In 1994 the DAAD and the University of Birmingham established the Institute for German Studies (IGS) as a joint venture. In the last twenty years the IGS has proved to be a distinguished research institution and has acted as a successful postgraduate school for the training of future generations of specialists on Germany. A strong basis for German studies has thus been laid and strengthened with the foundation of the Cambridge Research Hub in 2016.
The DAAD is willing to further strengthen innovative and interdisciplinary approaches in research and teaching on German Studies and hopes to encourage the intellectual support of our partners at universities in the UK to this end.

We have therefore developed a programme for the support of German Studies which is open to applications from all universities in the United Kingdom. The programme was launched in 2009 for funding in Round I (2010 – 2012). A second Round supported projects from 2012-2014, a third Round was launched in April 2014 to support projects in 2015 and 2016. After the first three rounds the programme was evaluated in 2017. Following a successful audit, Round IV of the programme was launched in May 2018 for funding for projects from 2018-2021.

The term “German Studies” describes research and teaching about contemporary Germany (including comparative studies) and its interaction with other European countries and the world at large. The focus is on approaches based in the social sciences and/or interdisciplinary orientated cultural studies that go beyond, though do not exclude, the literary manifestations of contemporary German culture. The DAAD uses funding from the Federal Foreign Office (Auswärtiges Amt, AA).

The objectives of the programme are:

• to contribute to the ongoing political and cultural dialogue between the UK and Germany;
• to enhance cooperation between existing institutional structures in the field of German Studies so that the entire academic community in the UK and at overseas DAAD-funded Centres for German and European Studies can take maximum advantage of these and related initiatives;
• to encourage universities in the UK to further develop their own intellectual and financial commitment to German Studies;
• to expand participants’ knowledge of Germany as a location for education and research by including German universities and educational as well as research institutions.

The programme has been evaluated in 2017. Please find here the executive summary [PDF 92.59 KB].

Please find a summary of the funded projects of Round IV here and of Round V here.