New Application Guidelines Take Effect

As announced in mid-October, changes to the application guidelines are coming soon. They will take effect on November 16 and primarily affect resubmissions, project limits, and formal requirements. In addition, the guidelines for the funding of project costs will no longer be included in each program-specific directive, but will instead be consolidated into separate Cost Guidelines applicable to all programs. The new application guidelines and the Cost Guidelines will be available online for the affected programs starting November 16.

Here are the most important FAQs for applicants.

When do the new guidelines take effect? What happens to applications that have already been submitted in elane?

The new application guidelines and the Cost Guidelines will be available online starting November 16, 2026, and will apply to all applications created on the elane electronic application portal on or after that date.

The following transitional provision also applies: Applications created in elane on or before November 15, 2026, may still be finalized and submitted by December 15, 2026, under the provisions of the previous guidelines.

As of December 16, 2026, only the new guidelines will apply, regardless of when the application was submitted.

Excluded from this transitional provision are Principal Investigator Projects International calls subject to deadlines for which the February 2026 guidelines still applied when the call was opened. Further details are available in the respective call documents.

What are the new rules for resubmitting rejected applications?

In FWF programs with rolling submissions, a three-month waiting period will apply in the future for the resubmission of rejected proposals. This also applies to applications that are returned without review. This means: If an application is rejected or returned without review, it may not be resubmitted until after this waiting period has passed, regardless of whether the principal investigator or the research institution were changed in the resubmitted application. The three-month waiting period begins on the decision date indicated in the notification of decision, and applies to applications in all programs.

For programs with fixed application periods (e.g., doc.funds, doc.funds.connect, or for some individual calls in the Principal Investigator Projects International program, such as cooperations with Taiwan), the waiting period does not apply if there are fewer than three months between the decision date and the next submission deadline. Another exception applies to the Principal Investigator Projects International program in the case of external reviews (e.g., in the Lead Agency procedure).

What are the new rules for resubmitting applications that have been repeatedly rejected for reasons C3 or C4?

For applications that have already been rejected twice for reasons C3 or C4, a 12-month waiting period will apply before they can be resubmitted. This regulation also takes effect on November 16 and applies retroactively to resubmissions of all applications submitted under the new guidelines.

The upcoming doc.funds, doc.funds.connect, and #ConnectingMinds calls are excluded from the new rules, as is the bilateral call with France. Any additional exceptions are listed in the individual application guidelines.

What does the limit to three concurrent FWF projects mean?

Effective November 16, a limit of three pending and/or ongoing projects per principal investigator, coordinator, or consortium member will apply to all FWF programs (with a few exceptions). While the previously stricter limits on career programs no longer apply, only one career project may be included in the total number of projects.

Exceptions apply to:

• France call/ANR (pre-registration with the ANR has already taken place)
• Poland call/NCN as Lead Agency (deadline: December 22, 2026)
• Israel call/ISF (deadline: December 10, 2026)
• RISE Europe (deadline: November 19, 2026)
• European Partnership Biodiversa+
• European Partnership Water4All

Any additional exceptions are listed in the individual call documents and guidelines.

What changes specifically affect the ESPRIT and ASTRA career programs?

In the future, the submission window for the ESPRIT and FWF ASTRA Awards career programs after the applicant has completed their PhD will be limited to 0 to 4 years (ESPRIT) and 4 to 8 years (ASTRA). In the ESPRIT program, a mentor may serve in a total of no more than two pending applications and/or ongoing/approved projects.

What’s new in the formal requirements?

The new guidelines also include changes to the formal requirements. The shorter page limits are particularly important:

• The project description is now limited to 15 pages (previously 20). If this limit is exceeded, the application will be returned without review.
• The cost breakdown is limited to 3 pages (in the Principal Investigator Projects International program, an additional 3 pages are allowed per partner country).
• Only five academic publications and five additional research achievements may be listed on the CV.
• The number of collaboration letters is limited to a maximum of five, although the number of cooperation partners remains unlimited.

Any exceptions to these rules are detailed in the individual application guidelines.

What changes are being made to the FWF’s cost oversight?

Also as of November 16, the costs eligible for funding in FWF projects will be outlined in separate Cost Guidelines applicable across all programs.

The following changes have been made to the content:

• Once the new guidelines are in effect, equipment can only be financed through depreciation during the project period.
• Travel expenses must be reported as a lump sum per person and no longer broken down in detail.
• Hospitality and conference expenses are eligible for funding.

What are the changes to maximum funding amounts and project duration?

After November 16, new budget limits will apply to programs such as Principal Investigator Projects, Clinical Research, and Arts-Based Research: The funding amount must be between €200,000 and €1 million, and the duration must be between two and five years. The maximum possible funding amount depends on the planned project duration.

For Principal Investigator Projects International, the duration must be between two and four years, resulting in a maximum eligible funding amount of €800,000. However, depending on the call, specific conditions – such as shorter durations and more restrictive funding limits – may still apply.

The maximum funding amounts that can be requested depend on the planned project duration; on average, up to €200,000 can be requested per project year.

What are the changes to the number of reviews?

The number of reviews required for approval increases with the requested funding and will be adjusted as follows for applications submitted under the new guidelines:

• Up to €500,000: 2 reviews
• Up to €800,000: 3 reviews
• Up to €1 million: 4 reviews

Research security will be a new requirement for funding applications – what information do researchers need to provide?

International research collaborations are an essential part of excellent research, but they can involve certain security risks. The FWF takes a risk-based and balanced approach to research security: Potential risks should be identified early on and addressed appropriately, without unnecessarily restricting international cooperation. The FWF will be providing an online questionnaire on research security to help identify these risks, starting November 16. Applicants will be required to complete this questionnaire and submit it with their proposal. The questionnaire helps identify potential risks in their specific research project and, where necessary, take appropriate measures to mitigate them. For applications in the Principal Investigator Projects International (PIN) program, this will not apply until December 23, 2026.

In a nutshell – what do applicants need to keep in mind?

The changes will take effect on November 16, 2026, along with the new, revised application guidelines. Researchers who wish to submit an application under the previous guidelines need to create their application on elane by November 15 and have it approved for submission by December 15. The new application guidelines and the separate Cost Guidelines will be available online for the individual programs starting November 16.

Stricter deadlines will apply to resubmissions: a three-month waiting period following a rejection or an application returned without review, and a 12-month waiting period following two C3/C4 rejections.

Anyone heading multiple FWF projects should be aware of the new limit of three pending and/or ongoing projects for principal investigators and consortium members.

With regard to the formal requirements, shorter page limits for the project description and cost breakdown will apply under the new regulations, as well as revised requirements for the CV and the number of collaboration letters.

Changes to the eligibility of project costs include, among other things, restrictions to the funding of equipment costs as well as a simpler presentation of travel expenses; in addition, expenses for meals and conferences will be eligible for funding.

The new guidelines, as well as the separate Cost Guidelines, will be available online starting November 16. If you have any questions about the changes, please contact the FWF representatives for the individual programs or the research services office at your university or research institution.