Open Up – New Research Spaces for the Humanities and Cultural Studies (Germany)

They therefore aim to support researchers who open up new areas of research and knowledge in the humanities and cultural studies by jointly exploring complex and hitherto unexplored research topics.

Objectives

• They are looking for projects with a high degree of exploration, which may be accompanied by an appropriate level of risk – the possibility of not achieving the intended project outcomes is therefore not a reason for rejecting a project.
• At this point, they would like to invite you to consider whether your project fits into the ‘Open Up’ funding initiative. In the view of the Volkswagen Foundation, a project does not fit ‘Open Up’ if there are already:
  • Recurring courses on the topic of your project,
  • Numerous articles on the topic of your project,
  • Journals on the topic of your project,
  • Expert associations on the topic of your project,
  • Discussions/debates on the topic in the supplements/feuilletons.

Funding Information

• The total budget is limited to €300,000 for projects with two partners and €400,000 for projects with three partners (excluding overheads).
• The maximum project duration is 1.5 years.

Costs Covered

• The budget can be freely structured according to the needs of the project. Funding will be provided on a lump sum basis to allow for flexible reallocation of funds as the project progresses. Funding may be provided to cover the following costs:
  • Personnel costs (own position or teaching substitute, but no additional scientific staff)
  • Non-personnel costs (such as travel and conference expenses, costs arising from the involvement of project partners within Germany and abroad, research stays at other institutions, workshops, translation costs etc.)
  • Mid-term workshop (a lump sum of €10,000 should be budgeted for planning and implementing this workshop).

Eligibility Criteria

• The funding initiative is open to:
  • Teams of two or three researchers from the humanities, cultural studies and theoretical social sciences who wish to explore new and original areas of research. Projects consisting solely of empirical research, such as fieldwork, data collection or interviews, cannot be funded under this program;
  • Researchers of all career levels after the PhD;
  • Researchers from foreign institutions are welcome to apply as co-applicants.

For more information, visit VolkswagenStiftung.