages to be delivered in reasonably equal shares.

The closing date for this call is Wednesday, 11 February 2026. Proposals under this call will need to be submitted through the UKRI system (by 4 pm UK time) with parallel submission to the DFG’s elan portal (by 11:59 pm German time). The AHRC is leading on this call, so you will find the call documents on the AHRC website(externer Link).

If this is the first time you are submitting a proposal to the DFG, please note that you must register in the elan portal before you can submit your proposal. You must do so by 4 February 2026. You will normally receive confirmation of your registration by the next working day.

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.

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.

Information for applicants based in Germany

Deadline for registration in elan for first time applicants: February 4^th 2026.
Deadline for submission to elan: 23:59 pm on February 11^th 2026. Applications which are only submitted to AHRC will not be accepted in the competition.
Programme: Individual Grants Programme/Research Grant (Sachbeihilfe). You can select the call you are referring to on the first page of the online form.
Do not select "General int. Cooperation" as a "Supplemental Classification". This is a specific international cooperation, i.e. the DFG/AHRC call. You are not required to select any of these classifications.
Add the UK PI as a "Participating Individual" in the role of cooperation partner. They do not have to register in elan.
The UKRI Funding Service allows applicants to download a pdf file of their proposal. Please upload this file to elan as the Project Description. You do not need to use a DFG template.
Elan requires the applicants to upload a CV. Use the CV you submitted to AHRC. You do not need to use the DFG template.
Additional documents required by DFG do not need to be submitted to AHRC, but they do need to be uploaded to elan. This concerns in particular the statement from the employer for the Module Temporary Positions for Principal Investigators (Eigene Stelle), the statement by the university for the Replacement Module (Vertretung) and the vote from the ethics committee where one is necessary.
Please use the "DFG Budget and Justification of Resources" template(Download) to structure the German budget.

Outcomes of Previous Calls

Celebrating the 100th Funded Project
AHRC and DFG celebrated more than 100 funded projects in the DFG/AHRC bilateral funding initiative in a two-day workshop with 60 invited guests, among them PIs from funded projects, panel chairs, representatives from DAAD, British Council, AHRC and DFG. Here you can find posters of the projects participating in the celebration(interner Link).

Contact Information

Lead responsibility for the administration of calls rotates between the AHRC and the DFG. The AHRC is leading the administration of the upcoming eighth call and should therefore be the first point of contact for general enquiries relating to the call.

Germany, DFG

Sigrid Claßen, Humanities and Cultural Studies, AHRC-Ausschreibung@dfg.de(externer Link), phone +49 (0)228 885-2209
Dr. Nora Böttcher, Humanities and Cultural Studies, AHRC-Ausschreibung@dfg.de(externer Link), phone +49 (0)228 885-2693

United Kingdom, AHRC

Please contact Frazer Singlehurst, International Partnerships and Engagement Manager, international@ahrc.ukri.org(externer Link) (Programme enquiries).

Please put DFG in the subject heading. We aim to respond within five working days.