11 February 2025

Photo: Markus Spiske vis Unsplash

PIER Seed Projects promote innovative research ideas of early career scientists in the PIER research fields. It provides rapid and non-bureaucratic seed funding for the identification, initiation, development, testing and implementation of completely new research ideas, concepts or methods. The funding programme is aimed in particular at qualified early career researchers (doctoral students in the final phase of their doctorate, postdocs, junior research group leaders).

Within the scope of their strategic Partnership for Innovation, Education and Research (PIER), the University of Hamburg (UHH) and DESY promote cooperation across the two institutions and between the PIER research and competence fields (i.e. particle and astroparticle physics, nanoscience, photon science, infection and structural biology, theoretical physics, accelerator research, and artefact profiling). For this purpose, UHH and DESY have established the funding line PIER Seed Projects.

PIER Seed Projects promote innovative and unusual research ideas with a strong cross-institutional dimension. Projects must involve researchers from both DESY and UHH and/or the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) and must contribute to strengthening research collaboration between these institutions. The funding program is particularly aimed at qualified early-career scientists (doctoral researchers in the final stages of their PhD, postdocs, junior research group leaders). It provides rapid and non-bureaucratic seed funding for the identification, initiation, development, testing and implementation of completely new research ideas, concepts or methods in the above-mentioned PIER research and competence fields as well as in data science.

The deadline for applications is 31 March 2025.

For further information and details, please check: https://pier-hamburg.de/funding/idea_fund/seed_projects