Flexible Funding Call 2025 - Oxford-Berlin Research Partnership

Call opens: 3 November 2025

Online info session: 13 November 2025

Submission of applications by 15 December 2025

Results of applications will be available in February 2026.

Implementation period for Berlin-based projects: 1 March 2026 – 31 August 2026

Implementation period for Oxford-based projects: 1 March 2026 – 31 March 2027

The Oxford Berlin Research Partnership aims to further mobility and scientific connection between Oxford and Berlin. The partnership will make available funds to promote the initiation for new or continuation of existing collaborations and research projects between researchers based in Oxford and Berlin and to prepare third-party funding applications.

The funds are primarily intended to cover costs for travel, accommodation, the organisation of workshops, smaller-scale commissioned work (such as translation work) and comparable activities between Oxford and Berlin. Depending on where the applicant is based, the funds are awarded via the individual BUA partners or the University of Oxford.

Application

You will find the links to the online application forms in the right side of this page - - - >>

Please briefly address the following questions and aspects in your application:

What specific measures and projects will be carried out? Why are they important? What is the aim of the activities (e.g. acquisition of third-party funding, joint publications or field research, supervision of students, etc.)?

What specific benefits or added value do you expect from the activity for your own research and for academic cooperation between Berlin and Oxford?

Please note that there are different forms, depending on whether the applicant is based at a BUA institution or the University of Oxford.

Available funding

BUA applicants: The maximum funding amount is EUR 3500 per application or you can apply for up to EUR 5000 if your project involves at least two BUA institutions. Travel and accommodation costs are calculated on the basis of the German Federal Travel Expenses Act. The approved funds are budgetary funds. They are earmarked and are to be used exclusively for material costs (“Sachmittel” – i.e. not staffing costs) in accordance with the budget plan and the submitted application. The funds will be managed by your home institution.

The evaluation board reserves the right to reduce the requested funds.

If you are based at HU or FU, you must have an existing cost centre that you can use to manage the funds or be in a position to create one for the purpose of managing these funds.
At HU, you need to be able to create a so-called “Projektanzeige” in FIS.
Please make sure you check this with your finance department before applying.

If you are based at Charité or TU, the funds will be administered centrally. You will receive a cost centre against which to make claims, book trips etc.

You will receive more detailed information on the management of the funds after approval with the funding notice.

Oxford applicants: The maximum funding is 3500 GBP per application. Travel and accommodation costs are calculated on the basis of The University’s Departmental Expenses Guide, available for consultation here: Expenses | Finance Division. The evaluation board reserves the right to reduce the requested funds.

If you are based at the University of Oxford, the funds will be transferred to your faculty or department from the central University and administered there. Before you submit your application, please make sure that you have raised this with your faculty/ department and obtained their agreement to administer this.

Who is eligible to apply?

Doctoral candidates, post-docs and professors of the Berlin University Alliance and the University of Oxford. We particularly encourage applications from Early/Mid- Career researchers.

Thematic focus

Depending on your research discipline, there might be a thematic focus for researchers based at the institutions of the Berlin University Alliance or the University of Oxford.

Interdisciplinary applications or applications in the humanities can be in any research area.

Areas where applications in the social sciences are particularly welcome include democratic resilience and colonial legacy.

Applications in the field of medical sciences dedicated to the following research topics are particularly welcome.

Circadian Medicine
Computational Pathology
Neurodegeneration
Mitochondria and Metabolism
Healthy ageing

Disease prediction and prevention
Global Health

In STEM, a preference is given to applications from researchers based at any of the four institutions part of the Berlin University Alliance or the University of Oxford in the following research areas:

Energy (in particular batteries/energy storage systems, photovoltaics, energy distribution, flexible use of energy, bioenergy, energy transformation, energy systems design)
Process automation (in particular self-driving laboratories, process control, robotics, digitalisation of laboratories and industries, FAIR data systems)

Bio- and chemical catalysis of complex systems (e.g. hydrogenase, cell engineering, difficult to express proteins, evolutionary processes)

Across all fields, cross-divisional collaboration in interdisciplinary projects is encouraged.
Projects that place a focus on “innovation”, i.e. researching or implementing new approaches or developing new techniques or solutions, are particularly welcome.

Procedure

Please submit the complete applications through the links below by 15 December 2025.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us under the following addresses:

BUA applicants: please contact oxber@berlin-university-alliance.de.

Oxford applicants: please contact Dr Aoife Ni Chroidheain Lau aoife.nichroidheain@dae.ox.ac.uk.

You will receive the results of your application in February 2026.

A short report must be submitted after the cooperation activities. We will send you an online form for this purpose a few months after the end of the project implementation period.

What criteria are evaluated?

Applications will be evaluated by the selection committee according to the following criteria:

Academic Merit/Quality (40% weighting)
Added value of the collaboration between Berlin and Oxford (30%)
Potential for further collaboration and acquisition of third-party funding (20%)
Diversity of the teams and topics (10%)

Further information

Please refer to the “Further Particulars” below for additional information regarding this call.

Information session on 13 November

Please join us for an online information session on this call for applications on 13 November 2025 at 14.00 GMT / 15.00 CET
During the session, you will also have the opportunity to ask questions.

Please register by noon on 12 November through following link: https://forms.microsoft.com/e/jq8XnmHKhZ