topic Research

The Humanities, Social Sciences and Cultural Sciences: Knowledge for Cultural and Social Orientation

The first framework programme of its kind is aimed at making German institutions attractive enough to convince the best foreign researchers to come to Germany. International research schools in the humanities and social sciences such as the Käte Hamburger Collegia, which is funded by the BMBF, the humanities research centres in Berlin and Leipzig, or the Institute for Advanced Study Berlin are already well-positioned in the international competition for world class researchers.

The new framework programme for the humanities, cultural and social sciences follows up on the "Freedom for research in the humanities" initiative (2007-2012), which had introduced new funding models for the humanities in accordance with recommendations made by the German Council of Science and Humanities.

Please click here for information about the new framework programme (in German only).
The humanities, cultural and social sciences provide a wealth of knowledge about cultural, economic and social developments and about social structures. They thus make an important contribution to decision-making on current problems and challenges. Work in these fields is facilitated when existing data is more easily available and stronger cooperation across disciplines enhances its validity. These disciplines are more effective if their practical relevance and the international role they play is strengthened.

The BMBF's new framework programme is providing targeted support for the humanities, cultural and social sciences in six key areas:

• Places and spaces for research
• The humanities and social sciences worldwide
• Information infrastructures
• Young Researchers
• Cultural heritage and research museums
• Religion, cultural diversity and cohesion

These priorities are based on objectives related to structure and content and are intended to provide new impetus for research in the social and cultural sciences and the humanities.

• They will generate contributions from the humanities and  cultural and social sciences on some of the key issues of our time and thereby help to shape the future.
• The aim is to heighten the profile of these disciplines and to improve their structures. The humanities and social sciences, along with the technological and natural sciences, are to be linked more closely so as to gain a better understanding of complex systems. Those fields of the humanities, cultural and social sciences that already have an international profile will be able to expand on their leadership position.

Project funding is one of the means that the BMBF uses to strengthen the research system. Targeted project funding is able to react quickly to the demands of society and to current issues - upon the recommendations of the German Council of Science and Humanities, for example - and can deliver lasting impulses in these fields.

The BMBF also supports institutional funding that is designed for the long term. The research institutions that receive support from the BMBF and the Länder for research activities in the social sciences and humanities are

• Social Science Research Centre Berlin, 
• GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences
• German Socio-Economic Panel Study
• Institute of Contemporary History
• Institute for the German Language
• Center for Research on Contemporary History
• Peace Research Institute Frankfurt
• Leibniz Institute of European History

and the eight research museums

• Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig (Bonn)
• German Mining Museum (Bochum)
• Senckenberg Research Institute and Museum (Frankfurt/Main)
• Museum of Natural History (Berlin)
• German Maritime Museum (Bremerhaven)
• Germanic National Museum (Nuremberg)
• Roman-Germanic Central Museum (Mainz)
• Deutsches Museum (Munich)

Institutional funding is provided to three coordinating institutions. They are the Max Weber Foundation of German Humanities Institutes Abroad, the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina - National Academy of Sciences (the Young Academy has been part of the Leopoldina since 2011) and the German Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech).

The Institute for Advanced Study Berlin, which is jointly funded by the BMBF and the Land Berlin, gives outstanding scientists in a wide range of disciplines and of different nationalities space and time to carry out research tasks which they have chosen themselves and for interdisciplinary discourse by offering them stays of several months as Fellows of the Institute.