'Freiraum' 2026 - Call for proposals of the foundation Innovation in University Teaching

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