Purpose of Funding

With the “Major Research Instrumentation” funding programme (according to Art. 91b GG) the DFG is contributing 50% of the investment costs for major research instrumentation at universities of all kinds (Hochschulen) from a dedicated federal budget as defined in the federal-state agreement AV-FGH (see link at the bottom of the page) .

Successful proposals must be of particularly high scientific quality and have more than regional relevance. The instrumentation must be for use predominantly in research, meaning that the need for its procurement and use must be justified solely by research. The instrumentation is also permitted to be used in teaching and/or clinical care, but only to a small degree. These areas will not be considered in the assessment and do not contribute to the justification.

Eligibility Criteria

1. Proposals may be submitted by publicly funded universities and non-publicly funded universities in Germany. In the case of universities governed by private law, the (host) institution must be recognised as a non-profit organisation. The applicant's contribution of 50% of the investment costs must stem from state funding.
2. The (gross) acquisition costs must at least be €100,000 for universities of applied sciences and at least €200,000 for all other universities..
3. Major research instrumentation proposals with costs below €7.500.000 may be submitted at any time. They will be submitted to the DFG in accordance with the relevant state legislation. Please note that special procedures exist  for instrumentation with costs of €7.500.000 or more (both DFG and Wissenschaftsrat head offices can provide more information on request).

Submission Procedure

The university appoints a person to be responsible for the proposal. This person prepares the proposal and submits it electronically via the elan portal. Upon submission he or she receives an automatically generated so-called “Quittungsdokument”, the legal submission document, which may not be altered or amended in any way. This document must be signed by the responsible person (signature 1), a person authorized to sign on behalf on the university as institution (signature 2) and, finally, a person autorized to confirm the financing of the first 50% of the investment costs from state budget (signature 3). The fully signed paper document must be sent as original to the DFG.

Type and Extent of Funding

Funding is available for the investment costs of major research instrumentation. A separate proposal must be submitted for each independent major research instrument. 

A major research instrument is the sum of the components, including accessories, that form a functional unit for the intended operational purpose. There should be an appropriate relation between the main instrument (including software) and accessory equipment or supplements. Accessory equipment and supplements are not necessarily required to be directly relevant for the main instrument’s operability. 

Extended warranties and maintenance or service agreements in excess of EUR 5,000 (gross), where these form part of the procurement within the contract award procedure, are regarded as capital expenditure and may therefore be included in the proposal.

Here you can find an overview of the Forms and Guidelines(interner Link).

Please also refer to the additional technology-specific information(interner Link).

Here is an example of a Quittungsdokument(Download).