External Calls for Proposal

The ‘Fellowships for Innovations in Digital University Teaching in Thuringia’ have been awarded by the Thuringian Ministry of Education, Science and Culture (TMBWK) together with the Stifterverband since 2018. The teaching fellowships are once again intended to provide impetus for the development and testing of digitally supported teaching and examination formats or the redesign of modules with the consistent use of digital technologies. The programme also addresses the exchange of (digital) university teaching by networking the fellowships and aims to perpetuate digital university teaching in the universities themselves.

For funding from 1 September 2025, up to ten fellowships will again be awarded in this programme, each endowed with up to 50,000 euros. The call for applications is aimed at lecturers working at state-funded universities in the Free State of Thuringia, with the exception of doctoral students without teaching duties and lecturers. The duration of the projects is 16 months (01.09.2025 - 31.12.2026).

Applications for project funding can only be submitted via the university management (with the consent of the faculties and the Digital University Office). When preparing the application, we recommend that you take advantage of the advice offered by the Digital University Office. Please submit complete applications in electronic form to ale@uni-jena.de by 10 a.m. on 14 April 2025 (internal university application deadline). The ALe office will review the applications and forward them to the respective faculty for internal review. Applicants will be informed by the ALe of any further steps that may be necessary. The applications will be collected by the university management and sent to the Stifterverband by 4 May 2025.

For interested applicants, the Stifterverband is offering an information event (online) on Tuesday, 1 April 2025, from 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm, at which detailed information about the programme, the application modalities and selection criteria will be provided. Participants will have the opportunity to clarify their questions. To participate in the event, registration via the websiteExternal link is required by 31 March 2025.

Further information on the process and the fellows who have received funding to date can be found at https://www.stifterverband.org/digital-lehrfellows-thueringen.External link

Click on this link to find out more about the teaching fellows at Friedrich Schiller University Jena who have received funding to date.

With this call for proposals, the foundation is once again promoting freedom of teaching and enabling university lecturers to develop and test creative or experimental ideas in their teaching. There are no thematic or subject-specific focal points; the call is aimed at projects that are convincing due to their innovative potential with regard to academic teaching, focus on the learning process of students and aim to initiate change at the respective location. A total of 34 million euros is available as part of Freiraum 2026.

Information on funding

Funding duration, funding period and amount of funding per project
Project funding begins on 01.04.2026. The maximum project duration is 24 months and ends on 31.03.2028. The maximum funding amount is 400,000 euros per project. The type of funding is open; for example, applications can be made for personnel funds, material resources and funds for project-related investments.

Who can be funded?
All persons employed full-time at a German university are eligible to apply. Student projects related to teaching and projects by lecturers are expressly welcome, although here too the application must be submitted by a person authorised to apply. Consequently, lecturers and students are not eligible to apply.

Application procedure
The content selection process is preceded by a procedure for expressing interest. Expressions of interest (only one per person and per project idea) can be submitted via the foundation's funding portal from 10 to 20 February 2025 (2 p.m.). A lottery will be held to determine who is authorised to submit an application from the submitted expressions of interest. The fully formulated applications based on the project idea in the expression of interest can then be submitted from 19 March to 30 April 2025 (2 p.m.).

Important information on the internal university procedure: Confirmation of administrative support from the university management is required for the application. In order to receive this, all complete application documents (incl. financing plan) must be sent to the Academy for Teaching Development by 6 April 2025 at the latest (only by e-mail: ale@uni-jena.de). 
This email must confirm that
(1) no other funding is available for the project applied for and that
(2) no significant changes will be made to the application or the financing plan before submission in the foundation portal.
The confirmation of the university management will then be obtained by the ALe office as soon as possible and sent to the applicants for independent submission of the application by 25 April 2025 at the latest.

Further information on the call for proposals
Detailed information on the call for proposals can be found on the following website of the Foundation for Innovation in Higher Education: https://stiftung-hochschullehre.de/foerderung/freiraum/External link

Previous tenders in this area were as follows:

• Ars legendi prize for excellent university teaching 2024
• Ars legendi prize for excellent university teaching 2023
• Ars legendi Faculty prize in Medicine
• Ars legendi Faculty prize in Mathematics and Natural science

Previous tenders in this area were as follows:

• Fellowships for Innovations in digital University Teaching 2024/25
• Fellowships for Innovations in digital University Teaching 2023/24
• Fellowships for Innovations in digital University Teaching 2022/23
• Fellowships for Innovations in digital University Teaching 2021/22

Previous tenders in this area were as follows:

• MINTchallenge: expertise in sustainable development
• SMART qualifies 2022: MINT for digital world
• SMART qualifies: MINTplus - plusMINT

Previous tenders were as follows:

• 'Lehrarchitektur.' Shaping the university of the future
• 'Freiraum 2025' – Foundation for Innovation in University Teaching
• 'Freiraum 2023' – Foundation for Innovation in University Teaching
• 'Fokus Portale/Fokus Netzwerke' – Foundation for Innovation in University Teaching
• 'Freiraum 2022' – Foundation for Innovation in University Teaching
• Empowering University Teaching through Digitalisation

Previous tenders were as follows:

• Digital Education Area - FMER announcement on the development of a digital education platform
• Promotion of artificial intelligence in higher education (federal-state initiative)

Previous tenders were as follows:

• eTeach free spaces in the eTeaching Network Thuringia
• Cooperative impulse projects in the eTeach network Thuringia 2024
• Cooperative impulse projects in the eTeach network Thuringia 2023
• Cooperative impulse projects in the eTeach network Thuringia 2022

Previous tenders were as follows:

• Data Literacy Learning Steps (Stifterverband)
• AI-Campus searches Teaching Fellows 
• Employer award for education 2022
• Room laboratories - Stifterverband and Dieter Schwarz Stiftung (Stifterverband)
• DigitalChangeMaker Fellowships (Stifterverband)
• 'Kolleg Didaktik:digital': Junior Fellwoships of the Joachim Hertz Stiftung
• Curricula of the future