All applications must be submitted in English.
All text-based attachments should use an Arial or other standard sans-serif type font no smaller than point 11 and using standard (2cm) margins.
The UK principal investigator must submit a single integrated proposal with separate financial sections for each national agency. They must apply through UKRI’s Joint Electronic Submission system (Je-S) at the latest by Tuesday 22 February 2022 at 16:00 (UK time).
The UK principal investigator must provide a PDF copy of the Je-S submission to the German principal investigator in plenty of time before 23:00 (UK time) on Tuesday 22 February 2022.
The German principal investigator needs to upload the UK applicant’s PDF copy of the Je-S submission to the DFG’s submission portal ‘elan’ by 23:59 (German time) on Tuesday 22 February 2022.
Proposals received after the deadline will not be eligible.
Case for support attachment
This is compulsory. It can be up to 10 sides of A4.
This is the body of your integrated UK-German collaborative research proposal.
You must outline clearly:
- the rationale for the activities
- the approach or methods to be taken
- the context in which they will operate.
Please use the following headings to structure your case for support.
Rationale and research context
Please explain briefly and precisely the research context or state of the art in your field as it relates to your project. This description should make clear in which context you situate your own research and in what areas you intend to make a unique and innovative contribution.
To illustrate and enhance your statement, you may refer to others’ and your own publications. Please list all cited publications in a bibliography at the end of the case for support document. Applicants should not list an unpublished manuscript. This bibliography is distinct from your list of publications, which is to be uploaded separately.
Please note that reviewers may, but are not required to, read any of the works you cite or include, and that panel members may not be experts in your field. The description of the state of the art must be intelligible to a non-specialist without reference to additional literature.
Work programme including proposed research methods
The quality of the work programme is critical to the success of a funding proposal.
The work programme must include:
- a detailed account of the work packages and milestones planned during the proposed funding period (for experimental projects, a schedule detailing all planned experiments should be provided)
- a detailed description of the methods that you plan to use in the project:
- what methods are already available?
- what methods need to be developed?
- what assistance is needed from outside your own group or institute?
- information on each participant’s contribution to the project work
- a summary of the professional development opportunities which the project will make available to any research staff employed or any other support for early career researchers which you have built into your proposal
- an outline of the steps which you have taken to ensure that your project team and research are informed, as appropriate, by equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) considerations
- a description of the added value of the proposed international cooperation (please note that a high level of integration will be a necessary condition for funding within the present joint funding initiative).
Added value of international cooperation
The cooperation among the partners involved and the expected added value of the planned cooperation should be described in detail.
Ethical issues
If there are any ethical issues raised in the research proposal, please describe how they will be addressed. If applicable, German applicants must include an ethics committee vote from the institution within which their research will be carried out.
For more information about the conditions under which an ethics committee vote is necessary, please consult at: DFG, German Research Foundation frequently asked questions: Humanities and Social Sciences .
Resubmission changes (if applicable)
If submitting a reworked resubmission from the first or second funding opportunity, under this heading you should summarise the changes, for example changes to research questions, methodology or the project team.
Any additional information
Please use this section for outlining additional points of clarification about your project team and planned activities.
Planned and past cooperation with other researchers
Please list:
- all researchers with whom you have collaborated on research projects or publications over the past three years
- those with whom you have agreed to cooperate on this proposal.
This information will assist the DFG and AHRC officers in avoiding potential conflicts of interest during the review process.
Other compulsory documents
CV
Maximum two sides of A4 each.
As separate documents, a summary curriculum vitae should be attached for each principal investigator and co-investigator or named postdoctoral researchers, both in the UK and Germany.
CVs should include basic information about:
- education
- employment history
- academic responsibilities.
Publication list
Maximum one side of A4 each.
Summary lists of publications or research outputs should be attached as separate documents for each principal investigator and co-investigator, both in the UK and Germany.
These should cover major publications or outputs in the last five years. Brief articles, conference papers and so on need not be included.
You should asterisk those publications of particular relevance to your current research proposal.
Unpublished publications or outputs may not be included.
Project partner letters of support
Include if required. Maximum two sides of A4.
You should include letters of support from all non-academic organisations entered on the Je-S form as ‘project partners’. A project partner is an organisation which contributes in cash or in kind to the project but which is not requesting any money.
If there is an international co-investigator included within the UK budget, a head of department letter of support must be included.
If a UK investigator is an honorary fellow, visiting fellow or on a fixed term contract, a head of department letter of support is required.
Data management plan
Maximum two sides of A4.
A data management plan should be provided in line with the requirements outlined in line with the AHRC Research Funding Guide.
Improving the management and handling of research data is a priority both for national and international research organisations and for research in general.
Please consider existing standards and data repositories or archives in your disciplines and in UK or German national and international contexts where appropriate.
UK justification of resources attachment
Two sides of A4.
This statement should be used to justify the resources required to undertake the project.
These should be for the UK costs only. Justification for German costs should be included in the German budget document.
You should:
- explain why the indicated resources are needed, taking account of the nature and complexity of the research proposed (please note that it is not sufficient merely to list what is required)
- have regard for the breakdown of resources into the summary fund headings:
- directly incurred
- directly allocated
- (where appropriate) exceptions.
In the following cases, the basis of the costing need not be justified, but the need for the resources does need justification:
- investigator time
- use of internal facilities
- shared staff costs.
Please attempt to be explicit about the need for the level of investigator time sought.
Please do not justify estates and indirect costs.
Non-UK attachment: German budget and justification of resources
Use the DFG budget and justification of resources document (ODT, 17KB).
Maximum four sides of A4.
This document should be used to list and justify the resources required to undertake the German part of the project. This document is to be uploaded as a non-UK component attachment.
You should:
- explain why the indicated resources are needed, taking account of the nature and complexity of the research proposed (note that it is not sufficient merely to list what is required)
- not list indirect costs, the lump sum (Programmpauschale) will be added automatically to each funded project by DFG
- not request the module ‘Mercator fellow’ for a UK partner.
Carefully check the guidelines for the different modules. Some of them, for example the ‘replacement module’ or the ‘temporary position for principal investigators’, require additional documents.
You may delete positions from the template that are not applicable to your proposal.
Justify each item for each applicant.
Follow the outline given in the relevant guidelines (Leitfäden) for the requested modules on DFG’s Research Grants Programme (Sachbeihilfe).
Note that there are both general guidelines (50.01) as well as specific guidelines for each individual module (52.01 –52.07). Please make sure to submit all necessary documents for the requested modules.
See also the information on personnel rates (60.12) as well as the information on the payment of doctoral students (55.02).
Applying through Je-S
The UK principal investigator should submit the joint proposal using UKRI’s Joint Electronic Submission system (Je-S).
To prepare a proposal form in Je-S, log in to your account and choose ‘Documents’ from the menu then select ‘New document’.
When applying select:
- council: AHRC
- document type: standard proposal
- scheme: Development Grants
- call/type/mode: UK-German collaborative research projects in the humanities 22 February 2022.
Then select ‘Create document’.
Je-S will then create a proposal form, displaying the relevant section headings. Using the blue question marks and the ‘Help’ link at the top of each section will provide guidance relevant to that section of the form.
Please remember to allow sufficient time for your organisation’s submission process between submitting your proposal to them and the funding opportunity closing date. Please note that selecting ‘Submit document’ on your proposal form in Je-S initially submits the proposal to your host organisation’s administration, not to AHRC.
Please remember to allow sufficient time for your organisation’s submission process between submitting your proposal to them and the funding opportunity closing date.
Please note that when submitting the proposal through Je-S, the German principal investigator and co-investigator (or co-investigators) must, for technical reasons, be entered as “co-investigators”.
All investigators named on the Je-S application form, whether based in the UK or Germany, must have a Je-S account. Where a named investigator does not already have a Je-S account, one can be easily set up, but please note that the process can take a number of days. It is therefore strongly recommended that the process is started well before the application deadline.
Je-S accounts can be created on the Je-S site. During account set-up an account type of ‘An applicant on a standard or outline proposal’ must be selected.
Costs
German applications will be required to submit their costings on the finance form provided as an attachment to the integrated proposal submitted to the AHRC. UK applicants should include their costs in the Je-S budget table.
No staff costs should be included for the German principal investigator or co-investigator in the Je-S form. In the ‘Investigator section’, zero should be entered into the fields which ask for ‘salary rate’ and ‘total number of hours to be charged to the grant over the duration of the grant’ for the German principal investigator.
No costs should be included on the Je-S form that will be incurred by the German members of the project team. Only costs incurred by the UK team should be included.
Shared costs or resources may go under either budget.
Objectives box
Please give a concise description of your project’s research objectives with particular attention to:
- the innovative nature of the project
- its importance for the development of this particular field of study
- the added value of collaboration between UK and German researchers in addressing the stated research objectives.
If the proposed research is likely to have wider benefits, applicants should describe these benefits in the case for support, for example:
- in terms of the involvement of cultural and heritage organisations, public engagement or generating other forms of economic, social or cultural value
- in developing wider international networks and collaborations beyond Germany and the UK
- in providing the basis for collaboration with disciplines beyond those specified as eligible in the funding opportunity.
Download a PDF version
Please note that a complete document including all attachments can only be generated once the application has been submitted to AHRC.
To download a PDF format document of the Je-S application, follow these instructions:
- Open the application (you may need to first tick the “Show documents submitted to Council” at the top of the screen).
- Select ‘Document actions’ at the top of the screen.
- Select ‘Print document 5’.
- Select the option ‘Download the PDF version including attachments’.
Elan submission
Once the UK principal investigator has submitted the joint proposal through Je-S, the downloaded PDF proposal documents should be submitted by the German principal investigator to Elan.
Applicants requesting funding from DFG need an Elan account.
The deadline for the registration of the German applicants for Elan is 15 February 2022. UK applicants do not need to be registered.
Enter these details:
- funding scheme: Individual Grants Programme/Research Grant (Einzelförderung/ Sachbeihilfe)
- call to select: UK DFG/AHRC-Call 2022
- acronym: please do not fill in an acronym, use it to state the ‘AH/X000000/I’ number from your proposal submission to Je-S (the funding agencies need this information to link the different submissions)
- title and summary: you do not have to translate either from English into German, just copy and paste your English title and summary into the boxes that call for the information in German
- principal investigators and co-investigators from the UK are to be added as ‘participating individuals’ in the role of ‘cooperation partner’
- all documents submitted to Je-S are to be uploaded to Elan as well (one PDF)
- in addition, also upload the CV (or CVs) of the German team as an extra document (one PDF)
- DFG-specific documents (for example, a statement from the potential employer for temporary positions for principal investigator, or the statement by the university for the replacement module) need only be submitted to Elan, not to Je-S.
Peer review process
It should be noted that the only information relating to applications that will be used in the peer review assessment process will be that submitted through the UK Je-S system. Information submitted through Elan will not be used as a part of the peer review process.
Right to reject
Applicants must note that the national agencies retain the right to reject proposals where they fail to comply with the procedures set out in the guidelines.
If a proposal is ineligible with one national agency, the complete project will be rejected by both agencies. If the stated maximum number of pages is exceeded, or if required documents are not included, the proposal will be disqualified.
