Supporters of research projects
Research work is an important indicator of academic success and a university’s competitiveness. Funds from external sources play an important role to supplement the internal funding programmes at the university.
Depending on your subject area and the subject focus for your planned research project, there are a number of funding organisations that can be considered with regard to financing your project.
You will find below some of the major funding organisations that regularly provide financial support for researchers and academics at the University of Kassel. The ELFI research funding database and our FIT research information service provide a more detailed summary of the complete range of opportunities to obtain funding for research purposes.
German Research Foundation (DFG)
The German Research Foundation serves the academic world in all its branches by providing financial support for research tasks and by supporting cooperation between researchers.
Federal and state governments
The federal and state governments are major players in funding research and development. The federal government’s funding advice is the first contact point for this and offers information and details about funding opportunities at a federal, state and EU level.
Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
Project managers are responsible for handling programmes for the BMBF! The information office on BMBF funding has been set up at the Berlin branch office of the Biology, Energy, Ecology (BEO) project manager to provide general information about funding opportunities and procedures within the area of the BMBF’s responsibility. You can find the latest announcements about funding programmes and funding guidelines. The funding catalogue offers you the latest information on the individual project funding measures provided by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
State Offensive to Develop Academic/Economic Excellence (LOEWE)
The State Offensive to Develop Academic/Economic Excellence (LOEWE) is a state programme that is designed to make higher education institutions and research institutes in the state of Hesse more competitive nationally and internationally and strengthen the innovative capacity of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by means of three funding lines. The University of Kassel performs an internal pre-selection procedure within the university.
The Volkswagen Foundation
The Volkswagen Foundation is an independent, non-profit foundation governed by private law and has its headquarters in Hanover. It is the largest private German foundation funding academic projects and one of the foundations in Germany that provides the greatest amount of funding. It supports scientific and technological projects in research and teaching in the fields of the arts, social sciences, but also the natural sciences and engineering. It places particular emphasis on funding young academic researchers.
Funding from the European Union: Horizon 2020
The funding of research and innovations at European level is normally managed by programmes lasting several years. The EU, for example, is providing support for research projects to the tune of almost EUR 80 billion during the period 2014-2020 through the 8th Framework Programme for Research and Innovation – Horizon 2020.
H2020 projects at the University of Kassel [PDF, German]
Other international funding
Many German and international funding institutions support the exchange of ideas and cooperation with international institutions. Please contact the Research Services Office for advice.