The Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan (MoST) and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) are pleased to announce a standing open call for proposals for German-Taiwanese International Research Training Groups (IRTG) with two application deadlines per year.
International Research Training Groups (IRTG) are structured doctoral programmes run by German universities in conjunction with universities in Taiwan. As bilateral collaborations, they provide a structured research training programme for doctoral researchers. IRTG promote systematic research cooperation through joint research and qualification programmes as well as through cooperative cross-border supervision of doctoral researchers. A central feature of International Research Training Groups are the coordinated and reciprocal research visits by doctoral researchers at the respective partner institutions.
IRTG can only be established by a university, university of technology or an equivalent higher education institution which has the legal right to confer doctoral degrees. Project-specific costs of the German university are funded through a grant of the DFG. The partner institution in Taiwan receives complementary funding by MoST. The opportunity is open to all disciplines. Funding is available on both sides for a maximum of nine years. As additional support mechanism, both DFG and MoST will make funds available to support preparatory meetings for IRTG applications. Each funding organisation will fund as a rule only those project components that are carried out on its own side. Funds to be used by the Taiwanese side must be requested from MoST; funds to be used by the German side must be requested from DFG.
The application is carried out in two stages. Draft proposals are prepared jointly by the German-Taiwanese applicant group in accordance with the proposal preparation guidelines of DFG. Draft proposals are submitted in parallel to both organisations and shall be reviewed by both organisations separately. The results of the review process will be shared between the agencies. Applications evaluated positively on both sides will be invited to the full proposal stage. The full proposals will again be prepared jointly by the Taiwanese-German applicant group, according to the DFG proposal preparation instructions. Full proposals are submitted in parallel to both organisations and will be reviewed by both organisations.
Support will be granted for those proposals where both DFG and MoST recommend funding.
For the first round of applications, the following schedule applies:
- Submission of draft proposals no later than: 30 June 2021
- Submission of full proposals no later than: 1 April 2022
- Grant decisions: November 2022
- Start of funding: April 2023
