Deadline: 8-Sep-23
Are you a South African researcher collaborating with a German institution? Is your project in the field of culture, education, outreach work or civil society? Then you may be eligible for the Science Year 2024 funding.
The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has been organizing the Science Years since 2000 together with partners from scientific, educational and cultural institutions as well as actors from politics, civil society and the media. By promoting impact-oriented, experimental and dialogic formats, the Science Years aim to create the best possible conditions for exchange between research and different publics, to anchor science communication in science and to explore new methodological paths.
The Science Years are dedicated to interdisciplinary future topics and take up different perspectives. You make a contribution to a resilient and sustainable society. The aim of the Science Years is to bring citizens into a dialogue with science and research in a variety of formats and to get the public more interested in science.
Funding Purpose
Projects are funded that meet one or more of the following aspects:
- The funding projects should be aimed at various target groups of the interested public: young people and young adults, children (from kindergarten age), students and young scientists as well as multipliers in science (interdisciplinary specialist community), education, civil society, media and politics. A particular focus is on projects that address target groups that have previously had little contact with science. Here, specific and low-threshold offers are to be created for underrepresented target groups (e.g. for the population from regions with little or no scientific institutions or for people who are rarely reached by the education system).
- Eligible for funding are methodologically innovative formats of science communication that are based on mediation, dialogue or target participation. The projects are intended to promote the scientific maturity of citizens (scientific literacy) and convey the relevance of science and research in shaping the future of society.
- A particular focus is on projects developed jointly by scientific institutions and organizations in the fields of culture, education, mediation work, civil society. It is desirable that the projects can also be linked to the (communication) work of those interested in funding beyond the Science Year.
Thematic Areas
The Science Year is oriented towards three thematic areas:
- What does freedom mean in the year 2024?
- Freedom and public discourse: Freedom is not possible without a responsible, broadly educated citizenry. But where do they stand in times of social media, cyber bullying, fake news, ChatGPT and a radical change in media consumption? How do they counter hate speech and disinformation in the digital space?
- Freedom and diversity: All people in the country should be able to contribute their talents to society. How can they further strengthen equality between women and men? How can they contribute to that Diversity (migration background, social background, different life plans, LGBT, etc.) in a heterogeneous society is primarily seen as a strength and an opportunity?
- Freedom and education: Education is a prerequisite for freedom. How can they create equal opportunities and enable advancement through education?
- Academic freedom: Academic freedom is constitutive for finding the truth and thus for the existence of democratic societies based on the rule of law. What freedom does science need? Before which Does it have to be protected from tampering nowadays? Are research security and research freedom in one tension between each other? And how does liberal science affect society?
- The freedom of future generations
- Planetary limits of freedom: In times of climate change, do personal freedom rights have to be limited in view of the global challenges or, on the contrary, defended? How is the balance between the freedom of present generations and the freedom of future generations made?
- Freedom and technology: What are the key technologies of the future, the further development of which represents an opportunity to shape the lives freely in the future? What is the accessibility of the future?
- Freedom and a culture of remembrance: How vivid are the memories of past bondages and dictatorships in Germany now that there are gradually no longer any contemporary witnesses to the Holocaust? Where do they stand 75 years after the Basic Law came into force?
- Freedom in Europe and worldwide
- Freedom and the European Union: Guaranteeing freedom, as they understand it, is constitutive for the majority of government systems in Europe, America and the other partner countries. The protection of the free, democratic order is part of the basic understanding and the legal basis of the European Union. Authoritarian state orders are increasingly appearing as system rivals. How does the European research and education area contribute to maintaining Europe as a free continent?
- Freedom in the context of crises and conflicts worldwide: Due to various crises around the world, freedom is threatened in many places. What role does freedom play in the changing times? How can and should there be scientific cooperation with states in which there is no freedom and no scientific freedom (anymore)?
- Alternative concepts of freedom: There are various concepts of individual freedom that see people primarily as part of a larger community, e.g. B. Ubuntu – the “African idea of freedom in connectedness”. What can be learned from this?
Goals of the Science Year 2024
- Encourage the public to start a conversation about the value, meaning and concept of freedom, about their limits and about how the understanding of freedom is changing in the current turning point in Germany and Europe possibly changed.
- Communicating the diverse aspects of freedom in research to the public and initiating dialogue between the public and science.
- Awaken understanding of the value of free research and teaching and what contribution they make to securing a free future worth living in.
- Create an understanding of how important good education is for personal and social freedom.
- Make it clear how freedom has been fought for again and again in the course of history and also in today world must be secured – this also implies the question: How resilient is the democracy?
Funding Information
- Funding volume: The projects can be funded with grants ranging from 20,000.00 Euro to 70,000.00 Euro.
- Project duration: 6-8 months; earliest start date: April 1, 2024.
Eligible Projects for Funding
Science communication formats focusing on informing, dialogue, or participation with a specific focus on:
- projects aimed at target groups which have had little contact with the science world before.
- projects developed jointly by science institutions and organisations from the fields of culture, education, outreach work, civil society or similar.
Eligibility Criteria
- State and non-state universities, non-university research and scientific institutions with a research focus in the above-mentioned subject areas, cultural and educational institutions (e.g. theatres, museums/memorials) and comparable knowledge transfer institutions, Academies, adult education centres, non-governmental organizations (e.g. clubs, associations, foundations) and municipalities (cities, districts, communities), public educational institutions (e.g. district centres, libraries, Youth centres, adult education institutions, extracurricular learning locations, etc.) are eligible to apply.
- Commercial companies with a proven focus on scientific communication, research, knowledge transfer and/or educational work, in particular social enterprises. Interdisciplinary cooperation between different actors in the form of joint projects is possible.
What cannot be Funded?
- Publications in specialist literature
- non-public conferences aimed at a specialist audience
- Projects that primarily serve to present institutional applicants to the outside world
- Advertising and marketing campaigns
- Paid training courses, workshops or other commercial formats
- The continuation of already implemented project
For more information, visit German Ministry of Education and Research.