Springe direkt zu Inhalt

Shaping Research Culture: Apply Now for the “Shaping Research Culture” Funding Programme

  • Call opens: 28 September 2026
  • Call closes: 15 January 2027
  • Expected (earliest) funding start: 1 April 2027
  • Eligibility: Professors, researchers with a doctoral degree, and experts from the research-supporting areas of the BUA partner institutions.
  • Application documents must be submitted in full as a single PDF to: core@berlin-university-alliance.de
  • Two preparatory webinars (Webex) will be held:
    • 1st information session: 16 October 2026, 1:00–2:00 p.m.
    • 2nd information session: 9 November 2026, 9:30–10:30 a.m.

Call for Proposals: “Shaping Research Culture: Responsible Research Assessment and Open Science”

1. Background and Objectives

The Berlin University Alliance (BUA) is committed to integrity, openness, transparency, collegiality and cooperation, equal opportunities, and diversity in research. It aims to sustainably develop its research culture in line with these values and to improve the framework conditions for researchers and research. This call for proposals supports projects that investigate, develop, and test how research cultures within the BUA can be shaped in order to:

  • enable adequate, fair, transparent, diversity-sensitive, and quality-oriented assessment processes;
  • identify and reduce adverse incentives in existing assessment and recognition systems;
  • appropriately recognize different forms of scholarly achievement and contribution;
  • support Open Science practices and their dissemination;
  • create appropriate incentives for openness, transparency, cooperation, and reuse.

In particular, disciplinary differences and differences arising from career stages and roles (e.g. research support staff and managers as important actors in cultural change) should be taken into account.

With this call for proposals, the Berlin University Alliance (BUA) is launching a new funding line on the topic of “Shaping Research Culture.” The aim is to build, through several calls, a strategically coordinated portfolio of research, development, and implementation projects that supports the sustainable advancement of research culture within the BUA. A second call within this funding line is expected to be published approximately two years after the start of the current funding period. Individuals who were successful in the first funding round will be eligible to participate again in the subsequent call.

2. Objectives of the Funding

The objective of the funding line is to make concrete and sustainable contributions to the responsible assessment of scholarly achievements and to the further dissemination and institutionalization of Open Science within the BUA. At the end of the funding period, the aim is therefore not only to have generated scholarly findings, but, wherever possible, to have produced applicable, tested, and transferable solutions that can be adopted, adapted, or scaled within the BUA.

Funding will therefore focus in particular on projects that establish a clear connection between scholarly analysis, participatory development, practical testing, and institutional implementation.

The funded projects should, in particular:

  • analyze and further develop existing assessment and decision-making processes;
  • develop and test new procedures, criteria, instruments, or support services for the responsible assessment of scholarly achievements;
  • develop strategies that embed Open Science not merely as an individual choice but as a component of good institutional research practice, and that disseminate and increase the visibility of Open Science practices across different disciplines, research phases, and institutional contexts;
  • develop and test procedures for the participatory design of research cultures.

Particular emphasis will be placed on projects that have relevance for the BUA as a consortium beyond a single institution, discipline, or project group.

3. Scope of Funding

Funding is available for application-oriented research, development, and implementation projects aimed at developing, testing, evaluating, or scaling concrete solutions.

Projects may address one of the following focus areas or combine several of them. The three focus areas describe different perspectives on the further development of research cultures and are not intended to constitute completely distinct funding categories. Focus Area A primarily addresses the design and further development of assessment processes and instruments. Focus Area B focuses on the design, dissemination, and institutional embedding of Open Science practices. Focus Area C focuses on the cultural and institutional conditions under which responsible research practice can be sustainably embedded. A project may combine several of these perspectives. What is decisive is that the respective connections to the project objectives and planned implementation are presented in a comprehensible manner.

Focus Area A: Responsible Research Assessment – Assessment Processes and Instruments

The BUA and its partners have signed the Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment and are members of the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment. The funded projects should support the implementation of the commitments associated with these initiatives. Funding will be provided for projects aimed at further developing procedures and practices for assessing scholarly achievements and potential.

Possible topics include, in particular:

  • assessment processes in appointments, recruitment, career development, decisions on permanent appointments, and funding decisions;
  • criteria and procedures for assessing different forms of scholarly achievement, e.g. Open Science practices, team performance and collaboration, research support activities, and research infrastructures;
  • guidelines, assessment matrices, process models, or digital tools;
  • transparent, participatory, or innovative assessment procedures;
  • procedures for quality assurance and reflection on assessment processes;
  • avoiding bias and unintended adverse incentives in research assessment processes;
  • the impact of new technologies, such as artificial intelligence, on research practice and the associated challenges for safeguarding and assessing research quality and research integrity.

Particular emphasis will be placed on projects that not only formulate alternative criteria, but test and evaluate concrete assessment processes participatorily in real institutional contexts and, where already available, align themselves with the CoARA action plans developed by the partners.

Focus Area B: Dissemination and Institutionalization of Open Science

The Vision for Open Science expresses the shared commitment of the BUA and its consortium partners to open and transparent science. Funding will be provided for projects that contribute to the broader use and sustainable institutionalization of Open Science practices.

Possible topics include, in particular:

  • measures to promote Open Data, Open Source, Open Methodology, and Open Educational Resources;
  • improving the discoverability, accessibility, and reusability of research outputs;
  • support services for researchers at different career stages;
  • discipline- or target-group-specific Open Science models;
  • research data management and FAIR-/CARE-oriented reuse of research data;
  • open and transparent peer-review and publication processes;
  • strategies for involving non-academic stakeholders;
  • increasing the visibility of and communication about Open Science practices;
  • strategies that embed Open Science not merely as an individual choice but as a component of sustainable institutional research practice.

Particular added value will be attributed to projects that connect existing BUA services and structures, close gaps, and develop scalable solutions for multiple institutions or disciplines, while contributing to the networking of relevant stakeholders.

Focus Area C: Research Culture as a Prerequisite for Responsible Assessment and Open Science

Research culture encompasses informal norms and values as well as formal incentive and recognition structures, institutional processes, leadership and communication practices, and the concrete conditions under which researchers organize their work.

Funding will be provided for projects that investigate, develop, and test how these conditions can be designed to support quality, openness, cooperation, reflection, and responsible research practice. Particular attention should be paid to the interaction between institutional framework conditions, incentive systems, research practice, and individual scope for action.

Possible areas of funding include, in particular:

  • empirical studies of research cultures and their effects on research practice;
  • development of models and tools for reflecting on and further developing research culture;
  • development and testing of incentive and recognition systems as components of research culture;
  • measures to support cultural change at the level of working groups, faculties, institutions, or the consortium;
  • formats to support managers, research communities, and research support areas in shaping and reflecting on research culture;
  • participatory approaches to shaping research cultures;
  • indicators or qualitative methods for monitoring cultural change;
  • investigation of the interactions between institutional framework conditions, career paths, incentives, and research practice;
  • measures to promote a constructive culture of error, learning, and reflection.

Particular emphasis will be placed on projects that test concrete changes in real institutional contexts while taking into account both formal structures and informal norms and practices.

4. Expected Outcomes and Implementation

The funding explicitly aims to generate concrete solutions with an application and implementation perspective.

Applications should therefore already specify at the time of submission:

  • which specific problem or need is being addressed;
  • which target groups and institutional processes are affected;
  • which solution is to be developed or further developed;
  • in which context the solution will be tested;
  • which stakeholder groups will be involved in its development;
  • how the solution will be evaluated and further developed;
  • what prerequisites exist for transferring the solution to other areas of the BUA;
  • which institutions, central services, faculties, departments, or other stakeholders will be relevant for subsequent implementation.

The type of outcome will depend on the research question and focus of the project. At the end of the funding period, at least one concrete outcome tested in the respective project context should be available. Depending on the project, this may include, in particular:

  • a tested procedure or process model;
  • an assessment instrument or catalogue of criteria;
  • a guideline or implementation toolkit;
  • a digital or infrastructural tool;
  • a training or support service;
  • a model for incentive and recognition structures;
  • a standardized approach for the BUA;
  • a tested pilot model with robust recommendations for scaling.

In addition, a comprehensible perspective for the institutional continuation or transfer of the results must be provided.

5. Eligibility and Cooperation

Eligible applicants are professors, researchers with doctoral degrees, and experts from research support areas at the BUA partner institutions.

Projects should generally be based at at least two of the four BUA institutions or adopt a cross-partner perspective. The involvement of partners from central institutions, libraries, computing centers, research services, administration, research management, and, where appropriate, non-university institutions is expressly encouraged.

Early involvement of those stakeholders who are relevant to the subsequent implementation of the project results is expected.

These may include, in particular:

  • research management and research services, including research funding and third-party funding management;
  • libraries and infrastructure facilities;
  • computing centers and data services;
  • human resources and career development;
  • faculties and departments;
  • central committees and decision-makers;
  • representatives of different disciplines and status groups.

6. Duration and Funding Amount

Projects may be applied for a duration of up to 30 months. The total funding amount per project for the entire funding period may be up to €550,000, including material expenses. Subject to the availability of funds, approximately two projects are expected to be funded.

Funds provided within BUA projects are budgetary funds. Personnel and material expenses are eligible for funding and, subject to the applicable budgetary regulations, this includes in particular:

  • academic and research support staff;
  • student assistants;
  • workshops and participatory development formats;
  • travel expenses;
  • piloting and evaluation;
  • technical development and adaptation;
  • communication and knowledge-transfer measures;
  • networking and qualification measures.

The requested funds must be proportionate to the planned implementation and transfer objectives.

7. Requirements for Project Proposals

Project proposals must be structured as follows: See application template in the download section.

Before submitting an application, applicants are required to coordinate the feasibility of the project plan internally within their institution. It must be ensured that the institution’s internal regulations and timelines relating to personnel measures and employment law, financial management and procurement, data protection, insurance, ethics and/or required approvals, as well as other project-specific aspects, are taken into account. The relevant administrative contacts are listed below:

8. Expected Contribution to the Berlin University Alliance

The funding line is intended to contribute to further developing the BUA as an integrated research space and to establishing concrete, innovative, and responsible forms of research practice.

The key measure of the success of the funding is therefore not solely the number of scholarly publications, but whether concrete and sustainable changes in assessment processes and research practices within the BUA can be initiated and sustainably embedded. Regular, active exchange in different formats between the project, its staff, and the Berlin University Alliance — in particular the Research Quality and Value action area — as well as with other ongoing projects and relevant stakeholders pursuing thematically overlapping objectives, is expected.

The aim is to establish a sustainable, interdisciplinary network that connects knowledge, methods, and best practices, leverages synergies between projects, and systematically advances Research Quality and Open Science.

9. Review and Selection Process

Please see download section.

10. Webinars

The Center for Open and Responsible Research (CORe) offers two online information sessions (16 October 2026, 1:00 - 2:00 p.m.; 9 November 2026, 9:30-10:30 a.m.) to support you with any questions you may have about the call for proposals and the application process. Should you have any questions in advance, we would also be happy to assist you in the meantime: core@berlin-university-alliance.de 

 

Downloads