The German Research Foundation (german: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft ; DFG ) is a German research funding organization, which functions as a self-governing institution for the promotion of science and research in the

Federal Republic of Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated between ...

. In 2019, the DFG had a funding budget of €3.3 billion.

Function

The DFG supports research in

science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence ...

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...

, and the

humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at t ...

through a variety of grant programmes, research prizes, and by funding infrastructure. The self-governed organization is based in

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...

and financed by the German states and the federal government of Germany. As of 2017, the organization consists of approximately 100

research universities A research university or a research-intensive university is a university that is committed to research as a central part of its mission. They are the most important sites at which knowledge production occurs, along with "intergenerational kno ...

and other

research institution A research institute, research centre, research center or research organization, is an establishment founded for doing research. Research institutes may specialize in basic research or may be oriented to applied research. Although the term often i ...

s. The DFG endows various research prizes, including the Leibniz Prize. The Polish-German science award

Copernicus Nicolaus Copernicus (; pl, Mikołaj Kopernik; gml, Niklas Koppernigk, german: Nikolaus Kopernikus; 19 February 1473 – 24 May 1543) was a Renaissance polymath, active as a mathematician, astronomer, and Catholic canon, who formulat ...

is offered jointly with the

Foundation for Polish Science The Foundation For Polish Science ( pl, Fundacja na rzecz Nauki Polskiej, FNP) is an independent, non-profit making organisation which aim at improving the opportunities for doing research in Poland. Established in 1990, registered in 1991, the ...

. According to a 2017 article in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'', the DFG has announced it will publish its research in online open-access journals.

Background

In 1937, the ''

Notgemeinschaft der Deutschen Wissenschaft The ''Notgemeinschaft der Deutschen Wissenschaft'' (Emergency Association of German Science) or NG was founded on 30 October 1920 on the initiative of leading members of the '' Preußische Akademie der Wissenschaften'' (Prussian Academy of Sciences, ...

'' (NG) ("Emergency Association of German Science") was renamed the ''Deutsche Gemeinschaft zur Erhaltung und Förderung der Forschung'' ("German Foundation for the Preservation and Promotion of Research"), for short known as the ''Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft'' (DFG). Even before the election of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazi party) to power in 1933, projects funded by the NG had worked diligently on Nazi-aligned research, especially German ethnographic research in Eastern Europe that would lay the foundations for the Hitlerite "

Lebensraum (, ''living space'') is a German concept of settler colonialism, the philosophy and policies of which were common to German politics from the 1890s to the 1940s. First popularized around 1901, '' lso in:' became a geopolitical goal of Imper ...

" and

extermination Extermination or exterminate may refer to: * Pest control, elimination of insects or vermin * Genocide, extermination—in whole or in part—of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group * Homicide or murder in general * "Exterminate!", the ...

policies; during the National Socialist period, the NG leadership showed itself ready and willing to adapt to the "new era" by gearing its funding practices towards issues related to

German rearmament German rearmament (''Aufrüstung'', ) was a policy and practice of rearmament carried out in Germany during the interwar period (1918–1939), in violation of the Treaty of Versailles which required German disarmament after WWI to prevent Germ ...

and

autarky Autarky is the characteristic of self-sufficiency, usually applied to societies, communities, states, and their economic systems. Autarky as an ideal or method has been embraced by a wide range of political ideologies and movements, especiall ...

, essentially aligning its goals with the those of the new regime. By the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

in Germany, in 1945, the DFG was no longer active. In 1949, after formation of the

Federal Republic A federal republic is a federation of states with a republican form of government. At its core, the literal meaning of the word republic when used to reference a form of government means: "a country that is governed by elected representatives ...

, it was re-founded as the NG and again from 1951 as the DFG.

Structure

The legal status of the DFG is that of an association under private law. As such, the DFG can only act through its statutory bodies, in particular through its executive board and the General Assembly. The DFG is a member of the

International Council for Science The International Council for Science (ICSU, after its former name, International Council of Scientific Unions) was an international non-governmental organization devoted to multilateralism, international cooperation in the advancement of scie ...

and has numerous counterparts around the globe such as the

National Natural Science Foundation of China The National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC; ) is an organization directly affiliated to China's State Council for the management of the National Natural Science Fund. History NSFC was founded in February 1986 by theoretical chemist Ta ...

, the

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...

(USA) and the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

(UK). The DFG has several representative offices in Asia, North America and Europe and also maintains the

Sino-German Center for Research Promotion The Sino-German Center for Research Promotion (SGC) is a research funding institution based in Beijing, established by the German Research Foundation and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). The NSFC is the most important ...

, which was jointly founded by the DFG and the

. On 9 June 2012, DFG launched a centre in

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River, in the northern part of Southern Indi ...

, to expand its presence in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

. The German-based research foundation and

's Department of Science and Technology are together working on 40 bilateral research projects in science and engineering. The German Research Foundation is a member of Science Europe.

Heisenberg Programme

The Heisenberg Programme of the DFG is aimed at young outstanding scientists who meet all the requirements for appointment to a permanent professorship. The programme was named after the German physicist

Werner Heisenberg Werner Karl Heisenberg () (5 December 1901 – 1 February 1976) was a German theoretical physicist and one of the main pioneers of the theory of quantum mechanics. He published his work in 1925 in a Über quantentheoretische Umdeutung kinematis ...

, who received the

Nobel Prize in Physics ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then " ...

at the age of 31. The funding programme aims to enable scientists to prepare for a scientific leadership position and to work on further research topics during this time. The maximum funding period is five years. Normally, the

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including ...

is a prerequisite for applying for admission to the programme. However, services similar to habilitation are also included in the selection. The program consists of the following variants: * The ''Heisenberg Scholarship'' * The ''Heisenberg position'' is a DFG-funded temporary research assistant position at a university. * The ''Heisenberg professorship'' a DFG-funded professorship with the aim of establishing a new research area within a scientific focus of the university. * The ''Heisenberg temporary substitute position for clinicians'' is intended for clinically working scientists who can take some time off for research.

Notable fundings and cooperations

* German National Library of Economics * German National Library of Medicine *

German National Library of Science and Technology The German National Library of Science and Technology (german: Technische Informationsbibliothek), abbreviated TIB, is the national library of the Federal Republic of Germany for all fields of engineering, technology, and the natural sciences. ...

* Greenpilot * Virtual Library of Musicology

Notes

Bibliography

* Heilbron, J. L. ''The Dilemmas of an Upright Man: Max Planck and the Fortunes of German Science'' (Harvard, 2000) * Hentschel, Klaus (ed.), Hentschel, Ann M. (transl.). ''Physics and National Socialism: An Anthology of Primary Sources'' (Birkhäuser, 1996) * ''Perspektiven der Forschung und Ihrer Förderung. 2007–2011.'' Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (ed.); Wiley-VCH, Weinheim 2008, . * Anne Cottebrune: ''Der planbare Mensch. Die DFG und die menschliche Vererbungswissenschaft, 1920–1970'' (= ''Studien zur Geschichte der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft'' 2). Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 2008, . * Notker Hammerstein: ''Die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft in der Weimarer Republik und im Dritten Reich. Wissenschaftspolitik in Republik und Diktatur 1920–1945.'' Beck, München 1999, . *

Thomas Nipperdey Thomas Nipperdey (27 October 1927, Cologne – 14 June 1992, Munich) was a German historian best known for his monumental and exhaustive studies of Germany from 1800 to 1918. As a critical follower of Leopold von Ranke's famous ideal of writing ...

Ludwig Schmugge Ludwig Schmugge (born 28 November 1939) is a German historian. Life Born in Berlin, Schmugge completed his dissertation on John of Jandun in 1964 in Paris with the help of a six-month scholarship from the Commission for the Study of the History ...

: ''50 jahre forschungsförderung in deutschland: Ein Abriss der Geschichte der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft. 1920–1970.'' nlässl. ihres 50jährigen Bestehens Bad Godesberg: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft 1970

External links

*
DFG Science TV YouTube channel
{{Authority control Organisations based in Bonn Scientific organisations based in Germany Government agencies established in 1951 1951 establishments in West Germany Research and development organizations Research and development in Germany Members of the International Council for Science Research funding agencies Members of the International Science Council