External Calls for Proposals

With this call for proposals, the foundation is once again promoting the freedom of teaching and enabling university lecturers to develop and test creative or experimental ideas in their teaching. There are no thematic or subject-specific focuses; the call is aimed at projects that are convincing due to their innovative potential with regard to academic teaching, focus on the students' learning process and aim to initiate change at the respective location. A total of 50 million euros is available within the framework of Freiraum 2025.

Information on funding

Funding duration, funding period and amount of funding per project
Project funding begins on 1 April 2025 and the maximum project duration is 24 months, ending on 31 March 2027. The maximum funding amount is 400,000 euros per project. The type of funding is open; for example, applications can be made for personnel funds, material resources and funds for project-related investments.

Who can be funded?
All persons employed full-time at a German university are eligible to apply. Student projects related to teaching and projects by lecturers are expressly welcome, although here too the application must be submitted by a person authorised to apply. Consequently, lecturers and students are not eligible to apply. 

Application procedure
The content selection process is preceded by an expression of interest procedure. From 12 to 23 February 2024, expressions of interest (only one per person and per project idea) can be submitted via the foundation's funding portal. A lottery will be held to determine who is eligible to submit an application from the submitted expressions of interest. The fully formulated applications based on the project idea in the expression of interest can then be submitted from 11 March to 26 April 2024.

Important information on the internal university procedure 
Confirmation of administrative support from the university management is required for the application. In order to receive this, all complete application documents (incl. financing plan) must be sent to the Academy for Teaching Development by 2 April 2024 at the latest (only by email: ale@uni-jena.de). 
This email must confirm that 
(1) no other funding is available for the project applied for and that 
(2) no significant changes will be made to the application or the financing plan before submission in the foundation portal. 
The confirmation of the university management will then be obtained by the ALe office as soon as possible and sent to the applicants for independent submission of the application by 25 April 2024 at the latest.

Further information on the call for proposals can be found here: https://stiftung-hochschullehre.de/foerderung/freiraum/External link

With this call for proposals, the foundation is once again promoting the freedom of teaching and enabling university lecturers to develop and test creative or experimental ideas in their teaching. There are no thematic or subject-specific focuses; the call is aimed at projects that are convincing due to their innovative potential with regard to academic teaching, focus on the students' learning process and aim to initiate change at the respective location. A total of 50 million euros is available within the framework of Freiraum 2025.

Information on funding

Funding duration, funding period and amount of funding per project
Project funding begins on 1 April 2025 and the maximum project duration is 24 months, ending on 31 March 2027. The maximum funding amount is 400,000 euros per project. The type of funding is open; for example, applications can be made for personnel funds, material resources and funds for project-related investments.

Who can be funded?
All persons employed full-time at a German university are eligible to apply. Student projects related to teaching and projects by lecturers are expressly welcome, although here too the application must be submitted by a person authorised to apply. Consequently, lecturers and students are not eligible to apply. 

Application procedure
The content selection process is preceded by an expression of interest procedure. From 12 to 23 February 2024, expressions of interest (only one per person and per project idea) can be submitted via the foundation's funding portal. A lottery will be held to determine who is eligible to submit an application from the submitted expressions of interest. The fully formulated applications based on the project idea in the expression of interest can then be submitted from 11 March to 26 April 2024.

Important information on the internal university procedure 
Confirmation of administrative support from the university management is required for the application. In order to receive this, all complete application documents (incl. financing plan) must be sent to the Academy for Teaching Development by 2 April 2024 at the latest (only by email: ale@uni-jena.de). 
This email must confirm that 
(1) no other funding is available for the project applied for and that 
(2) no significant changes will be made to the application or the financing plan before submission in the foundation portal. 
The confirmation of the university management will then be obtained by the ALe office as soon as possible and sent to the applicants for independent submission of the application by 25 April 2024 at the latest.

Further information on the call for proposals can be found here: https://stiftung-hochschullehre.de/foerderung/freiraum/External link

The eTeach Network Thuringia promotes innovative impulse projects that digitally enrich and develop teaching and learning at Thuringian universities. Formats of learning, teaching and examining are to be developed in a competence-oriented manner and with a high degree of fit to student requirements. This also involves the implementation of innovative digital tools that contribute to the didactic enrichment of teaching and learning in the real and virtual world. The results of the projects serve as impulses for teachers at all Thuringian universities and can be integrated into learning, teaching and examination offerings.

Teachers at Thuringian universities are invited to submit an application for funding for an impulse project. Funding can be provided for six-month or full-year projects in four funding lines. For each project, the participation of at least two project partners from different universities is desired. In exceptional cases, these can also be two partners working at the same higher education institution.

Project proposals are submitted centrally via the university management. The university's internal application deadline is 1 September 2023. Please submit your complete application in electronic form to Christina Otto (otto.christina@uni-jena.de) by that date.

More information on the call for proposals and the necessary application documents can be found at www.eteach-thueringen.de/impulsprojekteExternal link.

For questions about the application process, funding modality and financing, please contact Christina Otto (otto.christina@uni-jena.de , 9-401619) from the FSU Jena's Digital University Office.

The programme "Fellowships for Innovations in Digital University Teaching in Thuringia" has already been announced several times by the Thuringian Ministry of Economics, Science and Digital Society (TMWWDG) in cooperation with the Stifterverband. The projects are intended to create impulses for the development and testing of digitally supported teaching and examination formats or the redesign of modules with the consistent use of digital technologies, as well as to promote the exchange of information on digital university teaching and the dissemination of the results of the respective projects in the sense of best-practice sharing.

For funding from 1 October 2023, up to ten fellowships were again offered in this programme, each endowed with up to 50,000 euros.
The call for applications was aimed at teachers who work at universities that are state-run in the Free State of Thuringia. The duration of the projects is 15 months (01.10.2023 - 31.12.2024).

Applications for a fellowship can only be submitted via the university management. The university-internal application deadline for this was 26 April 2023. The applications were collected and sent to the Stifterverband by the university management by 11 May 2023.

For more information on the procedure and on the fellows who have been funded so far, please go to https://www.stifterverband.org/digital-lehrfellows-thueringenExternal link

Under this link you can find out more about the Fellows of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena who have been already funded.

The joint programme of the Stifterverband and the 'DATEV-Stiftung Zukunft' (DATEV Foundation for the Future) promotes the development and integration of data literacy learning opportunities in degree programmes in public and non-profit management within the framework of two model projects. The aim was to enable learners to use data for the benefit of society.

The learning opportunities consist of two to three Learning Steps, i.e. events and learning opportunities that build on each other. The learning steps must be anchored in the curricula of the funded universities by the end of the funding phase. In addition, professionals from the public or civil society sector who are interested in academic continuing education also is addressed and able to complete at least one of the Learning Steps.

Key data of the call for proposals:

Application deadline: 15 March 2023
Funding amount: 60,000 €
Duration of funding: 1 May 2023 to 31 August 2024

Further information: https://www.stifterverband.org/data-literacy-learning-stepsExternal link

With this call for proposals, the Foundation was promoting the freedom of teaching, as it did last year, and enabled university teachers to develop and test creative or experimental ideas in their teaching. There was not a thematic or subject-related focal points; the call for proposals was geared towards projects that were convincing due to their innovative potential with regard to academic teaching and that focus on the students' learning process.

Information on funding

Duration of funding, funding period and amount of funding per project:
Project funding begun on 01.04.2024. The maximum funding period is 24 months; the latest project end date is 31.03.2026. The maximum funding amount was 400,000 euros per project. The type of funding is open; applications could be made for personnel funds, material funds and funds for project-related investments.

Who can be funded?
The call for proposals was aimed at university members who are involved in teaching development: Teachers, students, university didactics experts or managers. All persons employed full-time at a German higher education institution who are involved in teaching were eligible to apply. Student projects related to teaching as well as projects by teaching assistants are expressly welcome, although here too the application must be submitted by a person entitled to submit an application.

Application procedure
The content-related selection process was preceded by a procedure for expressing interest. From 1 to 15 February 2023, expressions of interest (only one per person and per project idea) could be submitted via the Foundation's website. A draw was made from the submitted expressions of interest to determine who is entitled to submit an application. The applications, which were formulated and based on the project idea in the expression of interest, were then be submitted from 1 March to 30 April 2023.

Further information on the call for proposals
Detailed information on the call for proposals can be found on the following website of the Foundation for Innovation in Higher Education: https://stiftung-hochschullehre.de/foerderung/freiraum2023/External link.

As a digital learning platform with openly licensed educational resources on the topics of artificial intelligence (AI) and data literacy, the AI Campus is looking for teaching fellows to test innovative teaching concepts for the application-oriented teaching of AI and data skills using the AI Campus learning opportunities. In the advertised funding phase, the focus is on the sustainable further development and implementation of teaching concepts for the teaching of AI and data competences. The format of the course is not specified, but it should reach at least 100 students per semester. AI Campus learning opportunities must be integrated by the fellows into their teaching over the entire duration of the programme, i.e. in the winter semester 2022/23 and summer semester 2023.

The fellowship programme is aimed at university teachers from all subject areas who would like to integrate the openly licensed learning offerings of the AI Campus into their own teaching and test an application-oriented teaching of AI and data skills.

Interested teachers at universities in Germany can apply until 12 August 2022. The fellows will receive didactic, professional and financial support. More information on the fellowship programme and the application process can be found at https://ki-campus.org/fellowshipsExternal link

A communication channel has been created in Mattermost for queries about the Fellow Programme: https://mm.ki-campus.org/ki-campus/channels/bewerbung_fellowshipExternal link. In this way, all applicants benefit from the corresponding answers.

The Thuringian Ministry of Economics, Science and Digital Society in cooperation with Stifterverband has already announced the programme ‘Fellowships für Innovationen in der digitalen Hochschullehre Thüringen’ several times. The funded projects are intended to create stimuli for the development and testing of digitally supported teaching and examination formats or the redesign of modules with the consistent use of digital technologies and the dissemination of the results of the respective projects in the sense of best practice sharing.
This programme will once again offer up to ten fellowships, each endowed with up to 50,000 euros.

The call for applications is aimed at teachers who work at universities that are state-run in the Federal State of Thuringia. The duration of funding is 15 months (1 October 2022 to 31 December 2023).

Applications for a fellowship can only be submitted via the University management. The University's internal application deadline is 9 May, 2022 (12:00). Please submit your complete application in electronic form to ale@uni-jena.de by this date. The ALe will inform you about any further steps that may be necessary. University management will collect the applications and send them to Stifterverband by 27 May 2022.

You can find the detailed call for applications and the application cover sheet in the download sectionExternal link of the ALe’s website.

For further information on the procedure and on the previously funded fellows can be found, please see https://www.stifterverband.org/digital-lehrfellows-thueringenExternal link.

You can find out more about the previous Fellows of Friedrich Schiller University Jena on the pages on Externally funded teaching projects.

On Friday, 29 April 2022 from 10:00 to 12:30, Stifterverband offers a webinar for interested applicants, where detailed information about the programme, the application modalities and selection criteria as well as the funding opportunities will be provided. Participants will have the opportunity to clarify their questions. If you would like to participate in the webinar, please register informally by email (andrea.kuppen@stifterverband.de) by 22 April 2022.

With the Didactics:digital programme, the Joachim Herz Foundation supports young researchers in the didactics of Biology, Chemistry and Physics as well as in reason and vocational education (with a focus on the natural sciences) who are working on the question of how digital media can be used sensibly in the natural sciences. To this end, the foundation funds corresponding projects in teacher training or research projects that include a transfer to teacher training.

In 2021, the Joachim Hertz Foundation will be advertising junior fellowships for the fourth time for junior researchers in Biology, Chemistry or Physics didactics, with funding starting in autumn 2021. Together with colleagues and experts (senior fellow researchers), the fellows will explore the question of what profitable concepts for teaching and learning with digital media in science lessons could look like.

Doctoral students (m/f/d), postdocs (m/f/d), junior professors (m/f/d), seconded teachers (m/f/d) and academic councillors (m/f/d) as well as comparably qualified junior staff in Biology, Chemistry or Physics didactics and subject or vocational school didactics with a focus on the natural sciences can apply for a fellowship.

Admission to the college is associated with funding of 15,000 euros for the realisation of your own teaching modules or research projects. In addition to funds to realise the teaching modules, the funding includes networking opportunities with other fellows (in particular with senior fellow (researcher)) and third parties, support in the implementation and dissemination of teaching concepts, participation in workshops, fellow meetings and foundation events.

The closing date for applications is 24 June 2021
Further information on the job advertisement|invitation to tender for research|call for applications|call for tenders can be found on the following website www.joachim-herz-stiftung.de/was-wir-tun/naturwissenschaften-begreifen/naturwissenschaften-vermitteln/kolleg-didaktik:digital/External link

The BMBF has announced a new funding guideline with the aim of designing a national education platform as a metaplatform in order to create digital access to innovative teaching and learning formats that can be used both individually and across the board.

Learners and teaching staff and their individual paths through digital teaching/learning scenarios are to be placed at the centre with the creation of digital educational spaces.
The establishment of a National Education Platform as a meta-platform for networked digital education programmes is intended to provide a technical and regulatory ecosystem that creates a framework for a powerful, interoperable teaching/learning infrastructure and the functionalities and services that build on it.

To achieve this, the BMBF is promoting the following three goals as part of the Digital Education Initiative:

1. (Further) development and establishment of modern learning path-oriented teaching/learning programmes in the context of cross-institutional, cross-method and cross-technology interlinked curricula based on the requirements of the National Education Platform as a meta-platform for networked digital education programmes
2. Building methodological knowledge and digital skills on the part of teaching staff through the development of digital teaching/learning scenarios
3. Access to and integration of the modular and innovative teaching/learning programmes defined independently in Objectives 1 and 2 via initial, competitively created prototypes for a federated service infrastructure.

State and non-state institutions of higher education, non-university research institutions, associations, clubs and other organisations as well as commercial enterprises are eligible to apply.

The "Fellowships for Innovations in Digital University Teaching Thuringia" programme has already been tendered several times by the Thuringian Ministry for Economic Affairs, Science and Digital Society (TMWWDG) in cooperation with the Stifterverband. The projects are intended to provide impetus for the development and testing of digitally supported teaching and examination formats or the redesign of modules with the consistent use of digital technologies and the dissemination of the results of the respective projects in the sense of best practice sharing.

For funding from 1 October 2021, up to ten fellowships will again be awarded in this programme, each endowed with up to 50,000 euros.
The job advertisement|invitation to tender for research|call for applications|call for tenders at institutions of higher education in the Free State of Thuringia. The duration of the projects is 15 months (01.10.2021 - 31.12.2022).

Applications for a fellowship can only be submitted via the university management. The university's internal application deadline is 10 May 2021 . Please submit your complete proposal in electronic form to ale@uni-jena.de by this date. You will be informed by the ALe about any further necessary steps. The university management will send the full proposals to the Stifterverband by 28 May 2021.

The detailed job advertisement|invitation to tender for research|call for applications|call for tenders can be found in the download areaExternal link.

Further information on the procedure and the fellows who have received funding to date can be found at https://www.stifterverband.org/digital-lehrfellows-thueringenExternal link

You can find out more about the previously funded fellows at Friedrich Schiller University Jena on the funded teaching projects de pages.

For interested applicants, the Stifterverband is offering a webinar on Friday, 23 April 2021 from 10:00 to 13:00 to provide detailed information about the programme, the application modalities and selection criteria as well as the funding opportunities. Participants will have the opportunity to clarify their questions. If you would like to take part in the webinar, please register informally by email ( andrea.kuppen@stifterverband.de) by 16 April 2021.

The eTeach Netzwerk Thüringen promotes innovative stimulus projects that digitally enrich teaching and learning at Thuringian universities and take it to the next level. Formats of learning, teaching and examination are to be further developed in a competence-oriented way and with a very good fit to student requirements. This also involves the implementation of innovative digital tools that contribute to the didactic enrichment of teaching and learning in the real and virtual world. The results of the projects serve as stimuli for teachers at all Thuringian universities and can be integrated into learning, teaching and examination offers.

Teachers at Thuringian universities are invited to submit an application for funding for a stimulus project. Every year, up to six projects with a duration of six months or up to three full-year projects are funded. For each project, the participation of at least two project partners from different universities is desired. In exceptional cases, the partners can also be working at the same university.

Project applications are submitted centrally via the university management. The internal application deadline at the University of Jena is 9 April 2021. Please submit your complete application in electronic form to anna.svet@uni-jena.de by this date.

You can find more information on the call for proposals and the required application documents on the following website of the eTeach networkExternal link.

If you have any questions about the application process, funding modalities and funding, please do not hesitate to contact Dr Anna Svet (anna.svet@uni-jena.de, +49 3641 9-401041) from the University’s Office Digital University or the eTeach core team (kontakt@eteach-thueringen.de).

The funding announcement "Promotion of Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education" has now been published and is currently available at the following link:

https://www.bmbf.de/foerderungen/bekanntmachung-3409.htmlExternal link

Faculties of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena|University of Jena who would like to submit a proposal are requested to contact Dr Frederik Schulz (Head of the Digital University Office, www.uni-jena.de/digital) de, as the proposals will be coordinated through him. Initial information on the amount of the planned proposals should be submitted by the institutions of higher education to the TMWWDG by 22 March 2021; project descriptions must be submitted by 16 April.

As part of the "SMART Qualified" programme, the Daimler Fund and the Stifterverband have published a second round of funding for the "MINTplus - plusMINT" job advertisement|invitation to tender for research|call for applications|call for tenders to promote holistic and cross-disciplinary STEM education. Both overarching university strategies and concrete implementation measures at the level of degree programmes and projects are eligible for funding. The involvement of external partners is also explicitly desired.

In a first step, up to 15 projects are to be funded, each of which will receive prize money of 10,000 euros. At the end of the first year of the three-year project period, these institutions of higher education, known as Fellows, can apply for further funding from an innovation fund, for which funds totalling 300,000 euros are available. Fellow institutions of higher education can apply for these funds individually or in association with other Fellows who are pursuing similar project ideas or a corresponding scale.

For the first application phase, each institution of higher education can submit several proposals from different faculties, but only one per faculty.
For the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, the following university-centred application procedure has been defined for this call phase:

1. By 15 April 2021, submission of an expression of interest in participating in the call with a brief description of the project content and details of the project participants to ale@uni-jena.de
2. By 30 April, re-registration from the university management as to whether the project application is supported in principle and, if applicable, a request to submit a complete project application
3. Submission of the complete project proposal by 20 May 2021 to ale@uni-jena.de and subsequent examination of the applications by the university management (re-registration to applicant if adjustments are required)
4. Submission of the full proposal to the Stifterverband by 31 May 2021 (presumably centrally by the university management)

Further information on the job advertisement|invitation to tender for research|call for applications|callExternal link for tenders can be found at: https: //www.stifterverband.org/smart-qualifiziert.External link

Funding announcement 2020 - Strengthening university teaching through digitalisation.

Due to the pandemic, the first funding announcement of the Innovation in Higher Education Foundation has been brought forward. The foundation gives the reasons for this as the " corona pandemic[...] has created an acute pressure for institutions of higher education to rethink studying and teaching, to develop digital teaching and learning formats on an ad hoc basis and to rapidly expand infrastructure and support structures."

In the current job advertisement to tender for research|call for applications|call for tenders, each institution of higher education can submit a maximum of one individual application and one joint application. Following a decision|ruling|judgement by the university management, our university will submit an individual application on a central and transferable cross-cutting topic and a joint application from the Faculty of Medicine.

Duration of project funding: 01.08.2021 - 31.07.2024, max. 36 months
Funding amount per full proposal: €0.5 - 5 million

Further information on the current funding announcement can be found at: https: //stiftung-hochschullehre.de/ausschreibungen/foerderbekanntmachung-2020/External link

With the help of the "Curricula of the Future" programme, innovative study projects were supported as part of the Thuringian Higher Education Digitalization Strategy, which provide impetus for the further development of study content and academic teaching|academic instruction. The funded pilot projects help to adequately prepare students for a living and working environment that is increasingly characterised by digitalisation. The aim of the funding is to develop innovative curricular reform projects that demonstrate new solutions and can be transferred to other degree programmes, departments or institutions.

In 2018 and 2019, three projects at Friedrich Schiller University Jena received funding totalling around 180,000 euros.