Research fund

(Status: 18 January 2022)

General information

The Faculty of Arts and Humanities contributes to research funding from the funds it receives from the programme lump sums. The research fund primarily provides funding for the preparation of research proposals.

In addition to the quality of the proposals, the prospect of acquiring third-party funding in connection with the project and the promotion of the research activities of our junior researchers are decisive for the approval of applications.

Applications can be submitted at any time and decisions are made on four key dates per year (see below for more details).

The Vice Dean for Research decides on the allocation of funds in consultation with the Dean. There is no legal entitlement to funding.

Guidelines

The following are eligible to apply

• Researchers with a doctorate who are employed full-time at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Würzburg at the time of application and for at least the planned duration of the project;
• Academics who are authorised to conduct independent research and teaching and who work part-time at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Würzburg;
• Doctoral candidates who are admitted to doctoral studies at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities in accordance with Section 5 of the Doctoral Degree Regulations of 1 October 2015 for certain material costs in the context of the doctorate.

In the case of explicit start-up funding (see section 1 below), the applicant must be guaranteed employment for the duration of the project so that the third-party funded project to be applied for can be carried out at the University of Würzburg.

Applications can be submitted by individuals or joint project applications.

Funds can be provided

1. as start-up funding for a targeted, well-founded project application to a relevant research-funding institution, so that preliminary work can be carried out or so that the project can be started pending a decision on the third-party funding application. Project-related expenditure for auxiliary staff and material resources can be funded .
   
   To promote early career researchers, the focus should be on funding for assistants in order to qualify early career researchers to prepare applications for third-party funding and to work on research projects.
   
   Funding is generally provided for a period of six months, but no longer than one year. Projects with a longer duration can initially only be supported for this period. Funding beyond this period is possible in exceptional cases as part of a new application. No long-term projects are funded.
2. for material costs incurred in the context of doctorates and habilitations, but not in the form of scholarships, printing or publishing costs.

The following arenot eligible for funding

• Projects to improve teaching
• non-project-related travelling expenses
• printing costs
• conferences, symposia, closed meetings of applicants and the like
• improvement of basic equipment (PC, books, etc.)
• office materials.

Form and deadline for submitting applications

Form

The application text may not exceed five pages. The following structure is required for the presentation:

1. project description with the following information:

• Applicant, academic degree, current employment relationship (unlimited / limited until ...)
• Working title
• Brief description
• Name of the prospective funding institution
• Detailed, generally understandable project description / significance for research, objectives / justification of the requested funds, including a description of the tasks of the research assistants, in particular the need to use certified research assistants
• Previous preliminary work and, if applicable, own publications on the topic of the project
• Ethical aspects, if necessary the need for a review by an ethics committee
• Duration of the project / timetable (planned form of publication, if applicable)
• Reference to the criteria of the research fund
• Notification of funding or application for funding from other institutions (including rejected applications, if applicable)
• Notification of applications to the Research Fund in the past three years (with details of the success of third-party funding)

2. statement of costs (individual items and total amounts) for

• Auxiliary staff (hours / months and costs in euros including any special allowances)
• Material costs

3. funding amount:

• In the case of start-up funding for new research projects, a maximum funding limit of 7,000 euros applies for projects from one subject, and 12,000 euros for joint applications from several subjects.
• For material costs in the context of doctorates and habilitations, a maximum funding limit of 2,500 euros per doctorate and 5,000 euros per habilitation applies.

Applications that do not fulfil these criteria cannot be approved.

Deadlines

Applications - in paper form and signed - can be submitted to the Office of the Dean at any time.

Decisions on approvals are made annually on the following four deadlines:

01.02. for project start 01.04.

01.05. for project start 01.07.

01.08. for project start 01.10.

01.11. for project start 01.01. of the following year.

Reporting obligations

A final report on all approved projects must be submitted to the Vice Dean for Research no later than six months after the end of the funding period, including details of the application submitted to the research funding institution.

If such a report is not submitted even after a single reminder, no new applications will be accepted!

The faculty also expects information on submitted and approved funding applications beyond the reporting deadline.