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Information on Calls for Proposals in the Leibniz Association's Competitive Procedures in December 2026

The Leibniz Association's funding programmes are embedded in the ongoing strategy and profile development process of the Leibniz Association. They are intended to strengthen the scientific performance, visibility, and competitiveness of the Leibniz Asso-ciation in both national and international contexts. Among other refinements, the strategic relevance of proposed projects to the currently discussed focus areas — and thus their alignment with the Association's overall strategy — will become a fundamental criterion in the selection process regarding future calls across all funding programmes.

The results of the ongoing strategy and profile development process of the Leibniz Association will be presented and published at the General Assembly in December 2026. In order to take these deliberations into account, most calls for proposals under the competitive procedures (with the exception of the Leibniz Programme for Women Professors 2028-1 in July 2026) will not be published until December 2026. As an exception this year, this will result in shortened timeframes between the call for proposals and the sub-mission deadline for some programmes. To enable institutes to plan their applications at the beginning of 2027, the following information is provided regarding the planned calls and deadlines:

Deadlines and Right to Apply

• Call for Proposals: For the Leibniz Programme for Women Professors and the programmes Leibniz Junior Research Groups, Leibniz Collaborative Excellence, Leibniz Transfer, and Leibniz ScienceCampi, calls for proposals are planned for December 2026, following the General Assembly.
• Deadlines:
  • For the Leibniz Programme for Women Professors and the programme Leibniz Collaborative Excellence, the deadline for expressions of interest is 30 March 2027, and the deadline for full applications is 30 April 2027.
  • For the programmes Leibniz Junior Research Groups and Leibniz Transfer, the deadline for full applications is 30 March 2027. There is no preliminary expression of interest within these programmes.
  • For Leibniz ScienceCampi, the deadline for expressions of interest is 1 July 2027, and the deadline for full applications is 1 August 2027.
• Right to Apply:
  • Leibniz Programme for Women Professors: one application per institute
  • Leibniz ScienceCampi: generally one application per institute¹
  • Leibniz Junior Research Groups, Leibniz Collaborative Excellence, Leibniz Transfer: across all three programmes combined, a maximum of one application per institute as lead applicant, and across all three programmes combined, a maximum total requested funding amount of EUR 1 million per institute

Planned Changes to the Funding Programmes

• Across all funding programmes, the strategic relevance of proposed projects to the focus areas – and thus their alignment with the Association's overall strategy – will become a fundamental criterion in the selection process.

In addition, further changes are planned for some funding programmes:

• In the programmes Leibniz Collaborative Excellence and Leibniz Transfer, funding amounts of up to EUR 3 million may be requested when application budgets are pooled.
• The Leibniz Programme for Women Professors is aimed at female researchers in the early stages of their careers. Female researchers in Germany who already hold a permanent W2 or W3 position are not eligible to apply; female researchers from abroad must not yet be working as ‘full professors’. Furthermore, in the case of the joint appointment, no offer of appointment must have been made at the time of application.

¹If an institute has multiple locations, up to two applications per institute may be submitted.