Topics range from multidimensional biomaterials and China’s geo-economic rise to the future of cities / Approximately €70 million for first funding period

The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) is establishing 10 new Research Training Groups (RTGs) to further bolster the support offered to researchers in early career phases. This was decided by the responsible Grants Committee in Bonn. From autumn 2026 onwards, the new RTGs will receive a total of approximately €70 million over an initial period of five years. This includes a programme allowance of 22 percent for indirect project costs. Among the new groups are three International Research Training Groups (IRTGs) with partner institutions in Australia and France, as well as a group involving a university of applied sciences as a co-applicant institution for the first time.

In addition to the 10 new Research Training Groups, the Grants Committee also approved the renewal of 11 RTGs for a further funding period, including one IRTG with partners in Australia. 

Research Training Groups offer doctoral researchers the opportunity to complete their doctorates by following a structured research and training programme at a high level of subject-specific expertise. The DFG is currently providing funding for a total of 212 RTGs, including 28 IRTGs.

The new Research Training Groups in detail

(in alphabetical order of host university, with information on the spokesperson as well as the other applicant universities and cooperation partners):

Nano- and microgels made from synthetic polymers are currently used to stimulate stem cells, deliver drugs and provide scaffolds for tissue engineering, for example. However, existing gels have only limited capabilities when it comes to self-organisation and interaction with their environment and therefore do not match the capabilities of living matter. The interdisciplinary Research Training Group Adaptive Soft Matter by Programming Colloidal Gels with Biological Building Blocks (EMERGE) aims to lay the foundations for gels with life-like functions. In order to achieve this, biological building blocks such as polyphenols, polysaccharides and nucleic acids will be incorporated into polymers, thereby “programming” the gels. The goal is to develop new nano- and microgels that can regenerate themselves after damage, for example. (RWTH Aachen, Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Andrij Pich)

Many biomaterials used in clinical contexts are designed for only a single functionality. In the German-Australian IRTG Multidimensional Biomaterials [MB]2, researchers working in the areas of chemistry, physics, cell biology, materials science and medical engineering, together with their partners in Melbourne, aim to develop new materials with broader applications. The latter are to combine multiple functions by exploiting specific interactions between cells and the materials designed for them. (University of Bayreuth, Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Thomas Scheibel; cooperation partner: Monash University, Swinburne University of Technology and University of Melbourne, all three Australia)

How are conflicts resolved in different cultures? The Research Training Group Reconciliation and its Equivalents in Transcultural Comparison seeks to systematically investigate concepts, strategies and practices of reconciliation. Both European and non-European cultures will be examined. The researchers hypothesise that reconciliation and related concepts provide repertoires of responses and strategies that can de-escalate conflict situations and ideally help overcome them. The transcultural comparison will consider factors such as social negotiation processes, conflict resolution procedures and systems of values and norms. (University of Bonn, Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Christine Gisela Krüger)

Three major contemporary challenges lie at the heart of the Research Training Group Urban Future – managing transformations for a better health in blue cities: climate change, public health and urban sustainability. The group will examine transformations in cities of the Global South located on rivers or coastlines. One distinctive feature of the RTG is the integration of medicine alongside the social sciences and biodiversity and ecosystem research. This makes it possible to better understand complex interrelationships – for example between rising temperatures, air quality and health burdens – so as to be able to develop integrated solutions and transfer these insights to regions that are expected to be affected by climate change in the future. For the first time, a university of applied sciences is participating in a Research Training Group as a co-applicant institution. (University of Bonn, Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Nico Mutters; also applying: Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg)

The transition towards greater use of bio-based feedstocks and renewable energy sources remains a major challenge for chemical production based on petroleum. Existing processes are not designed to cope with the diversity of biomass feedstocks or fluctuations in the supply of renewable energy. Overcoming these obstacles requires tolerant processes that remain robust and flexible in the face of changing operating conditions. This is the objective of the Research Training Group Tolerant, Sustainable, Efficient: Overcoming the Tolerance-Efficiency Dilemma for Robust and Flexible Future (Bio)Chemical Processes. (TU Dortmund, Spokesperson: Professor Dr.-Ing. Hannsjörg Freund)

Technical systems are playing an ever-greater role in almost every area of everyday life. This gives rise to new challenges, as people interacting with and operating machines must increasingly engage with, understand and manage complex systems. For this reason, it is essential to ensure intuitive, reliable and safe human-system interaction that takes users’ perspectives into account. The aim of the Research Training Group Human-in-the-Loop Co-design of Interactive Systems (coHu) is to develop new tools and methods for safer and more user-friendly interactions between humans and systems. (University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Spokesperson: Professor Dr.-Ing. Philipp Beckerle) 

China’s influence on the global order has so far been examined mainly within individual disciplines. The RTG China’s Geoeconomic Rise and the Accumulation of Structural Power (China-GRASP): Empirical Analyses at the Macro and Micro Level now approaches China’s political economy from the interdisciplinary perspectives of political science, economics and area studies. This makes it possible to capture the distinctive characteristics of China more precisely. Rather than seeking open confrontation, as hegemonic powers have often done in the past, China is expanding its influence through structural power based on security, production, finance and knowledge. The researchers aim to identify the conditions that facilitate or hinder this process, as well as analysing its political and economic consequences. (University of Göttingen, Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Anja Jetschke)

What role does gender play in international criminal law contexts? And to what extent is law itself a "gendered construct"? These are among the questions addressed by the Research Training Group Gender and Processes of Gendering in International Criminal Law Context: Conflicts, Normative Orders, and Practices of Transformation. In doing so, the researchers will seek to examine the interplay between international criminal law and gender. The RTG will analyse both the role of gender concepts in the emergence, impact and perception of armed conflict and structural violence, while at the same time taking a close look at the gendered dimensions of international (criminal) law and the social mechanisms used to address international legal conflicts. (University of Marburg, Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Stefanie Bock)

Cardiovascular diseases are associated with changes in interdependent cellular structures and processes. The structures concerned, known as microdomains, serve as key units within cells, controlling signalling and molecular transport. The German-French IRTG Microdomains in Cardiac Disease aims to improve understanding of the mechanisms of microdomains in cardiovascular disorders. Researchers in Hamburg and Paris aim to identify disease mechanisms at the cellular and subcellular levels and, where already known, gain a better understanding of them. This work is to enable the development of specific cardiac drugs tailored to the function of the affected microdomain and therefore capable of acting more precisely than has previously been possible. (University of Hamburg, Professor Dr. Viacheslav Nikolaev; cooperation partner: University of Paris-Saclay, France)

The German-Australian IRTG Cultures of Repair builds bridges between Western and Indigenous knowledge and cultural contexts. The researchers contrast the concept of “repair” with the classically modern notions of “progress” and “innovation”. In doing so, they seek to critically reassess established narratives and open up a constructive, forward-looking perspective for research in fields including postcolonial studies, world literatures, Indigenous colonial studies, global history, media studies, science and technology studies and the environmental humanities. The concept of repair is not merely adopted as a programme but is also developed theoretically and substantiated conceptually. (University of Potsdam, Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Anja Schwarz; cooperation partner: University of Melbourne, Australia)

The RTGs with their funding extended for an additional period

(in alphabetical order of host university, with information on the spokesperson as well as the other applicant universities and cooperation partners, and with references to the project descriptions in the DFG’s online database GEPRIS):

• Contradiction Studies: Contradiction and Contradictions in the Dynamics of Polarization(externer Link) (University of Bremen, Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Karen Struve)
• Immunomicrotope: Microenvironmental, Metabolic and Microbial Signals Regulating Immune Cell-Pathogen Interactions(externer Link) (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Christian Bogdan)
• The Sentimental in Literature, Culture, and Politics(externer Link) (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Heike Paul)
• Dynamics of Controlled Atomic and Molecular Systems(externer Link) (University of Freiburg, Spokesperson from 1 July 2026: Professor Dr. Giuseppe Sansone)
• Urban future-making: Professional agency across time and scale(externer Link) (HafenCity University of Hamburg, Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Monika Grubbauer; also applying: University of Hamburg, TU Hamburg)
• Innate Immune Checkpoints in Cancer and Tissue Damage (InCheck)(externer Link) (University of Heidelberg, Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Adelheid Cerwenka)
• Tailored metasurfaces and metasystems for active light control(externer Link) (University of Jena, Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Isabelle Staude; cooperation partner: The Australian National University, Australia)
• STRESSistance: Molecular Mechanisms to Preserve the Functionality of Membranes and Compartments during Stress Conditions(externer Link) (RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau, Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Johannes M. Herrmann)
• Dynamics and stability of linguistic representationsCognition & Context – Acquisition & Intervention – Variation & Change(externer Link) (University of Marburg, Spokesperson: Professor Mathias Scharinger, Ph.D.)
• Immune Master Switches in Allergies and Autoimmune Diseases(externer Link) (TU Munich, Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Tilo Biedermann)
• Cooperative Synthesis of Apertures for Radar Tomography(externer Link) (University of Ulm, Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Christian Waldschmidt; also applying: University of Erlangen-Nuremberg)

Further Information

More detailed information on the funding programme and the Research Training Groups to be awarded funding can be found at www.dfg.de/gk/en(interner Link).

Further information is also available from the RTG spokespersons.