GIF Nexus
GIF Nexus 2025- Overview
GIF Nexus is the new flagship program of GIF, providing two tracks to support early career scientists as well as established researchers. For each submission cycle there will be a focal topic within STEM and Social Sciences/Humanities (more information is under the “focal topic” tab).
The goal of Nexus is to support excellent scientific collaboration between German and Israeli scholars and to establish new collaborations for early career scientists. The application process consists of two stages: pre-proposals and full proposals as well as two tracks: Collaborative track and Solo track.
The collaborative track for joint proposals by German and Israeli researchers funds projects of up to 2 years, with an annual budget of maximum EUR 150,000 total for all PIs (i.e the maximum project budget is EUR 300,000 for 2 years).
The solo track for early career scientists up to 8 years after their doctoral degree funds one-year projects without a research partner from the other country with a maximum budget of EUR 25,000 (please review the program’s criteria and eligibility requirements outlined below).
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Focal topics (current and upcoming)
The current focal topics in STEM and Social Sciences/Humanities are as follows:
Read MoreSTEM: Quantum Computing
This Call for Proposals is directed to scientists working in pure and applied mathematics
as well as computer science and theoretical physics, who seek to advance
the foundations of quantum computing and quantum information sciences.
Proposals should clearly articulate how the research will deepen the
mathematical and computational understanding of quantum systems, contribute to
fundamental knowledge, or explore new computational paradigms.
Social Sciences/Humanities: The Future of Democracy and Social Inequities
For a long time, social inequality was mainly conceptualized in terms of economic development, and the reduction of economic inequality was assumed to promote democracy. The last decades, however, in many countries not only show widening economic inequalities, but also the rise of other forms of inequity, often related to issues of identity, ethnicity, or origin. Traditional democratic parties are losing support, and new, populist movements are on the rise, often with agendas related to the issue of inequality. The promise of growing equity, however, does not always seem to foster political democracy, but may actually go along with other kinds of exclusion. These developments are often problematized as signs of polarization, but such diagnoses do not remain uncontested.
GIF is looking for proposals that analyze the relationship between (different kinds of) inequity and democracy, social movements (and their demographic characteristics) referring to these issues, the processes as well as the public discourses and images related to them.
We are anticipating applications in particular in the fields of Sociology, Political Science, Philosophy, History and other fields of Humanities.
The focal topics for 2026 in STEM and Social Sciences/Humanities will be announced in due course.
Timetable
Dates | Details |
January 1, 2025 | Opening GIF-portal for submission of pre-proposals |
February 03, 2025 | Deadline for pre-proposal submissions |
April 1, 2025 | Notifications on pre-proposal decisions Opening GIF portal for submission of full proposals |
June 15, 2025 | Deadline for submission of the full proposals |
December 2025 | Notification of new grants |
February 1, 2026 | Expected starting date of new grants. |
GIF Nexus Tracks
GIF Nexus consists of two tracks: a collaborative track and a solo track.
Read MoreCollaborative track:
- A team combined of at least two principal investigators (PIs) one from each country (Israel and Germany).
- Maximum project duration: 2 years.
- Maximum budget: EUR 150,000 total for all PIs per year (i.e., the maximum grant budget is EUR 300,000 for 2 years).
- A CI (Cooperating Investigator) acts as a special advisor to the PI and has no legal ties with GIF. If any payments are required to be transferred to the CI, it should be handled directly by the PI; GIF will not be involved in the process.
- CIs do not have access to the submission portal, as they are not required to upload their CV and publications list. However, at the pre-proposal stage, the PIS can include information about the CI and their contribution to the research in the short project description chapter. At the full proposal stage, it is possible to upload CVs of the CIs under the additional material tab.
- Eligible budget codes: see budget chapter (which appears under “Applicants” section).
- Mandatory mutual visits / meetings: Grantees (or the students actively involved in GIF project) are obligated to meet for several days annually, with one meeting taking place at the GIF Grant partner’s institution during the Grant period.
Solo track for early career scientists:
- The Principal investigator (PI), should be up to maximum 8 years after obtaining the doctoral degree (PhD, MD, DVM or equivalent) at grant starting date**
- The PI has no prior scientific collaborations/ties with researchers from the other country (that includes: academic studies, post-doc period and joint publications etc).
- Maximum project duration: 1 year.
- Maximum budget: EUR 25,000.
- Eligible budget codes: see budget chapters (which appears under “Applicants” section).
- Mandatory visit of the PI to the partner country for a minimum of 7 days during the grant period to present their research and establish initial contacts with prospective partners.
**Additional allowance is possible for documented leave of absence after the doctoral degree due to parental leave, national service, clinical training after the first medical degree (up to a maximum of 4 years), long-term illness (longer than 90 days), or caregiving for family members. Periods of leave of absence should be documented in the applicant’s CV, submitted as part of the research proposal.
General criteria of eligibility for GIF applicants
Researchers:
- Applicants must hold at least a PhD diploma and be affiliated to a GIF-eligible institution and hold a permanent position, or be on a tenure track, or have a contract at their institution for the full duration of the GIF Grant they are applying for. Post-doctoral candidates are not eligible to apply.
- The eligibility criteria for the different GIF programs are specified in the respective chapters.
- Each applicant can be a Principal Investigator (PI) in only one proposal at a specific submission cycle.
- Prior to the start of a new GIF grant, all PIs must fulfill all obligations of a former GIF grant.
- The decision on the eligibility of any given researcher rests with GIF.
Institutions:
- Only researchers affiliated to non-profit scientific institution in Israel and Germany, as detailed in the table below, are eligible to submit research proposals to GIF.
- The decision on the eligibility of any given institution rests with GIF. GIF is entitled to request written proof that an institution is a recognized non-profit research entity (private or public).
Israel** | Germany | |
Institutions of Higher Learning | All universities and colleges accredited by the Council for Higher Education as institutions of higher learning | All universities and “Fachhochschulen” who are regular members of the “Hochschulrektorenkonferenz (HRK)”. |
Government Research Institutions and Research Corporations | All government-owned research institutions and research institutions affiliated to one of the Government’s Chief Scientists’ offices. | All government-owned research institutions. |
Public Research Institutions and Research Corporations | All public research institutions which receive a regular subsidy from the government, which constitutes an integral part of their annual budget. This subsidy must appear in the annually published national budget of the State of Israel. | All Max-Planck and all Fraunhofer Institutes. Research institutes fully owned by one or several German federal states (Bundesländer). Consortia involving several of the higher learning / government / public research institutions mentioned above, which can yet be defined as non-profit research organizations. German sites of EMBL (Heidelberg, Hamburg). German site of ESO (Garching). |
Public Hospitals | All government or publicly owned hospitals. The definition of “public” being that public money is being budgeted to the hospital on an annual basis, and that representatives of the public are on its board of directors. | All public hospitals recognized as non-profit organizations. |
- ** Please note: According to the GIF Founding Agreement of 1986 signed by the Ministers of Science of the Federal Republic of Germany and the State of Israel, “Projects sponsored by the Foundation in Israel shall be conducted only within the geographic areas which were under the jurisdiction of the State of Israel prior to June 5, 1967.”
- Industrial enterprises (or other research institutions) registered in Israel or Germany can indirectly participate in GIF grants as subcontractors, with a budget agreed upon and signed by all parties, prior to GIF support.