Freedom for Research in the Humanities

The humanities contribute towards shaping the future and towards our cultural memory. They mediate between cultures; they reflect and offer guidance on values and developments in sections of our society. With the initiative "Freedom for Research in the Humanities" the BMBF is setting out to enhance the humanities from the structural point of view and to provide them with more latitude to develop their strengths.

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Berlin Exhibit: Karl Friedrich Schinkel. History and Poetry

Karl Friedrich Schinkel: A Gothic Cathedral behind Trees, 1810 © Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, KupferstichkabinettAround 300 exhibits by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, the universal artist, architect, painter, drawer, and designer, are on display at the Kulturforum in Berlin from 7 September 2012 to 7 January 2013. The Staatliche Museen zu Berlin are cooperating with the Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung in Munich, where the exhibit will displayed as of 1 February 2013. This unique show, organized by the Berlin Museum of Prints and Drawings (Kupferstichkabinett ), is under the patronage of Federal President Joachim Gauck and is based on the research project "Schinkel's Legacy," which is supported by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF). With around 650,000 euros in funding, the works of Karl Friedrich Schinkel have become the centre of a three-part research project: First, the collection belonging to the Berlin Museum of Prints and Drawings was accessed and digitalized. Second, modern and sustainable conservation and storage techniques were considered to develop a strategy that would also be applicable to similar cultural works. Finally, on the basis of improved materials and virtual security of the objects, researchers developed the exhibit concept: "Schinkel - History and Poetry." The project covers an extremely representative collection of about 5,000 water colours, gouache paintings and drawings, mostly by the artist's own hand, and some 500 prints.

Karl Friedrich Schinkel: Portrait of the Artist's Daughter, Marie 1816 © Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, KupferstichkabinettPreserve, research, and pass on - the goal of the institutional and permanent BMBF funding for the eight research museums of the Leibniz Gemeinschaft is to anchor the idea of museums as locations for research in the minds of a wider public while strengthening museums as the original location for research. Further funding for individual research projects in museums supplements this policy. One new project, for example, is a five year programme exploring the "language of objects," which aims to further link disciplines and institutions so that, above all, museums can further establish themselves as cooperative partners and advance research facilities within the German higher education system. This new programme takes off from the experiences collected in the funding programme "Function of Translation in the Humanities," and focuses on access to and interpretation of material culture and object-oriented research.
 

The Initiative

The initiative pursues the following objectives:

• Granting researchers in the humanities more time for research by providing new forms of funding,
• Defining the significance of research in the humanities for the academic and societal dialogue,
• Advancing the development of new methods in the humanities and intensifying interaction with the natural and engineering sciences,
• Promoting the internationalization of research in the humanities
• Strengthening the role and function of the humanities as mediator and translator.

The Individual Priorities

International Käte Hamburger Collegia

The central elements of the funding initiative are the international Käte Hamburger Collegia. This funding model was developed at the suggestion of the Science Council and combines the advantages of both cooperative and individual research in a unique way. The essential features of the international schools are the fact that they release outstanding researchers to conduct their own independent research work, provide a fellows programme and consider issues of an international nature.

Individual aims of funding:

• To promote the international, visible and effective establishment of priorities in the field of the humanities at German universities and to strengthen ties with foreign research priorities and institutions
• To grant outstanding researchers in the humanities scope for pursuing research questions which they have chosen themselves by largely releasing them from their other university responsibilities
• To enable the formation of a learning community that analyses its own assumptions - which have otherwise usually not been questioned - by confronting them with other scientific cultures
• To involve outstanding international colleagues in research work at German universities
• To develop methods in the humanities - including comparative cultural research
• To strengthen cooperation in the humanities to include the "small" disciplines

The following ten schools were selected by an international panel of experts in 2007, 2008 and 2010:

• Dynamics in the History of Religions  Ruhr-Universität Bochum
• IKKM: Internationales Kolleg für Kulturtechnikforschung und Medienphilosophie Bauhaus-Universität Weimar
• Interweaving Performance Cultures Freie Universität Berlin
• Work and Human Lifecycle in Global History  Humboldt University Berlin
• Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society LMU, Munich
• Morphomata: Genese, Dynamik und Medialität kultureller Figurationen  (Morphomata: Genesis, Dynamics and Mediality of Cultural Figurations) Universität zu Köln
• Fate, Freedom, and Prognostication. Strategies for Coping with the Future in East Asia and Europe, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
• Law as Culture, Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn
• Imre Kertész Kolleg: Europas Osten im 20. Jahrhundert. Historische Erfahrungen im Vergleich, Friedrich Schiller University Jena
• Political Cultures in Global Society. Opportunities for Cooperation in the 21st Century, University of Duisburg-Essen

Funding for Käte Hamburger Collegia is initially limited to a period of six years with an option on a second funding period of a further six years. Up to twelve research schools are to be included in the funding programme.

Outlook for the Humanities Research Centres

The German Council of Science and Humanities recommended the establishment of humanities research centres in 1991 in the context of creating prospects for non-university research institutions of the former GDR. The Humanities Research Centres which were founded on the basis of this recommendation represent an innovative element in the research landscape of the Federal Republic of Germany from both a structural and an organizational point of view. Following an evaluation in 2005, the Council specifically recommended the further funding of the Humanities Research Centres which had received positive evaluations.

The BMBF is contributing to giving these Humanities Research Centres a prospect for the future and since 2008, together with the respective host Länder has been providing funding to the following centres within the framework of institutional funding for a period of six plus six years:

• Centre for the History and Culture of Eastern Central Europe (GWZO), Leipzig
• Centre for General Linguistics (ZAS), Berlin
• Center for Literary and Cultural Research (ZfL), Berlin
• Zentrum Moderner Orient (Centre for Modern Oriental Studies) (ZMO), Berlin

Translation Function of the Humanities

The aim of the "Translation Function" funding priority is to demonstrate and develop the expertise of the humanities in "translation" - in the sense of communication, visualization and transfer. Innovative fields of application for translational skills in the humanities are being developed - for example the translation of theoretical knowledge into orientation and practical knowledge - and are strengthening research both in association with and within the museums. Interdisciplinary research collaborations are being funded for this purpose.

Interaction between the Natural Sciences and the Humanities

The "Interaction between the Natural Sciences and the Humanities" funding priority sets out to encourage researchers in the humanities and the natural sciences to work together in interdisciplinary research collaborations and to extend their intellectual approaches through mutual exchanges. The aim is not least to achieve an equal discussion between various disciplinary cultures and to use humanistic methods to interpret data and results in the natural sciences. Questions in the fields of linguistics and literature, archaeology and classical studies have been chosen as a first step. The funding priority follows on from the BMBF's funding priority "New Scientific Methods and Technologies in the Humanities (NTG)" (1989-2007).

Strengthening and Advancing Area Studies

The aim of the funding priority "Strengthening and Advancing Area Studies" is to introduce new forms of cooperation to pool, develop and test existing expertise in the field of area studies. At the same time, steps are to be taken to advance issues in the specific disciplines and interdisciplinary issues and to promote cooperation with the systematic disciplines. Networked, interdisciplinary sites of expertise are to be established in Germany. These will provide a stimulus in this field of humanistic knowledge, not least through close cooperation with foreign researchers. Funding will be provided to ten research projects under two funding lines:

1. Inter-university competence networks (seven collaborations)
2. Establishment of intra-university structures and networks (three centres)

The second funding line was renewed in a second call 2011.

The BMBF funding for area studies is also a contribution to the Federal Government's Internationalization Strategy. There has been a tremendous increase in the need for sound knowledge about distant parts of the world in almost all areas as a result of globalization processes. This means that research and training in the field of area studies can be applied in a wide range of different fields, ranging from trade and economic cooperation to diplomacy and law to culture, disaster management and ecology. Area studies contribute to policy support more than other fields - and in a more targeted way. However, they rarely do this in a way that is immediately obvious. It is far more important to enable and generate a "knowledge reserve" rather than merely focus on the results of short-term contracts.

The selected projects focus on observing political, cultural and economic debates conducted in other countries. In this way, they can enrich debates in Germany and Europe by bringing in the perspectives and approaches of other countries. At the same time, they contribute to ensuring that globalization and issues affecting developing and emerging countries are adequately represented in German research.

Young Researchers

The call "Europe seen from the outside" is designed to support junior research groups and pursues two main aims. On the one hand, it promotes the internationalization of the humanities in Germany, and on the other hand, it provides broad-based support for the qualification of young researchers in an interdisciplinary research context.

The funding projects will

• Contribute to studying how the external perception of Europe has developed historically and more recently and what cultural, societal and political factors determined this development
• Reconstruct the mutual influences that Europe experienced - and is still experiencing - in dealing with non-European countries
• Study how "outside" and "inside" are defined from a European point of view and what developments these demarcations and delimitations are subject to
• Include foreign fellows and establish national and international networks

An international expert panel recommended seven projects for funding in September 2009. The junior research groups took up their work in the second quarter of 2010.

The Humanities in Dialogue

The research results are discussed in public at panel discussions in the "The Humanities in Dialogue" series.

Charting Small Disciplines

In order to provide the debate on small disciplines with a sound basis, it is first of all essential to take stock. The BMBF is therefore funding a project to chart small disciplines in collaboration with Potsdam University.