Cash injection to pay for additional staff and materials to complete projects that fell behind
The German Research Foundation (DFG), the country’s largest public funding body, is providing additional funds of €175 million to compensate for research lost during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The joint committee of the DFG approved the measures last week, the organisation said in a statement. Existing grantees can apply for money to pay for staff and materials in order to make up for lost work, with additional allowances for indirect costs.
“The coronavirus pandemic and the measures adopted to contain it inevitably led to restrictions and delays in many research projects,” said DFG president Katja Becker.
With such “cost-effective measures”, the DFG is giving funding recipients and their employees the additional security they need to ensure the successful continuation of their work, she said.
In March, the DFG extended deadlines of calls and projects, fellowships and doctoral contracts.
The extra funding is directed at projects whose funding is set to run out between 1 April this year and 30 June 2021. If these projects cannot continue their work as planned and had no access to funds during the coronavirus pandemic, they can apply for an additional three months funded at 80 per cent of the original amount they were granted, the DFG said.
This applies to all material grants, research groups, priority programmes and numerous other types of project funding, representing the majority of the more than 30,000 projects the DFG funds, it said. Doctoral researchers at DFG Research Training Groups, a programme focusing on young researchers, can have their contracts extended by up to a year.
Furthermore, costs that were incurred because planned events had to be cancelled or postponed can now be counted as project expenses, the DFG said.
However, the DFG itself is struggling with the impact of a Germany-wide lockdown to reduce the spread of coronavirus. The organisation’s annual meeting, set to run in early June, is going to be delayed, the DFG said.
In addition, the presentation of this year’s Communicator Award, part of the joint festivities marking the 100th anniversary of the DFG’s predecessor, are to take place at a later date and possibly in a different format. The celebration had been planned as a highlight of the DFG’s ongoing series of anniversary events, which were heavily affected by the outbreak, the organisation said.
“It is most regrettable that we cannot meet in the usual large circle of science, politics and society—especially in our anniversary year,” said Becker, adding that it is “important and of great significance” that the annual meeting takes place in the adapted form.
In view of the serious impact of the coronavirus pandemic, “the ability of scientific self-government…must be maintained”, Becker said.