Guides to EU and German funding
Practical questions that come up before a first proposal, answered from official sources and checked on a stated date.
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Partner countries in EU funding
Which countries partners can come from in EU consortia and mobility schemes, and who receives funding.
Read the guide →Registration before applying
Before an EU proposal can be submitted, the institution and every partner need a registered identity in the EU systems. Most of this is done once and reused; checking early avoids delays at deadline.
Read the guide →Finding partners
EU calls usually require partners in several countries. Official tools and contact points help to find institutions that already work on a topic.
Read the guide →Funding rates and cost models
How much of a project the EU pays, and how costs are counted, differs by programme: Horizon Europe research projects receive 100% plus overheads, LIFE 60%, and costs are counted as reimbursed actual costs, fixed lump sums or per-person unit costs.
Read the guide →From idea to grant
In recent calls, about 11 to 15 months passed between a call opening and a signed grant (e.g. CBHE 2025: 11, Creative Europe 2025: 13, MSCA PF 2026: 13). The legal maximum for Horizon Europe is 5 months to a decision and 8 months to a signed grant after the deadline; ERC and Erasmus+ centralised actions take longer.
Read the guide →Success rates
Most EU research and education calls now fund between 7% and 20% of eligible proposals. Passing the quality threshold is only the first condition: in Horizon Europe about 70% of proposals above threshold go unfunded.
Read the guide →Recurring deadlines
The main EU deadlines for research groups, universities and art and design schools from October 2026 to the end of 2027. 'Confirmed' means the date is in a published call or adopted work programme; 'expected' is derived from the previous year's date, given to the month only.
Read the guide →How proposals are evaluated
What happens between submission and decision: formal checks, award criteria, scores and thresholds, the expert process, ranking rules and redress, for Horizon Europe, ERC, MSCA, Erasmus+, BMFTR and DFG.
Read the guide →Budgets in German public funding
How federal grants from BMFTR and DFG are calculated, what a university budget may contain, which overhead lump sums apply, and how the money is accounted for afterwards. Status of the rules: October 2026.
Read the guide →Funding for universities of applied sciences and small institutions
Which federal, state, foundation and EU instruments are open to researchers at German universities of applied sciences (HAW/TH/FH) and art and design universities, what their status is as of 19 October 2026, and which free support structures exist for institutions with small research offices.
Read the guide →Glossary of funding terms
Short definitions of the terms most often met when applying to Horizon Europe, Erasmus+ and German federal research funding, grouped by theme and checked against the official documents for the 2021-2027 period.
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