Coordinated Programmes

Encouraging Cooperation and Interdisciplinarity

Research Units, Clinical Research Units bring together researchers working at one or more locations to carry out a specific project. The programme provides the staff and material resources required for intensive medium-term cooperation. These units often contribute to establishing new research directions.

Priority Programmes provide a collaborative framework in which researchers conduct project work within a broad defined subject area. Participating researchers are free to choose their topics, research plan and methods. Priority Programmes are established to coordinate knowledge and resources in the field in question to produce special scientific value.

Research Training Groups, International Research Training Groups are combined research and study programmes established at German universities for a limited time period for the purpose of promoting young researchers. Research Training Groups afford doctoral students the opportunity to complete their doctorates within a coordinated research programme.

Collaborative Research Centres are long-term university research centres in which scientists and academics pursue ambitious joint interdisciplinary research undertakings. This funding instrument aims to create core research focuses at universities.

DFG Research Centres are internationally visible centres of excellence established at selected German universities to bring together outstanding expertise and resources. DFG Research Centres are an important component in a university's strategic and thematic planning and serve to sharpen a university's profile.

The "Excellence Initiative" introduced and funded by the German federal government and the states will make a significant contribution to strengthening science and research in Germany in the long term, improving its international competitiveness and raising the profile of the top performers in academia and research. The initiative aims to promote top-level research and improve the quality of German universities and research institutions in general.

Humanities Research Centres in eastern Germany serve to promote and develop interdisciplinary, collaborative and project-oriented research in the humanities with an additional focus on cultural studies and international cooperation. Centres are established for a specific time period and are run by, or in cooperation with, one or more universities.